In 1954, many of baseball's changing dynamics and prominent personalities converged. In his revealing and carefully researched look at that pivotal season, Hall of Fame baseball writer Bill Madden makes it clear why 1954 should be regarded as one of the most significant years in the game's history." --Bob Costas "1954 is a book that illustrates why my friend Bill Madden is enshrined in the writers' wing of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, and one that should be read by all who love the game and its history. This is the year when baseball and the country truly found out, against the backdrop of Brown vs. Board of Education, the true and lasting significance of Jackie Robinson breaking the color line seven years before. This is about Jackie, and Willie Mays, and Henry Aaron, and about Willie's '54 Giants team, a civil rights experiment all by itself. It is an important book Madden was supposed to write, and one you will want to read." --Mike Lupica "Baseball did not truly become our National Pastime until all the game's diverse talents received the opportunity to follow in the footsteps of Jackie Robinson and Larry Doby. Bill Madden's 1954 vividly chronicles not only the legendary season of the favorite player of my youth, Willie Mays, and the dawn of the career of Henry Aaron, but also the many hardships that the new generation faced during the game's critical transition to inclusion. With passion and poignancy, Madden illustrates the dignified manner in which these figures overcame the barriers of the era and how the events of 1954 changed baseball forever." --Joe Torre "1954 is a terrific combination of writer and subject matter."--Dallas Morning News "Madden tells the story eloquently."--Philadelphia Daily News
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