Review of "The Last Folk Hero"

Jeff Pearlman came on my radar a few years ago with his excellent book on the history of the first edition of United States Football League.  That made me want to read more of his books and while I have read a few of his earlier works, this is his most recent and so far one of his best.  Here is my review of his book on Bo Jackson, "The Last Folk Hero." 

Title/Author:

“The Last Folk Hero: The Life and Myth of Bo Jackson” by Jeff Pearlman

Rating: 

5 of 5 stars (excellent)

Review:

Whenever an athlete can compete at the highest level in two (or more) sports, it is a very noteworthy accomplishment.  When that athlete can do certain feats that even most stars in that particular sport only dream of accomplishing, that is when stories of incredible feats are told and passed down through the years.  Vincent “Bo” Jackson is one of those athletes in which this was accomplished, and his story is told in this excellent book by Jeff Pearlman 

Pearlman has made a very good career on writing sports biographies of famous athletes who may have a flaw or two, but has had either outstanding success in their sport, some great stories to share, a compelling story on the way to fame or, in Jackson’s case, a bit of all three traits.  The “great stories” are feats of amazing athleticism by Jackson shared by those who have claimed to have seen them.  This goes from his youth to high school sports (track and field as well as baseball and football) to college sports at Auburn (again, all three, although his fame there was for football) to the professional ranks.  Because many of these stories have a “you have to see it to believe it” aura, that was the inspiration for the title which is very appropriate.

The book also does an excellent job of portraying Jackson’s life and personality without the benefit of input directly from him.  Pearlman does write that he did contact Jackson about the project and certainly wanted to talk to him, but Jackson declined.  However, he did not give Pearlman any objections to writing the book, so the author went ahead and between his research and over 700 interviews, he ended up with a very entertaining and detailed book.

Among these details are plenty of discussion about Jackson’s accomplishments at Auburn, the NFL with the Los Angeles Raiders and in major league baseball, primarily with the Kansas City Royals, but he also spent some time with the Chicago White Sox and California Angels.  He suffered a devastating hip injury that required a hip replacement and given the medical knowledge at the time, it was considered a near-miracle that he was able to resume his baseball career (his football career was not resurrected) with the White Sox.  Mainly because his football career, especially with the Raiders, was shortened due to the injury, more of the sports accomplishments described are in baseball.  That doesn’t diminish either the writing about nor the stories telling about Jackson’s feats in that sport as well as track and field.

There is plenty of text about Bo off the field as well.  Of course, the “Bo Knows” campaign by Nike is covered and that is quite entertaining as well as informative.  The feeling of Bo being used for business purposes is not unique to him, but his views (as told by others such as teammates or friends) about team owners such as Hugh Culverhouse of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Ewing Kaufman of the Royals was very interesting.  Jackson’s personality also makes for interesting reading.  The easiest way to describe it would be complex as many people of all types of relationships with him have stories to share and they range from him getting very angry at people for seemingly minor issue to being very generous to strangers with his time, money or both.  Something that is very consistent, however, is his dedication to family.  This is true for both his mother and later with his wife and children.  He vowed to ensure that his children did not grow up with an absent father like he did and he is keeping that promise, at least according to those who spoke to Pearlman.

This is a complete book on the man that is all the more remarkable when one considers none of this information came from Jackson himself.  Any reader who “knows Bo”, no matter if it is from sports, TV commercials or some other means, will find this book one that will be hard to put down and well worth the time to read.

I wish to thank Mariner Books for providing a copy of the book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Link: The Last Folk Hero: The Life and Myth of Bo Jackson: Pearlman, Jeff: 9780358437673: Amazon.com: Books

 

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 "Change Up"

With a choice of either watching repeats of past games in various sports or reading books, I decided on the latter and as a result, I am posting reviews more often.  That's a good thing as I am discovering not only new books but also some that I may have missed earlier when they were published.  That is the case for this one written by Toronto Blue Jays broadcaster Buck Martinez in 2016.  Here is my review of "Change Up."

