Short Synopsis
From an award-winning journalist comes the riveting odyssey of seven Los Angeles Dodgers in the 1960s—a chronicle of a team, a game, and a nation in transition during one of the most exciting and unsettled decades in history.

Full Synopsis
Legendary Dodgers Maury Wills, Sandy Koufax, Wes Parker, Jeff Torborg, Dick Tracewski, and Tommy Davis encapsulated 1960s America: white and black, Jewish and Christian, wealthy and working class, pro-Vietnam and anti-war, golden boy and seasoned veteran. The Last Innocents is a thoughtful, technicolor portrait of these seven players—friends, mentors, confidants, rivals, and allies—and their storied team that offers an intriguing look at a sport and a nation in transition.

Michael Leahy places these men's lives within the political and social maelstrom that was the era when the conformity of the 1950s gave way to demands for equality and rights. Increasingly frustrated over a lack of real bargaining power and an oppressive management who meddled in their personal affairs, the players shared an uneasy relationship with the team's front office. This contention mirrored the discord and uncertainty generated by myriad changes rocking the nation: the civil rights movement, political assassinations, and growing hostility to the escalation of the Vietnam War.

"[A] gripping narrative . . . By using their personal experiences to tell the story of an oft-recounted era of American history, Leahy’s book packs an unanticipated jolt of humanness." ---Publishers Weekly

"An intriguing examination of how baseball, as everything else, changed during the 1960s and led the path for the current age of Dodgers history." ---Library Journal

"Leahy does an especially fine job of telling these and other Dodger players’ stories, from their often-rocky climb to The Show to the sometimes surprising friendships they formed with one another." ---Booklist

“A book that seeks to place the team within a broader historical and cultural context . . . This is the strength of The Last Innocents, the way it moves beyond the game to the issues underneath.” ---Washington Post