---
title: 1954 (23 of 50)
description: Nathanael Yellis reviews 1954 and talks about baseball history.
image: https://www.yell.is/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/20138688.jpg
---

![](https://www.yell.is/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/20138688.jpg)

Baseball. Summer is about listening to, talking about, and sometimes watching our national [pastime](https://www.inathanael.com/2012/04/baseball-begins.html).

Reading baseball books works too. Sometimes it doesn't. This one is one of those times.

[![1954: The Year Willie Mays and the First Generation of Black Superstars Changed Major League Baseball Forever](https://www.yell.is/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/20138688.jpg)](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20138688-1954)[1954: The Year Willie Mays and the First Generation of Black Superstars Changed Major League Baseball Forever](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20138688-1954) by [Bill Madden](https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/431684.Bill_Madden)  
My rating: [3 of 5 stars](https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/985307196)

I thought I'd like it. I'm a sucked for baseball books. But it was too much fact and not enough story. The book leaves the impression that the author is a baseball beat writer and his research for the book consisted of reading old baseball columns from the year and his writing of the book consisted of writing a super-long baseball column.

Notwithstanding that '54 was a hell of a year, this book didn't quite capture it for me.

[View all my reviews](https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/2136782-nathanael)

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