Title/Author:

“Change Up: how to Make the Great Game of Baseball Even Better” by Buck Martinez

Tags:

Baseball, professional, memoir, Royals, Brewers, Blue Jays

Publish date:

March 29, 2016

Length:

304 pages

Rating:

4 of 5 stars (very good)

Review:

John “Buck” Martinez could be considered a “baseball lifer”, considering he has been around the game in some manner for six decades.  He writes not only about his career as a player, broadcaster and (briefly) manager but also shares his thoughts on the status of the modern game and its strengths and weaknesses.

The book does have a few flaws – some of the sentences could have used a grammatical make over and Martinez does jump from topic to topic at times.  He does keep the chapters on his playing career together but the other portions do seem to skip around.  It makes the book at times a bit of a challenge to read, but does not detract from the points he makes and the unbridled joy he has for the game.

It is clear from Martinez’s words that he believes today’s players spend more time working on the flashier aspects of the game such as home runs and pitch speed and less time on not only fundamentals, but also time together as a team.  That is mentioned so often that I was picturing a younger reader wanting to write “#OKBoomer” to Martinez for his “old fashioned” views.  While nothing he states is incorrect, the reader may come away with the belief that the long time Toronto Blue Jays broadcaster doesn’t like the current status of the game.

That would be an incorrect assumption on the part of the reader. While it is clear that Martinez has the time-honored belief of pitching and defense is required for winning baseball, he acknowledges early that the analytics used by modern personnel are essential as well.  He shows his willingness to accept change when he writes about his career.  He was one of the players who learned the game in the baseball academy run by the Kansas City Royals in the 1970’s.  While there, he felt that he learned the game the proper way and it shows when he talks about his time in the major leagues with the Royals as probably his best time in the major leagues. 

While he was disappointed to leave the Royals, he does write with fondness while remembering his playing days two other clubs, the Milwaukee Brewers and the Blue Jays.  Martinez writes several pages about the importance of team chemistry (including mentioning it for the current Blue Jays team at the time of publication) and he credits his time in Milwaukee for providing the education in showing how important that is to the success of a team.  As for his time with the Blue Jays, he is grateful to the organization for not only finishing his career with a winning team, but also to allow him to work for the organization for many years, including a short stint as manager which wasn’t very successful and a job that he now admits he was not ready to take.

More than his career recollections, this book is best when Martinez talks about his vision of the game, what the game has and what it needs from its past.  The reader may not agree with all of Martinez’s points, but one cannot argue that he doesn’t love the game and a reader who shares that same enthusiasm should pick up this book.

                                                                       

Book Format Read:

E-book (Kindle)                                                                                                                               

Buying Links:

https://www.amazon.com/Change-Up-Great-Baseball-Better-ebook/dp/B013PL1PJ0/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/change-up-buck-martinez/1122494181?ean=9781443440752

Review of "Collision Course"

Mainly because they have called four different cities home, the current Sacramento Kings franchise have a colorful history.  The 26 years they called Cincinnati home and were known as the Royals is the subject of this book.  Here is my review of "Collision Course"

Title/Author:

“Collision Course: The Basketball Lived of Bob Cousy, Oscar Robertson and the Fall of the Cincinnati Royals" by William Cook

Tags:

Basketball, professional, Royals, business, history

Publish date:

November 5, 2019

Length:

335 pages

Rating: to

3 of 5 stars (okay)

Review:

The NBA franchise known today as the Sacramento Kings has a very rich and colorful history.  Some of the most interesting time for the franchise came during the years 1957-1973 when the team was based in Cincinnati and known as the Royals, keeping the name it had when moving from Rochester, New York in 1957.  That portion of the team history, which includes two of the biggest names in basketball history, is told in this book by William Cook.

While the book is supposed to be about the Royals and how those two individuals, Bob Cousy and Oscar Robertson, the book covers so much more. Especially when giving the background information on both of the Hall of Fame players.  There is so much written about Cousy's time with the Celtics, I almost forgot that the book was supposed to be about the Cincinnati Royals.  Cook also spends significant space in the book on other related but not necessary information on the history of the league before the Royals moved to the Queen City, the college basketball gambling scandals of the 1950's and the history of the shot clock in the NBA.  All interesting topics and at times, he ties in important Royals figures but all in all, I felt there was a lot of sidetracking from the team.  There are also some editing issues with the final Kindle edition that I read.

