Wait Till Next Year - A Book Review

 By Doris Kearns Goodwin

This is a memoir of a childhood time during the 1950s in the suburbs of New York City. It was a magical time of neighborhood rivalries when the Dodgers, Giants and Yankees all called New York home. 

Ebbets Field Postcard (Source: Wikipedia Commons)

Doris Kearns Goodwin was a very young girl as the 1950s began, and shared a deep love for the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team with her father, who taught her early on how to keep score. This was a time before night games began, so daytime baseball games were the norm. Doris would listen to the afternoon Dodgers game on the radio, faithfully filling out the scorecards in the little red score book her father had given her, then describe the narrative of the game to her dad each evening when he returned from work. From this humble beginning came the start of her coming-of-age story related in the memoir “Wait Till Next Year”. 

Synopsis of the Memoir

Wait Till Next Year - A MemoirCheck Price

Doris’ stories as a Brooklyn Dodgers fan, peopled by Jackie Robinson (her favorite player), Roy Campanella, Gil Hodges, Duke Snider and Pee Wee Reese, also included her recollections of her family, neighborhood and childhood friends. She describes what it was like to grow up in Rockville Centre, Long Island in a time when neighbors were extended family; a time defined by post-war suburban growth, early television broadcasts and Cold War anxiety.

A delightful memoir of a girl, an era and a game! A growing-up time which came to a close for Doris with the Dodgers leaving Brooklyn in 1957 (along with the Giants) and the death of her mother. 

Author Doris Helen Kearns Goodwin

Goodwin is an American historian, biographer and political commentator who specializes in US presidents. She worked as a fellow under Lyndon B. Johnson, which inspired her writing as a presidential historian. Her Wikipedia story is here. 

Summary 

I was given this book by a friend who knew what a huge baseball fan I am. The gift came from a recent evening at the Kansas City Royals ballpark where, between innings, we had a discussion about the many baseball-related books we’ve each read. 

In addition to enjoying the book from a baseball-fan standpoint, I really enjoyed it from the fact that Doris Kearns Goodwin is just three years younger than I am and her descriptions of her life in the 1950s and the baseball teams and players she talks about were SO familiar to me, growing up in New York State in the 1950s. It was like she was describing MY childhood days! 

Plus, I was mostly a NY Yankees fan (still am), but also followed the Brooklyn Dodgers during their time as a New York team. I never forgave them (just like a lot of other Dodger fans) for leaving Brooklyn and never cheered for them again. Doris Kearns ended up moving to Massachusetts as an adult and gave up on the Dodgers; becoming a Boston Red Sox fan! 

Wait Till Next Year is very well written, well worth reading by anyone. It will especially appeal to fans of Baseball, and people who were young in the 1950s. I thoroughly enjoyed it and have passed it along to my brother, another huge baseball fan! 

*Book review of “Wait Till Next Year” was written by Wednesday Elf