{"title":"Tim Wendel","description":"Tim Wendel was a founding editor of USA Today's Baseball Weekly and is the award-winning and highly acclaimed author of eleven books, including Summer of .68. He has served as exhibit adviser to the Baseball Hall of Fame and has been a writer-in-residence at Johns Hopkins University. He lives near Washington, DC.","products":[{"product_id":"summer-of-68-the-season-that-changed-baseball-and-america-forever-paperback","title":"Summer of '68: The Season That Changed Baseball -- And America -- Forever - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe extraordinary story of the 1968 baseball season--when the game was played to perfection even as the country was being pulled apart at the seams.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFrom the beginning, '68 was a season rocked by national tragedy and sweeping change. Opening Day was postponed and later played in the shadow of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s funeral. That summer, as the pennant races were heating up, the assassination of Robert Kennedy was later followed by rioting at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. But even as tensions boiled over and violence spilled into the streets, something remarkable was happening in major league ballparks across the country. Pitchers were dominating like never before, and with records falling and shut-outs mounting, many began hailing '68 as \"The Year of the Pitcher.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn \u003cem\u003eSummer of '68\u003c\/em\u003e, Tim Wendel takes us on a wild ride through a season that saw such legends as Bob Gibson, Denny McLain, Don Drysdale, and Luis Tiant set new standards for excellence on the mound, each chasing perfection against the backdrop of one of the most divisive and turbulent years in American history. For some players, baseball would become an insular retreat from the turmoil encircling them that season, but for a select few, including Gibson and the defending champion St. Louis Cardinals, the conflicts of '68 would spur their performances to incredible heights and set the stage for their own run at history.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMeanwhile in Detroit--which had burned just the summer before during one of the worst riots in American history--'68 instead found the city rallying together behind a colorful Tigers team led by McLain, Mickey Lolich, Willie Horton, and Al Kaline. The Tigers would finish atop the American League, setting themselves on a highly anticipated collision course with Gibson's Cardinals. And with both teams' seasons culminating in a thrilling World Series for the ages--one team playing to establish a dynasty, the other fighting to help pull a city from the ashes--what ultimately lay at stake was something even larger: baseball's place in a rapidly changing America that would never be the same.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn vivid, novelistic detail, \u003cem\u003eSummer of '68 \u003c\/em\u003etells the story of this unforgettable season--the last before rule changes and expansion would alter baseball forever--when the country was captivated by the national pastime at the moment it needed the game most.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51365894652127,"sku":"9780306821837","price":21.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/66nwQKnb3-9780306821837.webp?v=1789073632"},{"product_id":"rebel-falls-hardcover","title":"Rebel Falls - Hardcover","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eWinner of the W.Y. Boyd Literary Novel Award for Excellence in Military Fiction by the Academic Council of the United Nations System.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWith \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eRebel Falls\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e, Tim Wendel takes us to late summer of 1864. \u003c\/b\u003eThe Civil War rages on. Sherman is marching on Atlanta, while the armies of Grant and Lee battle across Virginia. In the North, war-weariness has made Lincoln's bid for reelection seem doubtful. As the fate of the nation \"conceived in Liberty\" hangs in the balance, Confederate agents gather in Niagara Falls to plan one last audacious maneuver to turn the tide of the conflict. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eRory Chase, a capable yet haunted young woman eager to contribute to the Union cause, accepts a mission from the Secretary of State, William Seward, to travel to Niagara Falls and prevent two rebel spies, John Yates Beall and Bennet Burley, from seizing the U.S.S. \u003ci\u003eMichigan\u003c\/i\u003e on Lake Erie and bombarding Buffalo, Cleveland, and other northern cities to sow fear and disorder ahead of the upcoming election. To succeed, Rory must gain the rebel spies' trust and, with the help of the Underground Railroad network still operating out of the elegant Cataract House hotel overlooking the Falls, foil their desperate gambit. But can she maintain the pretense of being a Confederate sympathizer long enough to unravel Beall and Burley's ingenious plot?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWith actual events underpinning the tumultuous story in\u003ci\u003e Rebel Falls\u003c\/i\u003e, a forgotten chapter in the history of the Civil War is revealed. Far from frontlines, Wendel's exciting, character-driven narrative about a consequential struggle in the shadow of Niagara Falls' dramatic beauty is gripping from start to finish.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51368286945503,"sku":"9781501774881","price":28.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/vouEIu_oHo9781501774881.webp?v=1789125192"}],"url":"https:\/\/blackandbarhe.com\/collections\/tim-wendel.oembed","provider":"Black \u0026 Barhe Bookstore","version":"1.0","type":"link"}