Big Hair and Plastic Grass: A Funky Ride Through Baseball and America in the Swinging '70s
Dan Epstein
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Big Hair and Plastic Grass: A Funky Ride Through Baseball and America in the Swinging '70s
Dan Epstein
The Bronx Is Burning meets Chuck Klosterman in this wild pop-culture history of baseball's most colorful and controversial decade The Major Leagues witnessed more dramatic stories and changes in the '70s than in any other era. The American popular culture and counterculture collided head-on with the national pastime, rocking the once-conservative sport to its very foundations. Outspoken players embraced free agency, openly advocated drug use, and even swapped wives. Controversial owners such as Charlie Finley, Bill Veeck, and Ted Turner introduced Astroturf, prime-time World Series, garish polyester uniforms, and outlandish promotions such as Disco Demolition Night. Hank Aaron and Lou Brock set new heights in power and speed while Reggie Jackson and Carlton Fisk emerged as October heroes and All-Star characters like Mark "The Bird" Fidrych became pop icons. For the millions of fans who grew up during this time, and especially those who cared just as much about Oscar Gamble's afro as they did about his average, this book serves up a delicious, Technicolor trip down memory lane.
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But in those categories that continue to defy statisticians - weirdness, hairiness, overall funkiness, and sheer amusement - the 1970s still tower over every other baseball decade before or since. Long may the spirit and memory of the Mustache Gang, the Big Red Machine, the Bronx Zoo, Bambi's Bombers, and the South Side Hitmen, and all those other charismatic rebels, flakes, and hard-nosed hustlers in the form-fitting polyester uniforms, endure.
While this was, at times, a slow romp through the 70s baseball scene, this book was cram packed full of information. Starting off the decade strong with Doc Ellis' LSD fueled no hitter, to ending the decade with the equally bizarre Disco Demolition Night, this book helped prove that baseball of the decade reflected every other aspect of culture at the time - truly strange.
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