Review of "Stumbling Around the Bases"

Some people consider themselves political junkies.  I place myself in that category if the politics are those inside baseball and this book is one that any "junkie" like me should pick up.  Here is my review of "Stumbling Around the Bases."

 

Title/Author: “Stumbling Around the Bases: The American League’s Mismanagement in the Expansion Eras ” by Andy McCue

Rating:  5 of 5 stars (excellent)

Review:  For a significant portion of the latter half of the 20^th Century, the National League was considered the superior of the two leagues in Major League Baseball.  This was due not only because of the play on the field or the faster pace of racial integration in that league, but also because of its actions taken when its franchises would relocate or be added.  This book by Andy McCue concentrates mainly on the American League on that latter topic and explains why, due to its own missteps, why it was considered to be league that reacts instead of leads.

When the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants relocated to Los Angeles and San Francisco respectively in 1958, the National League realized the market for baseball on the West Coast was untapped and wanted to take advantage of this. Seeing how attendance was boosted significantly for the two franchises, the American League also wanted in on West Coast business.  However, as McCue expertly describes, the owners couldn’t agree on a well-researched and reviewed plan and instead hurriedly decided to expand in 1961 to Los Angeles (where their team, the Angels, had to agree to conditions set by the Dodgers) and in Washington, D.C. 

The latter site was chosen only because the American League feared that Congress would take away from baseball the exemption for anti-trust laws after owner Calvin Griffith moved the Washington Senators to Minnesota to start the 1961 season.  This expansion plan, panned by many observers, only set the stage for even more blunders by American League ownership and McCue doesn’t leave many individuals unscathed in his account of these transactions.

Among those who McCue profile to show how the American League executives were not exactly experts at vetting who would become owners are two men who became enemies of the fraternity. One was Charles O. Finley who purchased the Kansas City Athletics and moved them to Oakland (again, going to a West Coast territory already with a National League). The second was Bob Short, who during the 1960’s purchased the expansion Washington Senators team and ended up moving them to the Dallas-Fort Worth area, becoming the Texas Rangers.  Finley and Short, as well as the sale of the New York Yankees to CBS, are all cited as examples of American League ineptitude as well as the tale of Seattle.

Seattle’s part of American League mishandling of expansion and markets is a very interesting story. The Seattle Pilots were one of two expansion teams in 1969 along with the Kansas City Royals (another team that was provided to a market because of fear of retaliation after the city lost the Athletics) but it was clear that the ownership group did not have the funds and backing necessary to run a major league team, nor was there a stadium up to major league standards.  A well-known story but one that is worth mentioning was that fans who had tickets in the left field bleachers had to wait for the paint to dry on the benches in their seating location.  The Pilots ended up in Milwaukee just days before the 1970 season opened and Seattle got its replacement team (see a pattern here?) in 1977 when the Mariners began play in the new Kingdome.

There is a lot of information told in this compact book of approximately 200 pages and that includes the footnotes and references.  This shows the crisp writing and excellent research into these issues that McCue has done.  Readers who enjoy books on the business side of the game and its politics will enjoy this one immensely.  Some of the information may be known from other larger sources, but it will be hard to find another book that tells of the infamy of the American League brass in the 1960’s and 1970’s.

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

Link:  Stumbling around the Bases: The American League’s Mismanagement in the Expansion Eras: McCue, Andy: 9781496207036: Books (amazon.com)

Review of "Inside Pitch"

It isn't often I will read any book of any length in one sitting, but that was the case with this short, excellent book on the Seattle Pilots and their one fatefull season in the American League, 1969.  Here is my review of "Inside Pitch"

 

Title/Author:

“Inside Pitch: Insiders Reveal How the Ill-Fated Seattle Pilots Got Played into Bankruptcy in One Year” by Rick Allen

Tags:

Baseball, professional, Pilots, management

Publish date:

June 5, 2020

Length:

180 pages

Rating:

5 of 5 stars (excellent)

Review:

When Major League Baseball (MLB) added four teams for the 1969 season, one of those teams was the Seattle Pilots.  While the Pilots and their players have already been lionized in the legendary book “Ball Four” by Pilots pitcher Jim Bouton, little has been written or stated about the chaotic season in the team’s administrative offices. That is now changed with this book by journalist Rick Allen documenting the craziness in getting ready for that 1969 season.

