The Victory Season: The End of World War II and the Birth of Baseball's Golden Age

"Weintraub is a big-league storyteller .... He loads the bases with the kind of entertaining anecdotes, minutiae, and quotes that separate baseball-and baseball writing-from other sports." -- USA Today

In the spring of 1946, Americans were ready to heal. The war was finally over, and as America's fathers and brothers were coming home so too were baseball's greats. Ted Williams, Stan Musial, and Joe DiMaggio returned with bats blazing, making the season a true classic that ended in a thrilling seven-game World Series. America also witnessed the beginning of a new era in baseball- it was a year of attendance records, the first year Yankee Stadium held night games, the last year the Green Monster wasn't green, and Jackie Robinson's first year playing in the Brooklyn Dodgers' system.

THE VICTORY SEASON thrillingly recounts these years of baseball and war, including the little-known "world series" that servicemen played in a captured Hitler Youth stadium in the fall of 1945. Robert Weintraub's extensive research and vibrant storytelling enliven the legendary season that embodies what we now think of as the game's golden era.