Even though I am not a fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers, I find books about them to be some of the better baseball books. This book on a part-time player and the GM of the 1965 World Champions is another one of those good books on the Dodgers. Here is my review of "Buzzie and the Bull"
Title/Author:
“Buzzie and the Bull: A
GM, a Clubhouse Favorite and the Dodgers’ 1965 Championship Season” by Ken
Lazebnik
Baseball, professional,
biography, Dodgers, championship
September 1, 2020
208 pages
4 of 5 stars (very good)
Review:
In 1965, the Los Angeles Dodgers were considered by many to
be the premier franchise in baseball as they were in the midst of winning three
pennants in eight seasons as the New York Yankees were starting to fade. The Dodgers were built by general manager
Emil “Buzzie” Bavasi and both his eye for baseball talent and his hardball
negotiation tactics with players were legendary. There was one player for that
1965 Dodgers championship team for which Bavasi had a soft spot and that was Al
“ the Bull” Ferrara. Their friendship and what it meant to those Dodgers is the
subject of this book by Ken Lazebnik.
Ferrara mentions several times throughout the book he loved to both work and play to life’s fullest. His off-field adventures of gambling on the horses, visits to establishments with less-than-sterling reputations and his enjoyment of adult beverages and female companionship made for very entertaining reading. Both his teammates and his general manager on the Dodgers loved to hear about them as the Bull became one of the more popular figures in the Los Angeles clubhouse even though he was only a part-time player.
For the most part, Bavasi said little about Ferrara’s lifestyle, but when one incident in July 1965 tested that patience, Bavasi sent Ferrara to the minor leagues and did not call him back up until September 1 of that season, too late to be included on the roster for the World Series. While Ferrara talks about being grateful to his teammates for voting him a full share of the bonus given to players who are on the winning championship team, a player must be on the roster to earn a championship ring and Ferrara’s showing of his bare hands to the author during this interview illustrates how much he still feels that slight, even though he always accepted whatever fate came his way through his actions.
That is just one illustration that Lazebnik uses to give the reader an in-depth look at Ferrara as the stories of his drinking and gambling are just as entertaining, if not more so, than the baseball writing. Most of the baseball passages are fairly basic as readers who have read other books on the Dodgers of that ear, or biographies of some of the players such as Sandy Koufax, would probably already know most of that information. To his credit, Lazebnik acknowledges this and gives credit to some of those publications, such as Michael Lehay’s excellent book on those Dodgers teams, “The Last Innocents.”
While there is some good information on Bavasi as well, this book is best suited for those readers who want to learn more about the life of a player who wasn’t a star but instead a popular bench player for an outstanding team. The friendship of Bavasi and Ferrara is a recurring throughout the book, including when both player and GM moved from the Dodgers in late 1968 to the expansion San Diego Padres. It’s a fun, quick read that fans of the Dodgers will enjoy.
I wish to thank University of Nebraska Press for providing a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
Book Format Read:
E-book (Kindle)
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