'Boys of Summer' Author Roger Kahn Dies at Age 92

Roger Kahn–author of the beloved baseball book The Boys of Summer–died on Thursday in Mamaroneck, N.Y. at the age of 92.

Kahn's son Gordon Jacques Kahn confirmed the death at a nursing home, according to The New York Times. The writer spent most of his life living in Brooklyn and Manhattan but most recently resided in Stone Ridge, N.Y.

During his career, Kahn wrote 19 books which ranged from a biography of Jack Dempsey to a collaboration with Pete Rose following his 1989 ban from baseball. His 1972 book The Boys of Summer on the Brooklyn Dodgers captured the spirit of baseball in a way few authors ever had. 

In 2002, Sports Illustrated named The Boys of Summer as No. 2 on its list of the top 100 sports books of all time.

"A baseball book the same way Moby Dick is a fishing book, this account of the early-'50s Brooklyn Dodgers is, by turns, a novelistic tale of conflict and change, a tribute, a civic
history, a piece of nostalgia and, finally, a tragedy, as the franchise's 1958 move to Los Angeles takes the soul of Brooklyn with it," SI wrote in its praise for the book.

"Kahn writes eloquently about the memorable games and the Dodgers' penchant for choking–"Wait Till Next Year" is their motto–but the most poignant passages revisit the Boys in autumn. An auto accident has rendered catcher Roy Campanella a quadriplegic. Dignified trailblazer Jackie Robinson is mourning the death of his son. Sure-handed third baseman Billy Cox is tending bar. No book is better at showing how sports is not just games."

Kahn, a Brooklyn native, began covering the Dodgers in 1952 for the New York Herald Tribune. After two years, he reported on the New York Giants for the outlet in 1954. During his career, he also wrote for Newsweek, The Saturday Evening Post and Esquire.