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Rating: 
Summary: Easy read and never dull
Review: I was born in 1970 so I vaguely remember the last few years of the decade and the men who played the game. Pepe takes you on a year-by-year journey and gives you some of the unique stories that make baseball such an interesting sport. You will read about two pitchers who trade families (no kidding) and about how George Steinbrenner got his start with the Yankees. You will also feel the tragedies that baseball suffered in the 70's with the deaths of Roberto Clemente and Thurmon Munson. The book also gives a good perspective about the beginning of free agency and some needed background for the labor problems that plague the game even today. It is a great book for those of us who loved the game in the 70's and it is also a good book for those fans who were not around the game then but would like to learn more about the game.
Rating:
Summary: Easy read and never dull
Review: I was born in 1970 so I vaguely remember the last few years of the decade and the men who played the game. Pepe takes you on a year-by-year journey and gives you some of the unique stories that make baseball such an interesting sport. You will read about two pitchers who trade families (no kidding) and about how George Steinbrenner got his start with the Yankees. You will also feel the tragedies that baseball suffered in the 70's with the deaths of Roberto Clemente and Thurmon Munson. The book also gives a good perspective about the beginning of free agency and some needed background for the labor problems that plague the game even today. It is a great book for those of us who loved the game in the 70's and it is also a good book for those fans who were not around the game then but would like to learn more about the game.
Rating: 
Summary: Those Great Memories
Review: Pepe is both reminiscent and simplistic as a writer, not exactly a bad combination for a book on 1970s baseball. The book takes us back - in terms of players, teams, championship play-by-play, and photos - to perhaps one of the greatest eras in all of professional sports. Being a NY'er, Pepe puts great emphasis on the American League, and especially the Yankees. There is some good gossip here, especially of the clubhouse variety. If you loved this era and want to relive it for 400 pages, I heavily recommend this.
Rating:
Summary: Those Great Memories
Review: Pepe is both reminiscent and simplistic as a writer, not exactly a bad combination for a book on 1970s baseball. The book takes us back - in terms of players, teams, championship play-by-play, and photos - to perhaps one of the greatest eras in all of professional sports. Being a NY'er, Pepe puts great emphasis on the American League, and especially the Yankees. There is some good gossip here, especially of the clubhouse variety. If you loved this era and want to relive it for 400 pages, I heavily recommend this.
Rating: 
Summary: I would have given it 3.5 if I could have.
Review: Phil Pepe does an outstanding job of taking us back in time to baseball's turbulent decade: the 1970's. His in-depth interviews, take you back as if you were there yourself. He does an excellent job of laying the groundwork for what would become the trademark of the seventies: free agency. His tale of Curt Flood and his drive to have the reserve clause abolished, is astonishing. He shows the readers that maybe Curt Flood hasn't received the recognition that he deserves for pioneering the free agency era. Pepe also show the tragic side of the decade with riveting accounts of the deaths of some of baseball biggest stars, such as Clemente and Munson. His inside look at the death of Thurman Munson and interview with his widow Diane is outstanding. It is handled with the delicate care that it should be while also telling the hard facts. His accounts of the games, players, and events that make up the 1970's is truly unbelievable. This book is a must for any baseball fan. My only regret was that the book was not longer because I had a hard time putting it down!
Rating:
Summary: Pepe Hits A Homerun
Review: Phil Pepe is a veteran New York sports reporter who has seen more than his fair share of ball games. The 70's were a decade of change and excess and baseball mirrored those strange times. Society started to accept men with longer hair, mustaches, crazy clothes and looser mores and baseball did the same. Players grew their hair long, grew mustaches and many teams changed their uniforms to contain gaudy bright colors moving away from the typical bland grays. The DH was introduced into the game, night baseball became more prevalent and of course the advent of free agency, all of which changed the game into what it is today. We read about the A's dynasty, the reemergence of the Yankees, the Big Red Machine, the tragic losses of Clemente and Munson, the wife swapping of two Yankee pitchers and other bizarre tales. There seemed to be more characters in the game at that time and Mr. Pepe gets into the changes and characters as told by the players themselves. You won't be able to put the book down as it is an easy and enjoyable read. A must for any fan of the game.
Rating:
Summary: An Oral History of *New York* Baseball
Review: The Yankees were a fairly miserable team for most of the 70s, but you wouldn't know it from reading Pepe's book. It seems like every five pages we're back to a multi-page Yankees story, and if it's not the Yankees, it's the Mets. Several successful teams are grossly underrepresented; we hear about the Pirates, for example, only from Rennie Stennett. Several spectacular players are also rarely mentioned; Lou Brock appears only near the end and only as an afterthought, for example.What there is in this book is very well done, however, and a treat for those who remember baseball in the 70s - or for those who don't, and have no idea just what it meant to play against Pete Rose.
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