The extraordinary story of the 1968 baseball season--when the game was played to perfection even as the country was being pulled apart at the seams From the beginning, '68 was a season rocked by national tragedy and sweeping change. Opening Day was postponed and later played in the shadow of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s funeral. That summer, as the pennant races were heating up, the assassination of Robert Kennedy was later followed by rioting at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. But even as tensions boiled over and violence spilled into the streets, something remarkable was happening in major league ballparks across the country. Pitchers were dominating like never before, and with records falling and shut-outs mounting, many began hailing '68 as "The Year of the Pitcher." In Summer of '68, Tim Wendel takes us on a wild ride through a season that saw such legends as Bob Gibson, Denny McLain, Don Drysdale, and Luis Tiant set new standards for excellence on the mound, each chasing perfection against the backdrop of one of the most divisive and turbulent years in American history. For some players, baseball would become an insular retreat from the turmoil encircling them that season, but for a select few, including Gibson and the defending champion St. Louis Cardinals, the conflicts of '68 would spur their performances to incredible heights and set the stage for their own run at history. Meanwhile in Detroit -- which had burned just the summer before during one of the worst riots in American history -- '68 instead found the city rallying together behind a colorful Tigers team led by McLain, Mickey Lolich, Willie Horton, and Al Kaline. The Tigers would finish atop the American League, setting themselves on a highly anticipated collision course with Gibson's Cardinals. And with both teams' seasons culminating in a thrilling World Series for the ages -- one team playing to establish a dynasty, the other fighting to help pull a city from the ashes -- what ultimately lay at stake was something even larger: baseball's place in a rapidly changing America that would never be the same. In vivid, novelistic detail, Summer of '68 tells the story of this unforgettable season -- the last before rule changes and expansion would alter baseball forever -- when the country was captivated by the national pastime at the moment it needed the game most. “ Summer of '68 shows that imperfect men can approach baseball perfection…Wendel recounts this matchless season with verve and you-are-there immediacy.”  Grand Rapids Press, 4/4/12 “A welcome memoir of a year the Tigers won the World Series while the world fell apart.”  Detroit Metro Times , 4/4/12 “[Wendel's] writing flows and it's an easy read…He nails what's best about the sport.”  Blogcritics.org, 4/3/12 “Wendel's analysis of the existing literature, newsreels, and his player interviews from that season give readers a taste of the turbulence while keeping the reader interested and turning pages.”  BleacherReport.com, 3/11/12 “A look back at one specific baseball season and the events in the culture surrounding it.” Shelf Awareness , 4/13 “A mesmerizing story.” Metro New York , 4/10 “If you're looking for the combination of the greatest year of baseball and most incendiary in American culture, here's your winner.”  Houston Chronicle , 4/8 “A well-written, fast moving book…It would be useful for those who did not live through The Sixties to take a look back; it is useful for those of us who did to be reminded.”  PopMatters.com, 3/16/12 “[Wendel] tells the story…with verve, in the familiar cadences found in sports journalism. While the details of most of this book will understandably appeal to baseball fans, the added angle of how teams and players faced unrest in their own cities, and how they contended with each other on teams as well as on the field against their rivals, enriches this presentation.”  Niagara Gazette , 3/8/12 “A masterwork of sports sociology.”  Gazalapalooza(blog), 3/14/12 “Much more than strictly a book about the momentous baseball season of 1968. It's really a thoughtful and intriguing book about our whole world during that tumultuous year, and how the pivotal social, cultural and political events inside sports and out in 1968 echo loudly to this very day…An excellent and gripping true story.”   Seamheads.com , 3/20/12 “A wonderful book…[that] vividly recalls both a classic seven-game World Series and the political and social events that surrounded it.”  WomanAroundTown.com, 5/10/12 “Wendel does a masterful job of relating all the extraordinary events that year through baseball…Buy this book now, and next time you need a gift for that baseball nut in your life, you'll have it ready to give.”  Iron Mountain Daily News , 5/26/12 “Delivers a brilliant summary of that tumultuous year in America…Plenty of good information here for sports fans and historians.”  “The Bookworm Sez” nationally syndicated column “[A] story of one base