Which is a shame, because when the Royals are the main subject, it makes for good, informational reading and how they were really bought just to make sure that the main business of the Jacob brothers, concessions, will still be thriving in another market with more dates.  Cook, through his writing, makes it clear that the Jacobs don't understand the business of running a sports team as well as concessions, as despite having terrific talent such as Robertson and Jerry Lucas.

There were a few seasons when the Royals made a good playoff run, but when those ended and the team started having trouble winning and attracting fans, the team decided to lure Cousy from his college coaching job at Boston College and coach the Royals.  Here, this is where the title of the book starts and Cook does a nice job of capturing the mood of the team, Cousy and the players whom he eventually trades away because he feels that their style of play are not compatible with what he wants.  This leads the team to trade away Lucas and Robertson, whose feeling about the franchise, the city of Cincinnati (where he also played college ball) and Cousy are spilled.  This was too much to overcome and in 1973, the franchise relocated once again to Kansas City.  It should be noted that in both Cincinnati and in Kansas City, the team was considered "regional' and played home games at multiple sites, which in the end was not helpful for attendance or for fans to call the team "local."  

This is a book loaded with useful and entertaining information about a nomadic franchise that has promise, but in the end, it is just an okay read.

                                    

Book Format Read:

E-book (Kindle)

Buying Links:

https://www.amazon.com/Collision-Course-Basketball-Robertson-Cincinnati/dp/1620062100/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr

Review of "Full Count"

With a 20 year career in the major leagues and a long tenure as a baseball broadcaster, something he is still doing, David Cone has many stories to share and he does so in this very good memoir.  Here is my review of "Full Count."

Title/Author:

“Full Count: The Education of a Pitcher” by David Cone and Jack Curry. Narrated by David Cone

Tags:

Baseball, professional, memoir, Yankees, Mets, Blue Jays, Royals, audiobook

Publish date:

May 14, 2019

Length:

320 pages

Rating: to

4 of 5 stars (very good)

Review:

Most baseball fans who have seen David Cone pitch during his 20 year career in Major League Baseball will have a moment or two in which they reacted "Wow, is he good!"  Maybe it was his perfect game he threw in 1999 against the Montreal Expos (on only 88 pitches).  Maybe it was one of his gutsy performances in which he logged pitch counts that would be unfathomable today, such as his 166 pitch game.  Maybe it would be when he was part of the celebration for the 1992 Blue Jays winning the World Series.  Or, maybe one knows him now as part of the television broadcast team for the New York Yankees.  Regardless of what is most memorable, fans and readers of baseball books will enjoy this memoir that goes well beyond a recap of his career.

There is one word that kept coming back to me throughout the book – perfectionist.  That is the overall image I believe Cone was portraying himself to be.  With the book starting off with Cone's failure to complete the eighth inning of game 4 of the 1995 American League Division Series between the Yankees and Seattle Mariners and continuing throughout the book, Cone spends a lot of time discussing his failures or recklessness that resulted in lessons he learned and took to heart to become an even better pitcher.

As a native of Kansas City, he was elated to be drafted and making his major league debut with the Royals. Some of the recklessness mentioned above is discussed in this time in his life and it went up a level when he was traded to the New York Mets and was a part of the team when they had a famous wild reputation.  He wasn't around for their 1986 championship but he did pitch in that team's other postseason appearance, the 1988 National League Championship Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers.  His poor outing in game 2 of that series is another example where he beats himself up for his bad outing but still uses the experience to learn a valuable lesson. 

His time in New York with the Mets ended when he was traded during the 1992 season to help the Toronto Blue Jays win their first championship.  He left the Blue Jays after that season to rejoin the Royals, who then later sent him to the New York Yankees when Kansas City decided to use younger, cheaper players.

