David Halberstam was born April 10, 1934, in New York, New York. During his childhood, he would go down to the Polo Grounds and watch the Yankees, his heroes, whom he describes in his book. He graduated from Harvard University in 1955, and began his career as a war correspondent and political reporter. For the next ten years Halberstam was a lead reporter for the Daily Times Leader, New York Times, and served as a foreign correspondent in the Congo, Vietnam, Poland, and France. In 1962, The New York Times assigned Halberstam to South Vietnam. It was there that he often wrote controversial articles often questioning the official version of events in the Vietnam War. In 1964, he was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for international reporting and after that, he continued to examine the war in a series of books and magazine articles. Over the years, Halberstam has also won numerous awards for his writing, such as, the George Polk Memorial Award, the Political Book Award and another Pulitzer Prize.

From reading the Summer of '49, this reader has learned about the second-line pitchers and utility infielders, without whom baseball legends could not have been made. This reader also learned of Dom DiMaggio and the relationship between him and Joe, and of the Yankees prejudiced towards African Americans. This reader also gained many new viewpoints and ideas of baseball, such as the idea of players actually playing for the love of the game, not just for money, what a true rivalry was, and to see the game before it was transformed into a show business. The only ideas that changed for this reader, was the fact that players like DiMaggio and Williams were simply human and not Gods and each had their faults.

The reason why when Jackie Robinson became the first African American to play in the Major Leagues is a very important fact, is that this was one of the first steps towards racial equality in the United States. It showed that a black man was equally good as a white and most baseball fans everywhere accepted him. He single handedly opened the door equality movement in the sixties.

11. Kinder, a great relief pitcher was usually drunk most of the time when he pitched.

1. Sports television first started in 1949.

16. In 1947, Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier and became the first African American to play baseball in the Major Leagues.

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Approximate Word count = 2723
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page double spaced)