In 1999 Dex gave me the book Summer of '49 for my birthday. It is still the best baseball book I've ever read. The author, David Halberstam writes so eloquently about the ballplayers, the era and himself.
No wonder, then, that the world of baseball seemed infinitely more real and appealing than the world around me. I could understand what was happening in baseball.
Halberstam interviewed most of the players of the Yankees and Red Sox forty years later. He describes the season as he saw it and through stories from the ballplayers. It really is an excellent read.
I was fortunate enough to hear him speak at a graduation at the University of Southern California in 2002. Even though I had already graduated his message to the students struck a chord in me.