What A Day! Happy Birthday to Willie and a great NY Giants Preservation Society Meeting With Guest, Author, David Krell

The past 2 months, I have been so entertained and informed each Thursday night, “zooming” into the New York Giants Preservation Society meetings.

Tonight they outdid themselves, as alluded to in an earlier post, we got to sing happy birthday to Willie Mays, as Steve Rothschild made his second such call to Willie and #24 truly enjoyed it.

Leader, a la James Brown of “hard,” (but to him, beyond enjoyable) “work,” Gary Mintz, set the group up with yet another wonderful guest, this one David Krell, a fountain of knowledge and perspective and the author of “1962: Baseball and America in the Time of JFK.”

I can not wait to read this book and will have more regarding it in the days to follow.

It is in the words of Mr. Krell, split between baseball and the rest of what was occurring in this country, in that seminal year.

Interviews with Mary Early, Maury Wills, Don’s daughter Kelly Drysdale and another daughter, Kiki, her father being Buddy Ebsen.

A tip of the veritable iceberg; the book details “Romper Room” sadness, “To Kill a Mockingbird,” an appreciation of “Failsafe” (I have cited Mr. Fonda’s praise of Larry Hagman in that film) and details about 5 baseball teams, the eventual champion Yankees, the N.L. champion Giants, the team that again lost a gut wrenching playoff to the Giants, namely the Dodgers, as well as the first year (40-120) Mets and the Houston Colt-45’s.

As you can see President Kennedy is on the cover and Mr. Krell has true perspective about the juxtaposition of then and now. He proved an articulate, incredibly informative speaker. That and Willie Mays! It was a truly nice day.

Click the link below for more information about the book as well, as how to purchase it.

1962: Baseball and America in the Time of JFK: Krell, David