Mr. Book just finished The Team That Changed Baseball: Roberto Clemente And The 1971 Pittsburgh Pirates, by Bruce Markusen.

The 1971 Pirates won the World Series, with Roberto Clemente having a great World Series to lead them to the title. Along the way, the Pirates became the first team in MLB history whose entire starting lineup in a game featured all black and/or Latin players.

Race, both in terms of how it impacted the majors as well as the individual Pirate players, was a major theme of the book. But, it didn’t overshadow the baseball.

This book did a thorough job of covering the Pirates throughout the entire 1971 season, with complete coverage of each postseason game show.

You definitely did not need to be a Pirates fan to enjoy this book.

I give this book an A. Goodreads requires grades on a 1-5 star system. In my personal conversion system, an A equates to 5 stars. (A or A+: 5 stars, B+: 4 stars, B: 3 stars, C: 2 stars, D or F: 1 star).

This review has been posted at my blog, Mr. Book’s Book Reviews, and Goodreads.

Mr. Book originally read this on May 30, 2014. Mr. Book finished rereading this on October 16, 2024.