My 1961 vividly recounts a thirteen-year-old's obsession with baseball in a season dominated by Roger Maris's bid to break Babe Ruth's "unbreakable" home-run record in the midst of the New York Yankees' pursuit of a World Series championship. In selecting Maris as his personal idol--his boyhood friends, and seemingly much of the world, favored Mickey Mantle--he discovered values that would redirect his path toward adulthood. Bronx-raised author Andy Strasberg re-creates that year of adolescent challenges and growing self-awareness in this intriguing combination journal-memoir-scrapbook. Strasberg's passion for baseball goes beyond that of a devout fan--he chronicles the events of '61 through a captivating blend of firsthand observations, diligent research, and humorous personal anecdotes. You'll spend 1961 escorted by an earnest student of life who confronts authority wherever he meets it--whether in the classroom, on the city's streets, or in a synagogue. Along with a vivid account of Roger Maris's chase of the home-run record, you'll witness Strasberg's devious money-making schemes to collect baseball cards, his abrupt departure from religious studies to devote his life to baseball, an ill-fated attempt at a life of petty crime, and his exhilaration at snagging a baseball in Yankee Stadium. You'll also witness a thirteen-year-old's growing awareness of the world around him, trying to make sense of developments like the Cuban missile crisis, the Cold War, and racial integration. My 1961 captures the transition of a boy from childhood to adolescence, a boy deeply influenced by a nation's pastime that he claimed all to himself