When Cone gets to the Yankees, the great stories that made up the book early on return, as Cone shares his impressions of his teammates such as Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera and Andy Pettite.  The stories about the latter tie in nicely with the other main topic of the book – terrific insights into the occupation of pitching.  That is the subject of many stories he shares about the lessons learned.  Whether Cone talks about how to throw off speed pitches, batters looking for any means of how to figure out what pitch is coming next or the art of sign stealing (something very interesting to read now with the revelation of the sign stealing scandal of the Houston Astros), Cone talks with an air of authority and experience.  These were my favorite parts of the book and he credits so many people for helping him along the way.  From his father to hitters telling him what he was doing to telegraph his pitchers to his encounter with Hall of Fame pitcher Bert Blyleven in a hotel bar that resulted in a lesson on throwing a curveball, these passages about the art of pitching made for some great reading. 

Any baseball fan who was a fan of Cone, one of his three main teams, or even just a fan of the game will want to pick up this book.  Whether one reads the book or listens to the audio version – I did both, and the audio by Cone lend an air of authenticity to that version – one will learn much about the art of pitching.

                                    

Book Format Read:

Audiobook and e-book (Kindle)

Buying Links:

https://www.amazon.com/Full-Count-Education-Pitcher/dp/B07Q8XGY6G/ref=tmm_aud_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/full-count-david-cone/1129475430?ean=9781538748848#/

Review of “Kansas City vs. Oakland”

When I saw the cover of this book on NetGalley, I thought this would be about one of the best football rivalries from the 1970’s.  While that was a good portion of the book, it was much more than just the Chiefs vs. the Raiders - a great book on the two cities as well as their football and baseball teams.  Here is my review of  “Kansas City vs. Oakland.”

Title/Author:

“Kansas City vs. Oakland: The Bitter Sports Rivalry That Defined an Era” by Matthew C. Ehrlich

Tags:

Baseball, Football (American), professional, politics, Raiders, Chiefs, Athletics, Royals

Publish:
September 16, 2019

Length:
256 pages

Rating:

5 of 5 stars (outstanding)

Review:

One of the best professional football rivalries from the 1960’s through the 1970’s was the Kansas City Chiefs and the Oakland Raiders.  While their rivalry was the most notorious and visible, that was certainly not the only rivalry or sports connection the two cities had.  There was a bitter history between the two cities in baseball as well and how these two sports connect with the local politics of both cities is told in this excellent book by Matthew C. Ehrlic.

While the book is geared more toward readers who prefer scholarly works, the narrative is not like that format at all - indeed, it is a quick and easy read that all readers will easily digest.  Ehrlic explains what each chapter will encompass in the introduction and there are plenty of endnotes to illustrate the extensive research he performed about not only the sports teams but the civic atmosphere in both Kansas City and in Oakland.

The coverage of the rise of the rivalry and also the fortunes of both football teams is very good, with most of the detailed passages describing games between the two teams.  Both the Chiefs and Raiders were considered to be the model franchises for the upstart American Football League and both represented the league in the first two Super Bowls, losing to the Green Bay Packers in both.  What really stood out in the chapters about these football teams was the fact that both of them had shaky beginnings in the AFL and nearly didn’t exist. Oakland was awarded a team only after Minneapolis broke its promise to the league and instead accepted an NFL expansion team (who became the Vikings) and Kansas City got the Chiefs only because Lamar Hunt had experienced poor attendance and financial difficulties in Dallas after that city was awarded an NFL expansion team, the Cowboys.  After such inauspicious debuts, it was interesting to read about how both franchises rose to success.

As for the baseball, the early connection between the two cities is more familiar as Kansas City was home to the Athletics in the American League.  In 1968, after a very acrimonious relationship between the city and A’s owner Charley Finley, the team moved to Oakland, where after the very brief honeymoon between that city and the team was over, the same type of attendance and financial problems still were present.  This was the state of the franchise even though the team won three consecutive World Series from 1972 to 1974, with players who were signed by Finley while still in Kansas City. That city was awarded an expansion franchise in 1969 to offset the loss of the A’s and while that team, the Royals, experienced the usual growing pains associated with expansion teams, they too became a good ball club and soon were battling Oakland for the Western Division title in the American League every year.

