In the spring of 1946, Amer­i­cans were ready to heal. WWII was final­ly over, and hun­dreds of play­ers, includ­ing stars like Ted Williams, Stan Musial, and Joe DiMag­gio returned home to get back to base­ball. A thrilling sev­en-game World Series capped one of the sport’s most mem­o­rable sea­sons. And a new era dawned, as Jack­ie Robin­son made his pro­fes­sion­al debut. In addi­tion to the on-field action, Robert Wein­traub brings to life lit­tle-known tales of ballplay­ers at war. Of spe­cial note is the first descrip­tion in book form of a ​“World Series” played among Euro­pean The­ater troops. The games were played at the con­quered Hitler Youth Sta­di­um in Nurem­berg, where the Nazis had ral­lied until the Yanks took over. Wein­traub’s in-depth research and sto­ry­telling verve enliv­en one of base­bal­l’s great­est and most impor­tant periods.