The subtitle of this book could be re-titled as “How Not to Run Your Brand New Baseball Team.”  Much of the material written by Allen was obtained from interviews with two men who did long days and nights of work in the Pilots’ offices. Bob Schoenbachler, who could best be described as the team’s chief financial officer at the tender age of 21, having already been an accountant for Seattle’s minor league teams the previous two seasons.  Jim Kittilsby had already established himself in minor league baseball administration and jumped at the chance to return to his native Pacific Northwest area when Dewey and Max Soriano offered him a job with the Seattle Angels, the same team that offered Schoenbachler his job.

The Soriano brothers were listed as the principle owners of the Seattle franchise when MLB decided to expand by adding four teams in 1969. This threw off the timetable of preparing the area for a MLB team as it was thought the new team would start in 1971 or 1972.  Because Kansas City had just lost the Athletics to Oakland and was threatening legal action against MLB, it was decided to give Kansas City a replacement franchise as soon as possible in 1969 and to keep a balanced schedule, the Pilots would have to begin that same season.

This caused all types of headaches for the Soriano brothers and their front office staff, including Kittilsby and Schoenbachler.  What follows, through the eyes and memories of these two Pilots staff members, is a crazy season that started off with needing to add seats right up to the opening pitch of first game of the season. Some ticket holders had to sit in bleachers that had just been installed (they could hear hammering from the ticket booth outside Sicks Stadium) and freshly painted.

That Sicks Stadium was inadequate for MLB was just one of a myriad of problems that Kittlesby and Schoenbachler shared that doomed the Pilots from the start.  Very few of the revenue streams that fund a team were lacking for the Pilots either due to the timing of their start or the lack of interest.  There was also a severe lack of interest from both fans, as attendance fell far below expectations, as well from the business community.  When it became clear that another buyer was needed to keep the team in Seattle (from a directive by MLB), no one came forward.  The team was declared bankrupt and just before opening day of the 1970 season, the team moved to Milwaukee under a new ownership group headed by future commissioner Bud Selig.

Kittlesby and Schoenbachler moved with the team to Milwaukee and shared stories of the early days in that city as well, with Schoenbachler staying with the team an additional five years.  Their tales of woe for the Pilots franchise ran from sad to funny. Their recap of a popular promotion, Bat Day, was an example of a story that was both funny and sad, as the team did not order enough bats and these two, in addition to their other multiple duties, had to man the gates at the conclusion of the game and determine which families were carrying out too many bats. 

That is just one example of the issues plaguing the Pilots during their one year of existence and bringing these issues to light through two men who experienced them makes the book have an air of authenticity to it as well as providing entertainment. While it is a short book it was one of the few books I read in one sitting as whether it was bat day, last minute stadium repairs or incompetent front office staff working with these two gentleman, “Inside Pitch” tells the story about the Seattle Pilots that many people would not have known otherwise.

I wish to thank Mr. Allen for providing a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

                       

Book Format Read:

Paperback                                                                                                                                        

Buying Links:

https://www.amazon.com/Inside-Pitch-Insiders-Ill-Fated-Bankruptcy-ebook/dp/B0876J4XSY/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1591291049&sr=1-1     

   

Review of "Bouton"

Every avid baseball reader has at some point read the book "Ball Four."  Whether a reader likes it or not, no one can deny it had a profound effect on the game.  A biography has been written about the author of "Ball Four", Jim Bouton, and it is just as compelling a book.  Here is my review of "Bouton"

Title/Author:

