{"product_id":"0399145141-summer_of98","title":"Summer of '98","description":"\n\u003cp\u003eIn 1998, the conversation of the country was about baseball again, as the taste of the 1994 strike was finally washed away in a sweet flood of glory. With humor and feeling, Lupica recaptures that season, but not in any ordinary way. In Fargo, North Dakota, Roger Maris's boyhood best friend watches McGwire hit 62. In New York, a baseball scout travels back thirteen years, to a skinny kid named Sosa getting off a bus from Santo Domingo with holes in his jersey and a bat in his hand. In Grand Prairie, Texas, Kerry Wood's high school assistant coach refuses to believe the reports of Wood's strikeout record, until the phone starts ringing. The Little League champions from Toms River stand in awe on the field at Yankee Stadium; Joe DiMaggio talks as he watches the Yankees have the kind of year he always had; Cal Ripken, Jr., speaks from the past about how he always intended his streak to end; Yogi Berra watches highlights of David Wells's perfect game and remembers the perfect game he caught from Don Larsen, every detail clear as a bell; Matt Williams of the Arizona Diamondbacks, also a divorced father, watches with a lump in his throat as McGwire lifts his son at home plate. Roger Clemens, Shane Spencer, Orlando Hernandez, Tony Gwynn, Ken Griffey, Jr. - all the boys of summer come alive in special ways, as we're reminded, for one season at least, that, yes, they do play baseball like they used to. But even more than all of this, Summer of '98 is about fathers and sons - about the golden thread that stretches through baseball and, for Lupica, from his father to himself to his sons.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eCategories:\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cul class=\"category-tree\"\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eSports \u0026amp; Outdoors\u003cul class=\"category-tree\"\u003e\u003cli class=\"category-tree\"\u003eBaseball\u003c\/li\u003e\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\n","brand":"Putnam Adult","offers":[{"title":"Used - Poor","offer_id":47582330060990,"sku":"0399145141-6","price":15.24,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0640\/9689\/5166\/files\/91GK0tqsT1L.jpg?v=1779807612","url":"https:\/\/shop.sustainablebooks.com\/products\/0399145141-summer_of98","provider":"Sustainable Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}