The Perfect Season: Why 1998 Was Baseball's Greatest Year

Leading off with the obvious, McCarver details how the rousing home-run race between Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa and the ghosts of Babe Ruth and Roger Maris was the most visibly rousing thrill, but only one of many thrills in a year that overflowed with spectacular accomplishments. His list is a long one: David Wells's perfect game; Kerry Woods's 20-strikeout masterpiece; Barry Bonds creating the career 400-homer-400-steals club; Craig Biggio becoming the first 50-doubles-50-steals man since Tris Speaker; the end of Cal Ripkin's inconceivable streak; another 50-home-run year from Ken Griffey Jr.; the continuing domination of Roger Clemens; the ascendancy of a trio of marvelous shortstops in Nomar Garciaparra, Derek Jeter, and Alex Rodriguez; the slugging of Mike Piazza; the comeback of Jose Canseco; the Cubs return to post-season play, the 125 Yankee victories, and on and on.

"It wasn't just that records fell or were equalled at an inordinate rate," insists McCarver, it was the context of the achievements themselves; in 1998, baseball came face to face with marks etched in the books by historically significant names. Thus, 1998 was more than a marvelous season; it was a telescope through which fans could focus on both an exuberant present and a living, vivid past. --Jeff Silverman

Product Description
Nineteen Ninety-Eight was the greatest season in baseball history. While Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa engaged in an epic duel for baseball's most coveted individual record -- Roger Maris's 61 home runs, the New York Yankees set new standards for team excellence and established themselves as one of the greatest clubs in the history of the game.

Tim McCarver broadcast the climax of each of these extraordinary achievements and is uniquely positioned as a former player, a commentator, and writer to put 1998 into its proper perspective. McCarver is baseball's best analyst and, as he showed with Tim McCarver's Baseball for Brain Surgeons and Other Fans, he is as eloquent and witty on the page as he is behind the microphone. In The Perfect Season, McCarver revels in the homer race and the Yankees but shows that the season contained so much more, ensuring it will stand out as the best there has been. Star players performing to the height of their powers broke records set by true legends of baseball, linking today's players with those who exist somewhere between myth and memory: Ruth and Cobb; Gehrig and Mays. The Perfect Season describes the accomplishments of veterans like Juan Gonzalez, Roger Clemens, Ken Griffey, Jr., Mike Piazza, and Barry Bonds, and of the exceptional young players who hold the future of the game in their hands: Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Nomar Garciaparra, and Kerry Wood. Tim McCarver also laments the passing of some friends and colleagues: Richie Ashburn, Harry Caray, and Dan Quisenberry, and celebrates the careers of some stars who retired after the 1998 season.

The Perfect Season is a comprehensive account of 1998 and the perfect souvenir of baseball's greatest year. With it, fans can remember the season in which they got back into the habit of watching the game and reestablished baseball as America's Pastime.

The second problem is that the book wanders all over the place. Rather than being largely about the 1998 season, it becomes a soapbox for Mr. McCarver's opinion on the whole field and history of baseball.

One the plus side, it's nice to hear the experiences of someone who's closer to the action than most of us get to be. And it's nice to tell some stories and antidotes I hadn't heard before.


Compelling breakdown of the amazing 1998 baseball season   June 8, 2002
 1 out of 1 found this review helpful

It was inevitable that following the spectacular baseball season of 1998, that there would be books released that would try to immortalize the accomplishments and memories of that year. The two most notable ones were "Summer of 98" by Mike Lupica and "The Perfect Season" by Tim McCarver. McCarver is a long-time baseball analyst on a myriad of networks. Often bombastic and overblown with his commentary, he hits the 1998 season right on the mark. It may very well be 'the perfect season'. In the aftermath of the 1994 baseball strike, Major League Baseball had struggled to regain its foothold in the American psyche. As recently as 1997, underachieving seasons by so many teams led to a World Series that, while a dramatic 7 games, was also a horribly ugly matchup between Cleveland and Florida. The only glimmer of hope in that season was the home run tears that Mark McGwire and Ken Griffey Jr. went on. Their challenges to the Roger Maris' home run record entertained the nation, but ultimately both fell short, with Griffey hitting 56 and McGwire hitting 58. Little else in that season did anything to attract fans back to the park. The 1998 season dawned with a auspicious feel to it. Mark McGwire was going to have a full season in St. Louis to go after Maris' record and there were some exciting prospects coming up in the minor leagues. But, few could have expected the incredible form this year would take. From Mark McGwire's Opening Day grand slam until the final out of the World Series, 1998 had it all. In "The Perfect Season", McCarver creates an indispensible companion to the year. He breaks down each of the season's major accomplishments in separate chapters and writes each like a little kid excitedly spouting everything he could think of about what he saw. This approach works quite well for the nature of the material. Obviously a great deal of time is spent on the spectacular home run race between Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa (in which both broke Maris' record and continued their mano-a-mano battle until the final weekend) and the unbelievable season in which the New York Yankees won 114 regular season games (and 125 overall) on their way to another World Championship. There are some other fascinating topics covered, like the emergence of Cubs rookie pitcher Kerry Wood with his 20-strikeout game, David Wells' perfect game, and the resurgence of the Chicago Cubs, who made the playoffs for the first time in 9 seasons. Additionally, there are some lesser known details of the season that McCarver brings to light, such as Houston's Craig Biggio becoming the first player since Tris Speaker to have 50 doubles and 50 steals in the same season, and Giants' Jeff Kent becoming the first second baseman since the legendary Rogers Hornsby to have 120 Rbi's in back-to-back seasons. McCarver covers all the bases with vivid clarity. This book is a quick read and worthy recap of "The Perfect Season".


A QUICK READ ON THE '98 SEASON   March 28, 2000
 1 out of 1 found this review helpful

The 1998 baseball season was, indeed, a memorable one, and Tim McCarver does a good job of reviewing it. The McGuire/Sosa home run battle made it especially so, and their respect for each other and the game added to it. Tim gives his opinions and analysis of events of the season which add to the book's interest. Brief chapters are devoted to such players as Dan Quisenberry and Eric Davis. The Yankees show what it takes to make a winning team by their ability to win in whatever way the other team makes available to them. The book was easy to read and I found it interesting, but I certainly wouldn't call it a classic by any means.


A disappointing little book   September 1, 1999
 3 out of 4 found this review helpful

Tim McCarver's "The Perfect Season" does not live up to its title....namely, that the 1998 baseball season was the best ever. No one doubts McCarver's expertise in the game, but there's a long-windedness about this book, much like his broadcast style. McCarver has too many chapters devoted to players whose entry into the book was made because they "hit 50 doubles and stole 50 bases in one season". I know that baseball is a game of statistics but this kind of minutiae (or"dim-minutiae") is as meaningless as meat filler in a hamburger patty or a weatherman's recitation of the wind-chill factor....it gets boring very quickly. There are certainly some good chapters and well-deserved entries (the New York Yankees, Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire, and a wonderful tribute to Roger Maris), but I found myself being able to put this book down many times, even though the chapters are quite short. It's simply bogged down with too much useless detail.