Joltin' Joe

I recently completed reading 56: Joe DiMaggio and the Last Magic Number in Sports (Sports Illustrated: 2011). The story, by Kostya Kennedy, is not a novel, but Kennedy's treatment of Joe DiMaggio's feat reads a lot like fiction. More than just a simple retelling of one of baseball's greatest endeavours, Kennedy interjects the story with the mood and feel of the times.

Baseball, during the summer of 1941, took place while the world outside of America was at war. And the threat of America's involvement grew with each day. Kennedy's narration of the streak is interjected with headlines of the day, both internationally and nationally, so that his narration of each game during the streak is put in context. And, along with what is going on in Europe or Asia, are sprinklings of what the average fan thought about Joe and what was happening in the ballpark. Particularly interesting are Kennedy's tales of a gang of kids in the Bronx and the relationship between Joe and his first wife, Dorothy Arnold.

Now, I've read a few comments that Kennedy plays a little loose with some of the facts, or that his editors were not as sharp as they should have been (English monarchs are crowned at Westminster Abbey, not Westminster Hall), but these small things are easily overlooked when considering the bits about Wee Willie Keeler, about Joe's style of hitting (flat-footed with little stride), or insights from Pete Rose about his attempt at the record. It's these little sidenotes that ground the reader in reality - pulling you back into the present from that world of 70 years ago. 56 is an entertaining read, and Kennedy's style of writing makes it seem as if you are reading a fictionalized account - one that brings out the suspense and the sights and sounds of that summer in New York. In Kennedy's story, the streak is more than DiMaggio's endeavour, but how it touched so many people at the time.