Play Ball: The Life and Troubled Times of Major League Baseball
Sep 2011 · Villard
3.7star
3 reviewsreport
Ebook
425
Pages
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About this ebook
The #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Season Inside presents a thoroughly entertaining and deeply reflective examination of America’s greatest sport: baseball.
What makes baseball what it is—the good as well as the bad? Who are the game’s heroes, and who its villains? What roles do managers play, and umpires and announcers and mascots and the media? What is the game’s future?
To answer these questions, renowned sports journalist John Feinstein spent an entire season examining the game from the inside. He had access to general managers, who gave him never-before-revealed information on trades and the maneuverings behind these trades. He looks at managers to examine strategy and the psychology of success; he shows the frustrating decline of a once-great franchise. Feinstein answers questions about escalating salaries, reveals the identities of the real controlling forces in the game, explains why the owners so totally despised commissioner Fay Vincent, and graphically illustrates the financial state of the game as well as the pressures, the politics, and the joys that come with playing, managing, negotiating, and simply surviving a 162-game season.
Beyond the obsession with money and salaries, Feinstein knows it’s the players who make and break the game. In Play Ball, we hear stories of how they were shaped; see how stardom—or lack of stardom—further shapes them; we finally understand what it means to be a major league baseball player, in every possible sense.
What makes baseball what it is—the good as well as the bad? Who are the game’s heroes, and who its villains? What roles do managers play, and umpires and announcers and mascots and the media? What is the game’s future?
To answer these questions, renowned sports journalist John Feinstein spent an entire season examining the game from the inside. He had access to general managers, who gave him never-before-revealed information on trades and the maneuverings behind these trades. He looks at managers to examine strategy and the psychology of success; he shows the frustrating decline of a once-great franchise. Feinstein answers questions about escalating salaries, reveals the identities of the real controlling forces in the game, explains why the owners so totally despised commissioner Fay Vincent, and graphically illustrates the financial state of the game as well as the pressures, the politics, and the joys that come with playing, managing, negotiating, and simply surviving a 162-game season.
Beyond the obsession with money and salaries, Feinstein knows it’s the players who make and break the game. In Play Ball, we hear stories of how they were shaped; see how stardom—or lack of stardom—further shapes them; we finally understand what it means to be a major league baseball player, in every possible sense.
Ratings and reviews
3.7
3 reviews
Raydricka Gregory
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February 22, 2014
About the author
John Feinstein was the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the classic sports books A Season on the Brink and A Good Walk Spoiled, along with many other bestsellers including The Legends Club and Where Nobody Knows Your Name. He wrote for The Washington Post and Golf Digest and was a regular contributor to the Golf Channel, Comcast Sports Regional Networks, and he hosted a college basketball show and a golf show on SiriusXM Radio. He passed away in 2025.
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