Giants baseball experience
932891
I have been a Giants fan since they came to San Francisco - this gives a great history of the years here.  Wonderful pictures, nice format and easy to read - I was looking for a gift for a Giants fan and found this book, the receiver likes the book too.
373146
The Brooklyn Dodgers' move to Los Angeles in 1958 has been covered in great depth over the years. By comparison, the story of the New York Giants' move to San Francisco has been greatly neglected. Rob Garratt's excellent book helps fill that gap, and does much more: it covers the Giants' stadium issues SINCE the move to San Francisco... issues that nearly led the team to move to another city on a couple of occasions. Garratt spoke to many of the key players who were involved in these issues, provides valuable new research, and corrects many misconceptions. It is also very well-written. A highly recommended book.
434439
REVIEWED BY SUNNY (originally posted on Goodreads and mentioned on Kindles & Wine Book Blog)

I am surrounded by sports fanatics in my house. Baseball is one of our familys favorite sports. We spent our summer vacation enjoying the five major league stadiums/teams in the state of California, including the L.A. Dodgers. These things all led to my interest in THE BEST TEAM MONEY CAN BUY by Molly Knight. I am not a big non-fiction reader, but I have to say, I really enjoyed this audiobook, narrated by Hillary Huber, about the Los Angeles Dodgers franchise.

What I enjoyed the most was hearing about so many great baseball players that we have watched, getting a feel for their personalities, their quirks, their superstitions, etc. I also enjoyed getting to know the ins and outs of a major league franchise. I felt like I was getting the inside scoop throughout the entire book of the daily challenges of making the most of a professional baseball team. I found the story to be very interesting, impressively researched and told. I was frustrated at times early on in the book when the story traveled from present day to the past because I found it difficult to keep track of where I was in the story. However, once the background of how the Dodgers franchise made its way into the hands of a new ownership regime, I enjoyed the chronological telling of their last few years. Where you probably have to have an interest in baseball and professional athletics to enjoy this book, I really enjoyed the book and have already recommended it to many sports fans.

Oh, and thanks to Molly Knight, I have been able to tell my husband things he didn't already know, which provided a huge thrill for me while I was enjoying this book. 

RATING: B

Note: I received a review copy of this title courtesy of the audiobook publisher, Tantor.
2681174
Bill Giles made the total baeball experience a fun day at the ballpark for this long time season ticket holder. Great stories, great memories !!
2570222
Very  good book on the travails of possibly the worst team in MLB history. The author goes through every game of the season. This becomes sort of exhaustive but you do get sense of how bad they truly were. He also goes through the A's seasons in the years before 1916 and how and why Connie Mack dismantled this team. He also  includes the accounts of William Weart who was the Sporting News beat writer for the A's that season. It was amazing how positive Weart kept most of his articles. A good epilogue of Connie Mack and some of the players are at the end of the book. Also a good summary of what happened to the Philadelphia A's and why this season laid the groundwork for their eventual move out of the city.
If the author had took some more time and gave us better backgrounds of the key players on this team, the good ones and the bad ones, I may have given this book five stars. Still this is a good read on a very bad team from the 20th century.
3143132
Mystery Ball 58 is a must read for any fans of the Giants and Dodgers during their first season on the west coast.  The book brought back many great memories of the time I fell in love with baseball.  Overall, it's a quick read that's difficult to put down.  The author kept up the suspense in a somewhat light-hearted way.
4288456
"Stengel" is one of several fine baseball books by Creamer, a student of the game whose works include a terrific biography of Babe Ruth and a very enjoyable look back at the 1941 season.

Most people remember Stengel, of course, for his 10 pennants in 12 years as manager of the New York Yankees from 1949-1960, a run that culminated with the fabled home run by Bill Mazeroski in Pittsburgh that gave the Pirates an improbable seven-game Series win. But during that run, Stengel's Yankees won five straight championships (1949-1953) and two others in '56 and '58.