However, what really makes the book a fantastic read is how all four teams are connected to the civic and political issues of those times for both of the cities.  Both cities had to construct new stadiums for the teams. In Kansas City’s case, Municipal Stadium that housed the A’s was deemed too decrepit for the new Royals franchise, while Oakland had to build a stadium for both the Raiders and A’s from scratch.  Both cities constructed new sports complexes, despite protests from city residents about using tax money that could be better spent on things such as schools. Because these were not built in the respective cities, these were also seen as catering to the suburbs instead of the inner cities, where the population was mostly African American.  Both cities had the same types of problems addressing these issues. The connections between them were numerous, and Ehrlich covers them all, right down to the fact that both teams were awarded NHL franchises that failed as well. These sections were so well researched and written that this is the rare book that while the emphasis is on sports, the passages on other topics are even better reads.

One doesn’t have to be a fan of Kansas City or Oakland teams to enjoy this book.  History and sports buffs who enjoy reading about those topics from the 1960’s and 1970’s will love this book.  Highly recommended for those readers with those interests, as well as fans of those four teams.

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

Book format read:
E-Book (Kindle)

Buying Links:

Kansas City vs. Oakland: The Bitter Sports Rivalry That Defined an Era (Sport and Society): Matthew C. Ehrlich: 9780252084492: Amazon.com: Gateway

Review of "Phinally!"

Aside from the obvious play on words, I was interested in this book as it is a recap of a season I remember well, even if my favorite team had a bad year in 1980.  Here is my review of  "Phinally!"

­

Title/Author:

“Phinally! The Phillies, the Royals and the 1980 Baseball Season That Almost Wasn’t” by J. Daniel

 

Tags:
Baseball, history, Royals, Phillies

Publish date:

November 8, 2018

Length:

220 pages

Rating: 

5 of 5 stars (outstanding)

Review:

The 1980 baseball season was memorable for many reasons, both on and off the field.  The two biggest stories were the labor troubles that nearly resulted in a strike during the season in May and the first championship in the history of the Philadelphia Phillies.  Those stories and many more are captured in this excellent baseball history book by J. Daniel.

 

Something that sets this book apart from other books that tell the history of one year or season is that while the best teams from that year like the Phillies, Kansas City Royals and Houston Astros get their share of space, every other team is covered as well.  Teams that struggled that year such as the Minnesota Twins and Toronto Blue Jays are also mentioned.  For example, the Twins had a player enjoy a 31 game hitting streak (Ken Landreaux) that was covered as well as the resignation in August of long time major league manager Gene Mauch.  Even noteworthy items such as these for losing teams are often ignored in similar books and including them in this one gave it an aura of completeness.

 

Of course, even with this coverage of all teams, the Phillies and Royals, the two teams who met in a competitive World Series that year, received the most amount of ink, and Daniel does a good job of covering both teams.  He included not only their team accomplishments and a game-by-game recap of their postseason results, but also includes individual accomplishments such as Phillies pitcher Steve Carlton winning his third Cy Young and Royals third baseman George Brett winning the American League batting title by hitting .390 – which today is still the highest average for a player since 1941. 

 

The writing is crisp and easy to read, the information comprehensive but not too densely packed and the stories range from very serious to downright funny.  In short, this book has everything a baseball fan interested in that season or that era would want to know or relive.  Phillies fans would especially enjoy this book as they either remember the joy they felt when they saw their team “phinally” win it all or will learn about that joy from this book if they are too young to remember. 

 

I wish to thank McFarland and Company for providing a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

 

Book Format Read:
E-book (PDF)

Buying Links:

https://www.amazon.com/Phinally-Phillies-Royals-Baseball-Season-ebook/dp/B07KQFWSFZ/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

 

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/phinally-j-daniel/1128515332?ean=9781476633985

 

https://mcfarlandbooks.com/product/phinally/

Review of "The Pine Tar Game"

Baseball fans like me who are old enough to remember this game will never forget the image of George Brett charging out of the dugout after he was called out for having too much pine tar on his bat in a 1983 game.  It has been remembered as "The Pine Tar Game" and when I saw that a book was written by an author whose work I enjoy, I eagerly awaited it.  Then when I saw that advance review copies were being offered and my request for one was granted, I was even MORE excited.  I wasn't disappointed as this was as entertaining as that day 32 years ago. Here is my review of Filip Bondy's book on that game.