“Bouton: The Life of a Baseball Original” by Mitchell Nathanson

Tags:

Baseball, biography, author, Yankees, Pilots, Astros, Braves

Publish date:

May 1, 2020

Length:

456 pages

Rating:

5 of 5 stars (outstanding)

Review

When the book “Ball Four” was published in 1970, it shook the baseball world to its core. It was basically a tell-all book, and it wasn’t the first book of its kind as “The Long Season” was a similar book published a decade earlier and “Behind the Mask” also previously released. But given the some of the lurid (for the times) details of the day-to-day life of a ball player, the exposure of just how one-sided contract negotiations were before the days of free agency, and some other secrets exposed, “Ball Four” was so controversial that the commissioner of baseball, Bowie Kuhn, demanded a meeting with the author, pitcher Jim Bouton. This book is a wonderful biography of Bouton by Mitchell Nathanson that shows there is much more to Bouton than just a baseball player.

The reader will learn that early on, while Bouton was a competitive person and loved to play sports, he also wanted to learn other facets of life as well.  This isn’t to say he was an outstanding student, but he was a keen observer and liked to acquire knowledge from many different sources, not just textbooks. Something else that is interesting about his early life is that his youth sports experience was ahead of its time as he wanted to devote all his energy to one sport, baseball, instead of multiple sports.

His baseball career is a very interesting section of the book as Nathanson not only talks about his time as a successful pitcher for the Yankees, but also about Bouton’s relationship with pitching coach Johnny Sain.  Like so many other pitchers, Sain not only made Bouton a better pitcher but also left a lasting impression.  Nathanson even makes talking about Bouton’s quirk of having his hat fall off his head on nearly every pitch seem intriguing.

But injuries and a fastball that wasn’t as fast any longer led to a decline in Bouton’s effectiveness and he ended up with the expansion Seattle Pilots in 1969.  But that season turned out to be the most important one in Bouton’s life as he took copious notes, recorded many conversations and basically documented nearly everything that happened during his season with the Pilots.  Bouton also never got rid of those papers and cassette tapes, storing them in what became the “butter yellow box.” He took those notes and wrote “Ball Four” with the help of sportswriter Leonard Schecter. While it was a hit with many baseball readers, especially younger ones with whom Bouton shared many similar political and cultural beliefs, it caused quite a commotion in the baseball establishment.  Not only in the commissioner’s office, but in locker rooms and press boxes all across baseball, “Ball Four” exposed many secrets that weren’t too kind to the game.

While the book was a best seller, it did effectively blackball Bouton from not only the Yankees, who would not invite him back to the stadium for nearly 30 years, but also from baseball.  He did attempt comebacks (this trait is shown time and time again by Nathanson with some wonderful prose) in all levels of the game, which culminated in a short stint on the roster of the Atlanta Braves in 1978, but for all intents and purposes, he struggled with baseball after writing the book.

Of course, the thirst for knowledge outside of baseball kept Bouton busy on other projects, including writing other books.  These included follow-ups to “Ball Four” titled “I’m Glad You Didn’t Take It Personally” and “Ball Five”.  There was also a book about the town of Pittsfield, Massachusettes when they proposed replacing a very old ballpark with a newer one called “Foul Ball.”  While the incentive behind writing that was to expose corruption in the town instead of anything about the game of baseball, Bouton met the same fate as he did with “Ball Four”, namely that he made many new enemies.

Nathanson’s account of these endeavors of Bouton, as well as the sharing of his personal life that resulted in a divorce and subsequent re-marriage that changed him profoundly, make for great reading that will be difficult for a reader to put down.  If the reader has ever read “Ball Four”, then this book is one that he or she must add to their library as well as it is a great account of the man behind the legendary book.

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)                                                                                                                               

Buying Links:

https://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/university-of-nebraska-press/9781496217707/

https://www.amazon.com/Bouton-Baseball-Original-Mitchell-Nathanson/dp/1496217705/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=