Seldom recalled, however, is Stengel's checkered career as a manager before he got the Yankees' job. He had the helm in baseball backwaters like Boston -- he held the job with the terrible Braves, not the Red Sox -- and posted losing seasons regularly. Creamer details all of that and makes clear there was enormous skepticism when he took over as manager in New York. It wasn't only the writers who had doubts. Joe Dimaggio and Phil Rizzuto gave him little, if any, support. Rizzuto was particularly antagonistic. Yet after the Yankees won the famous battle with the Red Sox for the '49 pennant, Stengel steadily solidified his leadership of the team.

Creamer does a nice job of dispelling the notion that Stengel was "lucky" because he managed teams with great talent. In fact, he notes, writers regularly picked the Yankees not to win in the first few years of Stengel's reign. He was a master manipulator of his roster, regularly "platooning" players -- the term was new at the time -- and forcing the action of games in ways unthinkable today, such as pinch-hitting early in games and regularly switching players from position to position.

Also frequently forgotten is that Stengel was a pretty good Major League player with several teams, notably the Dodgers and the Giants, with whom he earned a measure of World Series fame, hitting two home runs in the '23 series. With the Giants, he played under the legendary John McGraw, who became his biggest influence as a manager. Creamer meticulously details these years, never glorifying Stengel, a funny but cantankerous character who won both supporters and detractors during his career.

The book loses some momentum during the final section on Stengel's last years in baseball managing the woeful New York Mets. Particularly unfortunate, in my view, was Creamer's decision to include a verbatim, annotated transcription of a long, rambling, nearly hallucinatory interview Stengel gave very late in his life to a reporter about a variety of subjects. It runs nine or 10 single-spaced  pages that bring the book to a painful end. The conclusion is not bang, nor whimper, but rather a groan.

But there is plenty to recommend the book, and Creamer's work gives the reader a strong sense of Stengel's wit, eccentricties and real insight and contributions to the game of baseball.
1142372
It's hard to go wrong with Michael Lewis, no matter what the subject. I really liked the movie, so I was curious, and the book added a lot. Plus with the playoffs going on now (go Giants!), I find I'm watching the game differently with the insights of the book.
4955657
An enjoyable quick read that brought back memories of a very entertaining talent rich team.  At that time the Mets were available in Massachusetts on cable and I watched a lot of their games both because the National League is a better brand of ball and Tim McCarver a top notch analyst.  The local Red Sox are something that I try and ignore.  Thus the final match-up was a no way can the Mets lose thought.  Of course without the interesting umpire calls Houston would have beaten the Mets.  Mayber that is a subject for a book as there have been numerous out and out bad calls in all sports.

The sadness of exceptional squandered talent, i.e. Gooden and Strawberry along with the inside perspective on the players with their warts keeps the book both informative and entertaining.
1199515
This book examines the 1951 NL Pennant race between the New York Giants and the Brooklyn Dodgers, plus the famous pennant-winning homer, and lengthy aftermath.  Within these pages are interesting tidbits, a nicely recerated tension of that close pennant chase, and a revealing look at several of the players and personalities.  Then there's that minor detail of coach Herman Franks using a telescope from a center-field window in the Polo Grounds, reading opposing catcher's pitch calls, then relaying them electronically to the Giant bullpen in right-center (who in turn signalled the batter).  Readers also enjoy an in-depth look at the three-game playoff after the two teams ended the season tied.  As many know, the Giants entered the ninth inning of the final playoff trailing 4-1 against Don Newcombe before two singles, a pop-up, and a double brought up Bobby Thomson (and Ralph Branca in from the Brooklyn bullpen).  Thomson got enough of Branca's 0-1 heater to send the baseball into the left-field stands for game, set and match, thus linking the two players for the next 60 years (or longer).