Title/Author:

“The Pine Tar Game: The Kansas City Royals, the New York Yankees and Baseball’s Most Absurd and Entertaining Controversy” By Filip Bondy

Tags:

Baseball, history, Royals, Yankees, humor

Publish date:

July 21, 2015

Length:

256 pages

Rating: 

4 of 5 stars (very good)

Review:

The image is an iconic one in baseball lore. George Brett hits a two-run homer to put his Kansas City Royals ahead of the New York Yankees 5-4 in the ninth inning on July 24, 1983. Yankee manager Billy Martin wants home plate umpire Tim McClelland to measure the pine tar on Brett’s bat, claiming that it extends past the 18 inches allowed by an obscure rule.  Lacking a ruler to measure the offending substance, McClelland lays the bat across the 17-inch wide home plate, sees that the pine tar does indeed extend much farther than that width and calls Brett out. Brett then charges out of the dugout with anger, being restrained by another umpire. 

That moment when Brett was ready to attack the umpire crew has made what would have been another ordinary baseball game a memorable moment. Author Filip Bondy was able to take that moment and craft a decent full length book around it by sharing not only the events of that day, but the background of both teams and their owners, Ewing Kaufman of the Royals and George Steinbrenner of the Yankees. Add in recollections by other players that day and the almost comical attempts by the Yankees to not complete the game after the American League office upheld the Kansas City protest of the call and an entertaining book is produced. 

There is a lot of text that isn’t about the game, as you might expect. In addition to the history and biographies mentioned before, there is a good accounting of how the two teams built a bitter rivalry in the seven seasons before this game.  From 1976 to 1980, the Royals and Yankees met in the American League Championship series four times, and to say this was a rivalry with some bad blood would be an understatement.  So when they met in this mid-season game in 1983, it was understandable why there was still some tension even though neither team was a contender that season. It sets the stage for the actual game, which Bondy recalls with excellent detail, especially the home run and the madness that ensued.

Bondy doesn’t stop there, however, as his narrative of the events that took place after the game is easily the best part of the book. He covers everything from the overruling of the call by American League President Lee McPhail, the Royals’ glee at the decision and the many attempts by the Yankees to not complete the game. He writes about one maneuver by the Yankees with the humor it deserves. The Yankees asked a local court to order that the game not be resumed on August 18, 1983 for the safety of the fans.  Their argument was that because so many were angered by the decision to allow the home run to stand that there would be rioters at Yankee Stadium. With less than 2,000 fans showing up to attend the completion, which consisted of four outs and took about ten minutes, it was a comical move and Bondy treats it as such.

While I felt that there was much more written about the teams and owners than was needed to set the scene, it was interesting to read about Ewing Kaufman in such a manner.  I also felt that since Bondy is a New York writer, this book would be much more about the Yankees than the Royals, but that was not the case. He gave each team about equal space and wrote about both of them fairly without coming across as biased. This book will make a very good addition to anyone’s library on the game as it recaps a wacky moment in baseball history.

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

Pace of the book:

This was a fast read as the stories for both franchises flowed easily from chapter to chapter and were woven together quite well.  The reader never will feel that this book is choppy or skips around.

Do I recommend? 

Baseball fans who remember this event will enjoy this book for not only the game, but the stories about the two teams and the main people involved. Others who are not familiar with this story will also enjoy learning a little bit of baseball history that took a strange turn.

Book Format Read:

E-Book (Kindle)

Buying links:

http://www.amazon.com/Pine-Tar-Game-Entertaining-Controversy-ebook/dp/B00P42X1F0/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1437246038&sr=1-1&keywords=the+pine+tar+game+baseball%27s+most+absurd+%26+entertaining+controversy&pebp=1437246152320&perid=1KW3RX5QE9B26HMJBZ74

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-pine-tar-game-filip-bondy/1120678833?ean=9781476777177