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In the Best Interests of Baseball?: The Revolutionary Reign of Bud Selig ePub download

by Andrew Zimbalist

Author: Andrew Zimbalist
ISBN: 0470128240
ISBN13: 978-0470128244
ePub: 1545 kb | FB2: 1763 kb
Language: English
Category: Baseball
Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (June 22, 2007)
Pages: 272
Rating: 4.4/5
Votes: 984
Format: azw rtf mbr lrf

In the Best Interests of Baseball?: The Revolutionary Reign of Bud Selig ePub download

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Baseball books, like the game itself, are often replete with errors. It is long overdue and a superb read. -Fay Vincent, former commissioner of baseball.

Apparently Selig resented Zimbalist's book anyway, probably because baseball in its present state can bear little scrutiny, and .

Apparently Selig resented Zimbalist's book anyway, probably because baseball in its present state can bear little scrutiny, and Zimbalist, in his back-handed way, manages to shed some serious light on what's wrong with the game, like small-market teams that live off of revenue-sharing while fielding weak, cheap teams. This book, which is an excellent companion to "May the Best Team Win," looks at the history of the business side of baseball through the commissioners that have served from Landis (actually, even earlier, as he discusses the National Commission which ruled baseball until 1921) to Selig.

A longtime critic and observer of Bud Selig takes a balanced, insightful look at the governance of baseball before and during Selig's tumultuous reign, revealing how he has redefined the role of baseball commissioner and has shepherded the transformation of the baseball industry into . .

Is Selig acting "in the best interests of baseball" when he makes cities pay for building stadiums as a condition for getting a team (sound.

It is long overdue and a superb read. Fay Vincent, former commissioner of baseball "Tremendously enjoyable and a must-read for baseball fans. For a book that''s subtitled "The Revolutionary Reign of Bud Selig," it takes a long time - 110 out of its 218 pages of main text - to get to its ostensible subject, and only five of its nine chapters deal with him exclusively. Is Selig acting "in the best interests of baseball" when he makes cities pay for building stadiums as a condition for getting a team (sound familiar)?

Our cheap used books come with free delivery in the U. Andrew Zimbalist is the Robert A. Woods Professor of Economics at Smith College.

Our cheap used books come with free delivery in the US. ISBN: 9780471735335.

The season's best book so far gets right to the heart of the game's survival at the organizational level. The Boston Globe "A compelling examination of the national pastime as seen through the prism of the commissioner's office. The Wall Street Journal "A thoughtful and objective analysis of baseball's labor and economic policy evolution. Interesting, relevant, and a good read. Randy Levine, President of the New York Yankees and former chief labor negotiator for MLB "A tour de force. It's an incredibly interesting read that.

The Revolutionary Reign of Bud Selig (2006). The Bottom Line: Observations and Arguments in the Sports Business (2007). Equal Play: Title IX and Social Change (2008). Circling the Bases: Essays on the Challenges and Prospects of the Sports Business (2010). The Sabermetric Revolution: Assessing the Growth of Analytics in Baseball (2014). Circus Maximus: The Economic Gamble Behind Hosting the Olympics and the World Cup (2015)

Once again, Andy Zimbalist proves that no one understands the mysterious inner workings of the best game on earth better than he does. The Revolutionary Reign of Bud Selig.

Once again, Andy Zimbalist proves that no one understands the mysterious inner workings of the best game on earth better than he does. by Andrew S. Zimbalist.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 219-236) and index

Includes bibliographical references (pages 219-236) and index. Introduction: Running a league - The history of the commissioner's role - The first commissioner: Kenesaw Mountain Landis - The undistinguished Middle I: from Chandler to Eckert - The undistinguished Middle II: from Kuhn to Vincent - Bud Selig: a lifetime in preparation - Baseball's acting commissioner, 1992-1998 - Baseball's permanent commissioner, 1998- - Governing baseball: assessing the past and anticipating the future.

In the Best Interests of Baseball? The Revolutionary Reign of Bud Selig (2006). Ruttman, Larry (2013). Andrew Zimbalist, Baseball's Economist". American Jews and America's Game: Voices of a Growing Legacy in Baseball

In the Best Interests of Baseball? The Revolutionary Reign of Bud Selig (2006). American Jews and America's Game: Voices of a Growing Legacy in Baseball. Lincoln, Nebraska and London, England: University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 978-0-8032-6475-5.

"The season's best book so far gets right to the heart of the game's survival at the organizational level." —The Boston Globe

"A compelling examination of the national pastime as seen through the prism of the commissioner's office." —The Wall Street Journal

"A thoughtful and objective analysis of baseball's labor and economic policy evolution. Interesting, relevant, and a good read." — Randy Levine, President of the New York Yankees and former chief labor negotiator for MLB

"A tour de force. It's an incredibly interesting read that ends with a vision for the sport that is squarely on target and a clarion call to our industry." — John Henry, principal owner of the Boston Red Sox and member of the MLB Executive Committee

"Those who are determined to have Selig's head on a stick will be disappointed; rational baseball fans will rejoice in this tough but fair view of a decent man in a thankless job." — John Thorn, coauthor of Total Baseball

"This thoroughly researched book by one of the foremost authorities on sports business is an oral history of the game through the Office of the Commissioner. Zimbalist provides a fascinating look at the game's history and those who have helped shape it." —mlb.com, April 3, 2006

"The best baseball book I've read in forty years." —Mike Murphy, 670 The Score, Chicago

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Baseball may look pretty on the surface, but it stinks underneath, a scam perpetuated by generations of greedy, myopic owners and the stooges they make their commissioners. That's one way to describe the thesis of this 2006 book by noted sports labor scholar Andrew Zimbalist.

