Review of “Watford Forever”

 While I had heard about Elton John owning a soccer team in the 1970’s, I never knew the details until I received this book as a Christmas gift. Thank you to my son for giving me this -mit was very good. 

Title/Author:

“Watford Forever” by John Preston

Rating: 

4 of 5 stars (very good)

Review:

In 1976, the Watford soccer club and Elton John (Reggie Dwight) were at polar opposites in their respective worlds. As John was soaring to great popularity and fame with his music, Watford was languishing at the bottom of the standings in England’s Fourth Division - about as low as an English soccer club could go. However, those fortunes were about to change as Elton John purchased the club and soon thereafter hired Graham Taylor to run the team. How they changed Watford’s fortunes is told in this book by John Preston.

Both men are portrayed in great detail, which helps illustrate both the similarities and the differences between the two men. When they first met, Taylor was questioning both the level of commitment that John would put into the team aside from money and also just how much of a challenge did he want by taking over such a poorly funded and run club - at least they were before these two took over. It helps if the reader understands the inner workings of English soccer, both on and off the field to understand what Taylor was doing. But that isn’t required to thoroughly enjoy the book, especially with the character development of not only the two main figures in Watford’s rise to the First Division, but also many of the players on the pitch.

Speaking of the action there, Preston doesn’t spend a lot of time giving play by play details of games, but he does include accounts of all the important matches Watford played at all levels. This included both friendlies and league play. This was good writing as well - advanced enough that fans who know the sport well won’t be bored with reading these passages, but simple enough that casual or new fans will be able to easily understand the game.

Not only is there writing about the soccer, but there is also some very good material on John’s rise in the music industry and the demons that haunted him. Like many other musicians, dugs and alcohol were problems for him. But he never let that interfere with his love of the Watford club he had since his childhood. He often went to their games with his father, the only true bonding time they had. John also knew when to set aside his authority and let Taylor dictate what should be done when needed - right down to making sure the owner was properly dressed when making appearances with the team.

If a reader is either a soccer fan or an Elton John fan they should pick up this book. Entertaining and fast paced, it will make a great addition to the library of this type of reader.

Link:https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CGN9YR9P/ref=x_gr_bb_amazon?ie=UTF8&tag=x_gr_bb_amazon-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B0CGN9YR9P&SubscriptionId=1MGPYB6YW3HWK55XCGG2 

Review of "Charlie Murphy"

Books on the early days of baseball are always fascinating, and this biography of Charlie Murphy, the owner of the Cubs in the early 20th century, is no exception.  Here is my review:

Title/Author: “Charlie Murphy: The Iconclastic Showman behind the Chicago Cubs” by Jason Cannon

Rating:  4 of 5 stars (very good)

Review:  The early history of the Chicago Cubs is very different than the club that is familiar to baseball fans.  For one example, they have not always played home games in Wrigley Field on the north side of the city – they were at the West Side Ball Park in the early 20^th century when they had their greatest run of success with four National League pennants in five years and two World Championships.  That and many other differences make the era of owner Charlie Murphy very interesting and that comes through in this biography of Murphy by Jason Cannon.

Murphy can be accurately described as an owner who certainly was not like his contemporaries.  Acquiring the Cubs for the bargain price (at least to Murphy) of $100,000, Murphy didn’t rest on his remarkable rise from newspaper reporter to a team owner.  He immediately immersed himself into the running of the ball club, overseeing much of the operations.  He was very active in the trades and personnel of the team, but was also wise enough to leave the managing of the team on the field to the capable hands of Frank Chance, one part of the famous “Tinkers to Evers to Chance” double play team. 

Despite Murphy’s connections (his co-owner was Charles Taft, the half brother of President William Howard Taft who was a visitor to a Cubs game) and his ideas for innovation in the game, he eventually gained enemies in both the National League offices (Charles Ebbets of the Dodgers was an especially harsh critic of Murphy) and to his popular players.  His poor handling of the contracts with Chance and then Evers for managing the club led to not only bad public relations with Cubs fans but also to his fellow owners and the two league presidents.  Believing that he was not helping Organized Baseball, Murphy was forced out in 1913 and the club eventually was sold to Charles Weeghman, who moved them to the north side and started to have the personality of the team we know now.

As for the complete story of Murphy, from his beginnings to his ownership of the Cubs and the fractured relationships at the time of his ouster, Cannon does a very good job of brining him to life to the reader and illustrating an accurate picture of the business side of the game at that time.  Cannon doesn’t stope when Murphy’s time in baseball was done, however, as he also informs the reader about Murphy’s ownership of a theatre in his hometown of Willmington, Ohio.  The excellent research and detail make it a book that has to be read slowly and carefully, but it will be worth the time as the reader will learn much about the man who was behind the first great era of the Chicago Cubs.

I wish to thank University of Nebraska Press for providing a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

Link:  Charlie Murphy: The Iconoclastic Showman behind the Chicago Cubs: Cannon, Jason: 9781496228635: Amazon.com: Books

Review of "The Only Rule Is It Has to Work"

Having heard a lot of buzz about this book well before the advance copies were available, I decided to try this out when it became available.  I was a little unsure about it as I am far from a baseball stat geek and the authors are editors of Baseball Prospectus.  But boy, am I glad I did decide to read it.  It was a terrific, entertaining story.  Here is my review of "The Only Rule Is It Has to Work." 