The book is interesting but hardly flawless.  Author Joshua Prager devotes too little attention to the exciting pennant run, and too much to lengthy aftermath for teams, fans, plus pitcher (Branca) and batter (Thomson).  Ironically, most authors don't include enough aftermath.  Additionally, these pages suffer from several factual errors, again leading readers to ask why publishers don't employ better-informed fact-checkers.  Still, this is a decent book overall and a nostalgic look back.
1152114
Mike Luery does a wonderful job of telling the story of how he and his son visited all of Major League Baseball parks together over the course of a number of years.  Although the narrative theme that links the book together is baseball, the real story is the relationship between fathers and sons, and the journey of growing up together.  An easy, enjoyable read told by a passionate baseball fan and a terrific father!
2440179
I admit to being fascinated with baseball history.  While I may cheer *against* many of the teams that the greats came from, I recognize their greatness and importance to the game and wish that I'd been able to personally witness more of their work and accomplishments then I have been able to see. I remember some of the greats when they were actively playing back in my much younger days, but those days tend to be much later than the days of guys like Stan Musial.  I heard comparisons, over and over again, by the great announcers that were calling the games that my favored teams were playing in, or the announcers that were calling the "game of the week" on the network(s), but those comparisons pale in having gotten to witness some of the greatness yourself.  In my later years I was able to see what should have been greatness only to realize later, as did others, that such greatness was tainted by PEDs (Performance Enhancing Drugs) and was not the greatness that I wished for at all, so again I'm left fascinated by the true greats and the legendary performances they put forth.

Stan Musial is a character that I'd hear about and yet never heard enough about.  Someone that I wanted to learn more about and given the chance to get this book I jumped at the opportunity.  A biography that tells much more about such a relatively quiet guy is an opportunity too good to pass up.

The book lived up to most of my expectations, though it is far from perfect.  It's hard to pin point why I say that other than to say it is perhaps less organized and detailed filled in some areas then I might wish.  Not bad, but not great either.  Then again, given the subject of the book, it may be difficult for the writer to fill in some blanks because the man himself never created the flamboyant history that others did around him.

Certainly a worthy read.
2767868
I have a buddy how played college baseball here and is now working in Japan.  I have also traveled there.  A very interesting book about baseball and culture, and the man himself.
1263620
Joe McGinnity had a great career but not much has been written about him.  Don Doxsie does a great job in bringing his personality and career to life.  The book takes you on a long ride from his childhood through  his career as a minor and major league player. McGinnity played with and under John McGraw. He and Christy Mathewson became a great one-two punch for the New York Giants.  Much has been written about Mathewson but not much has been written about McGinnity. He often had problems with umpires and  drove himself and other players very hard. It is amazing how he could live in so many places and be as good as he was.  He pitched and managed in the minor leagues for many years after his major league career was over, winning 20 games six times in the minors and thirty games once. A great read on a long overdue biography.
4302313
Since I am a true St. Louis Cardinals fan, I did enjoy the book.  I have read almost all of Rob Rains' books and he writes well.  I liked the book being written from this inside view of the team members and their strong beliefs.  Mike Matheny is a supurb leader as well as manager and friend and I admire his Christian attitude in the clubhouse.  An inspiring read for baseball fans who appreciate good conduct among the players.
1806806
This book has interesting information about the San Francisco Giants Baseball team.  There is a chapter on retired uniform numbers.  Some of the retired uniform numbers mentioned in this book are as follows:  Juan Marichal 27, Willie Mays 24, Mel Ott 4, Gaylord Perry 36, Orlando Cepeda 30, and Willie McCovey 44.  There is a chapter on no-hitters.  The no-hitter chapter shows the teams that the Giants pitched no-hitter games against.  It also lists the no-hitters pitched by other teams against the Giants.  For example, on May 11, 1963, Sandy Koufax of the Los Angeles Dodgers pitched a no-hitter 8-0 game against the Giants.  Some of the pictures in this book include pictures of the following people:  Barry Bonds, Orlando Cepeda, Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, and Juan Marichal.  There is also mention about the Seals Stadium and a picture of it.  This book should be useful to anyone interested in the San Francisco Giants.
3473045
A must for any Giants fan!  I have the 2010, 2012 and now the 2014 World Series editions.