It's a bold thesis with more than a grain of truth behind it; a tack one might expect from a labor guy, but Zimbalist knows his facts. Too bad the book itself is such a boring, repetitive mess, done in largely by its supposed coup, Zimbalist's interview with baseball's current Dark Lord, Bud Selig, who seems to successfully schmooze Zimbalist from seeing his thesis out to its grisly end.

Did Selig fool the state of Wisconsin into building him a stadium on the public dime by falsely claiming he would make his Brewers into a competitive franchise once again? Zimbalist marshals the facts to say Selig spoke from both sides of his mouth, but he doesn't come out and say it. That collusion thing the owners did in the 1980s, cheating free agent players of open-market opportunities? Commissioner Peter Uebberoth was the bad guy there; Selig was just taking orders. That cancelled World Series? Steroids?

"Selig might have acted more aggressively, more consistently, and more persuasively than he did," Zimbalist writes. "However, arguing that his actions were short of ideal is different from arguing that his actions were wrong or devious."

Too bad none of Selig's predecessors get off so lightly. Ford Frick may have seen baseball prosper during his time as commissioner, from 1951 to 1965, but he carried water for his racist bosses and lacked vision. Bowie Kuhn (1969-84) was a sanctimonious fraud. Even Happy Chandler (1945-51), widely praised for his role in breaking baseball's color barrier, had an "unrealistic and grandiose perception of his role" that perpetuated his downfall.

None of those guys talked to Zimbalist. Selig did, and Zimbalist found him gentlemanly. So in taking on the institution of baseball, this iconoclast takes pains to speak well of the man at the center of the whole thing, the wizard behind the curtain.

Apparently Selig resented Zimbalist's book anyway, probably because baseball in its present state can bear little scrutiny, and Zimbalist, in his back-handed way, manages to shed some serious light on what's wrong with the game, like small-market teams that live off of revenue-sharing while fielding weak, cheap teams.

But that's only half of Zimbalist's scattershot book, which starts with brief, sometimes amusing, often acid takes on the tenures of each of Selig's predecessors. A core conceit of Zimbalist's book is that these were hollow men down the line, pretending to serve the game and its fans while working exclusively for the owners. It's a point he keeps making again and again, so that you notice how much plummier he gets when it comes time to talk about Selig.

Zimbalist fails to carry the lessons of Selig's predecessors to that of Selig himself, except to observe that Selig is a good consensus-builder but beholden to the greedy owners. Is Selig really part of the problem? Zimbalist doesn't say one way or another, he just closes by noting "the tasks ahead are as challenging as those that came before," an appropriately mealy-mouthed ending to a book that lacks the courage of its author's convictions.

Helo

Dr. Zimbalist is an accomplished writer and has a wealth of experience examining the business side of major league baseball. This book, which is an excellent companion to "May the Best Team Win," looks at the history of the business side of baseball through the commissioners that have served from Landis (actually, even earlier, as he discusses the National Commission which ruled baseball until 1921) to Selig. Along the way, Dr. Zimbalist reviews what the commissioner's role involved and how that role evolved, the manner in which each commissioner made his mark (or in the case of William Eckert, left NO mark), and concludes on how effectively each served, given the context in which that service took place. The book proceeds from a couple of important premises, one being that major league baseball alone has been blessed with an antitrust exemption, sometimes a mixed blessing to be sure; and, the second being that because baseball existed in a competitive vacuum for decades, the enterprise and its leaders never had to attend to basic business practices like marketing the industry. Plus, the reserve clause, in effect until the Seitz decision of December 1975, protected owners from dealing with labor and labor costs, all of which led to an arrogance on the part of owners that all but brought MLB to its knees post-free agency. All of this is captured in a most compelling manner, and there is some really great insight provided about Landis, Chandler, Frick, Kuhn, Ueberroth, the much-beloved Bart Giamatti and Fay Vincent, much of which is unknown to all but real baseball zealots. But the real focus of the book is Bud Selig and Dr. Zimbalist weaves a very interesting story about the reign of Mr. Selig and what it has meant to MLB. There is a great deal of information about what Mr. Selig has had to do which helps to explain how MLB has changed so dramatically since the days of Bart Giamatti and Fay Vincent. All in all, this is a terrific book and one which has enhanced my knowledge of the ecomonics and business aspects of the game, and heightened my appreciation of the accomplishments of a guy whose major strong point is working the phones and building concensus among a group of highly successful individuals who have very, very different perspectives. Kind of like herding cats, but Selig has done it well, and baseball is prospering as a result.

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