Title/Author:

“The Only Rule Is It Has to Work: Our Wild Experiment Building a New Kind of Baseball Team” by Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller

Tags:

Baseball, professional, owners

Publish date:

May 3, 2016

Length:

368 pages

Rating: 

5 of 5 stars (outstanding)

Review:

Building his or her own real baseball team is a dream for many fantasy baseball players.  For two editors of Baseball Prospectus (the current and former editors), that dream becomes a reality when they were allowed to run the baseball operations of the Sonoma Stompers of an independent league in California. The adventures of Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller running this team during the 2015 season are captured in this excellent book.

Given their occupations and obsession with statistical analysis, the duo tries to assemble the roster completely through their spreadsheets (even calling some of their prospects “spreadsheet guys”) but soon come to realize that some old-fashioned scouting and legwork will work as well.  The comparisons to Moneyball are inevitable and they actually provide some of the more entertaining passages from the book. For example, one of the funniest lines of the book states that “if the A’s were a ‘collection of misfit toys,’ as Micheal Lewis wrote, then we’ll be building a team out of toys that got recalled because they were choke hazards.”  I was in tears after reading that line.

Some of the passages are also more serious or even poignant such as some of the exchanges between Sam and/or Ben and the players or the manager. When trying hard to sell a strategy such as a defensive shift or using a closer for more than just the ninth inning, the guys realize that there has to be some trust in the instincts and knowledge of baseball men like the manager and scouts. There is a lot of compromise on these types of conflicts throughout the Stompers’ season.

This format is a winner for the book as it is one that anyone who is a baseball fan, whether a stat geek or an old-school believer; casual fan or addicted seamhead, young or old, should add to his or her baseball library. It will entertain, inform and delight all readers of baseball books.

I wish to thank Henry Holt and Company Publishing for providing a copy of the book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Book Format Read:

E-book (Kindle)

Buying links:

http://www.amazon.com/Only-Rule-Has-Work-Experiment/dp/1627795642?ie=UTF8&keywords=the%20only%20rule%20is%20that%20it%20has%20to%20work&qid=1463257994&ref_=sr_1_1&s=books&sr=1-1

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-only-rule-is-it-has-to-work-ben-lindbergh/1122889143?ean=9781627795647

Review of "Slim and None"

I have to admit, I love to read anything about hockey teams that no longer exist. One of these teams is the Hartford Whalers and when I found this memoir of the original owner of the Whalers, I knew that it had to have some great stories about the team. It certainly did and told the story of a very interesting person.  Here is my review of Howard Baldwin's autobiography "Slim and None.

Title/Author:

“Slim and None: My Wild Ride from the WHA to the NHL and All the Way to Hollywood” by Howard Baldwin with Steve Milton

Tags:

Ice hockey, professional, memoir, Whalers, Penguins, Flyers, owners

Publish date:

October 7, 2014

Length:

320 pages

Rating: 

5 of 5 stars (outstanding)

Review:

Even though he was a good athlete through high school and college, Howard Baldwin never thought to have a sports career as a player – instead he wanted to own a team.  He achieved that dream at the young age of 28 as one of the partners of the New England Whalers of the fledgling World Hockey Association. How he got there and what he did with the team, as well as his future endeavors are captured in this wonder memoir that is entertaining, informative and full of great memories for hockey fans.

Baldwin doesn’t spend too much time talking about his childhood or his college days.  After his time in the Marines, he dives immediately into his sports career, becoming a ticket manager for the expansion Philadelphia Flyers in 1967. When Gary Davidson had an idea to create a rival hockey league in 1972, Baldwin convinced two other men to become the owners of the brand new New England Whalers franchise. The team was one of four WHA teams to join the NHL in 1979 as the Hartford Whalers – a merger (although for business reasons it was called an “expansion”) between the two leagues in which Baldwin played a key role.

How Baldwin and the Whalers got there and their years in the NHL makes for great reading. How the team and the entire WHA league was able to make deals with players, negotiate rent for arena time and yet still provide excellent hockey is covered throughout the book. It is clear that Baldwin is very passionate about the Whalers and the city of Hartford even after he sold his shares in 1989 and the subsequent move of the franchise to Raleigh in 1996.

Life after the Whalers is discussed in depth as well in the same entertaining manner – Baldwin later moved to the West Coast after marrying his second wife Karen and was instrumental in making San Jose a viable NHL market. However, that lead to a very brief tenure as an owner of the Minnesota North Stars. He went from Minnesota to Pittsburgh and was able to celebrate the Penguins’ 1992 Stanley Cup championship with them.  He also went on to become a successful movie producer with his wife, the most notable of his films being the hockey movie “Mystery, Alaska.”

Hockey fans will love the stories of the WHA and some of the wisecracks Baldwin makes. One of my favorites came during the discussion of the final season of the WHA, when it finished with six teams, only four of which would join the NHL. Baldwin stated that “the NHL had its Original Six and the WHA would have its Final Six.”  His relationships with people like Jack Kelley, whom he hired from Boston University to become the first Whalers coach and GM, are told with reverence. It is clear that he feels that he should do right to people who help him or work for him and it is really no surprise he became such a successful team owner.

This was one of the few memoirs that I read in one sitting because I was riveted to the book’s hockey stories and Baldwin’s writing that was easy to read.  It was entertaining, insightful and a book that is highly recommended for hockey fans.  People who have fond memories of the Hartford Whalers will especially love this book.

Book Format Read:

E-book (Kindle)

Buying links:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00LWFF3E0?keywords=slim%20and%20none&qid=1450748612&ref_=sr_1_1&s=digital-text&sr=1-1

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/slim-and-none-howard-baldwin/1119185311?ean=9781770893634