It Was the Summer of '68

The last year before Major League Baseball first switched to a division format—splitting the National and American Leagues into two—1968 is often remembered as “The Year of the Pitcher,” when Denny McClain won 31 games, Bob Gibson compiled an astonishing ERA of 1.12 and Carl Yastrzemski captured the A.L. batting title by hitting just .301. Yet, as Tim Wendel artfully explains in his new book Summer of ’68 (Da Capo), it wasn’t just an unusual season: the political turmoil in the country overshadowed the game, leaving baseball players, like most Americans, confused by events spiraling out of control. The assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy, riots in major cities, the tumultuous Democratic Convention in Chicago and escalating student unrest and anti-war protests mocked the long-held notion of baseball as the quiet and leisurely national pastime.