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I never thought of the story as being set in any actual historical time frame, such that the opening scenes would have been in 1935-ish and the return in 1950-ish. I think the changes in baseball that began to come fast and furious in the 1960s make the story seem less timeless than it would have otherwise. Malamud couldn't have foreseen the moves to the West Coast, the expansion teams, big-money contracts, free agency, all of which make his setting seem quite quaint.
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