Rating: 
Summary: Great Book
Review: I wish the owners of MLB would read this book and learn a thing or two. Bob Costas hits the mark with his views in this captivating lecture on the Goods and bads of baseball today.
Rating: 
Summary: You gotta love baseball to love this one
Review: Bob Costas has carved out a niche in the American sports society as the ultimate baseball fan, so when I saw his book "Fair Ball: A Fan's Case for Baseball," I immediately knew it would be worth reading. It didn't let me down.Despite being a member of the media, Costas definitely has the credentials and the subjective mindset to write this book. During his time working with NBC and HBO, Costas has proven himself intelligent, unbiased and knowledgeable about the game of baseball. This book is an extension of that. Costas wrote the book as a response to a pervasive feeling found amongst baseball fans that the game is about to crumble, due to the amazing amounts of money being spent and the inability of small-market teams to compete financially with their large-market peers. Costas points out the basic problems with the structure of the collective-bargaining agreement between the players and the team owners, as well as the problems that have developed with the lack of revenue sharing. Costas takes fair look at those problems and proposes several solutions on how to even the disparity that is found in the game. The ideas that Costas offers are logical and if followed would be the start to leveling the playing field. They're not perfect ideas, but they're a start. This book is only for the hardcore baseball fans at heart, not the avid Yankees or Braves fan, but the avid baseball fan. It's for the guy who will stay up all night to watch the Padres play the Expos, simply because it's baseball. You have to already have an understanding of what the game has been through in the past decade in order to understand this book. This book is easy reading, despite its sometime complex subject matter, and will give you a deeper, better grasp of what's going on in the great American pastime.
Rating:
Summary: Fair Minded...
Review: This is the book that no true student of the great game should be without. Costas goes in depth, detailing the miriad of problems baseball is facing. But, unlike most commentators, Costas offers rational, realistic solutions to the problems he presents. While not taking sides with either the owners or the Players Association, Costas offers good advice for both. Clearly, all parties involved should read this book and seriously consider his suggestions before Baseball Armegeddon occurs. One caveat though, if you don't come into this book with a fundamental understanding of baseball economics and the history behind the dispute between the players and owners, don't bother reading it. Try picking up "Lords of the Realm" first (its long but worth it), then pick up this great and fair minded book.
Rating:
Summary: Bob Costas for commissioner!
Review: Costas builds a very strong case for how he would improve the grand old game. His logical approach to each and every topic he takes on is well-founded and, frankly, makes too much sense for the lords of baseball to ever adopt! By the end of the 2001 season we will most assuredly be knee-deep in all the stale rhetoric from both sides as another work-stoppage attacks our sensibilities. Selig, Fehr, Orza and all the rest should be locked in a room with this book and not let out until they come up with something better. You know what? They won't! Kudos to Bob Costas for rationally setting out to do what those who have the most to lose cannot or will not accomplish...achieving equity for all, including, most importantly, the fans.
Rating:
Summary: On the,um, money
Review: I'm no economist, but it seems to me Costas is on-- or awfully close to-- the mark here. Clearly, SOMEthing has to be done. This is a sport that seems absolutely set on self-destruction. I've been a lifelong fan of the game, and played it a lot of years. But I won't go near a big-league ballpark anymore, or even watch an inning on the tube. These guys (owners, players- everybody connected to MLB) have absolutely no respect for the game or for me as a fan. Why should I give a damn about their "product?" For me, the real action is among the kids on college teams, and in the minors. They are playing the game I remember, and at a price I not only find affordable, but that isn't actually offensive. To his credit, Costas resists engaging in diatribes like mine. He's actually optimistic, a state many of us are finding increasingly difficult to sustain. Best of all, he's not just criticising- he's making a number of positive suggestions. It's tough to imagine, given the astonishingly inflated egos involved on all sides, that any of his proposals will ever actually be implemented, but no one can say he didn't offer a number of constructive alternatives. Baseball at the major league level is deeply embedded in America's national psyche. It's hard to imagine that it could actually cease to be. However, one more season-truncating or Series-eliminating strike (or owners' lockout-- it doesn't really matter) and the game will be history. Fans are not going to continue to be made fools of forever. Costas deserves great credit for calling 'em as he sees 'em, and putting his very substantial reputation on the line in so doing.
Rating:
Summary: A Common-Sense Solution
Review: Bob Costas is to be congratulated for his thoughtfully crafted plan to save baseball from is certain demise (or at least decline) at the hands of commercialism. Costas' plan recognizes that professional baseball is, after all, a business. However, he points out that it is a business that can be conducted with dignity and ethics. He notes that while skyrocketing salaries and broadcast contracts may be generating huge amounts of cash today, it's not good business in the long term. Costas shows in his plan that revenue sharing, salary caps and the like, if implemented properly, are not "Robin Hood" steal-from-the-rich-give-to-the-poor ploys, but rather, sound business plans which will actually increase revenues accross the board. The only party to lose money in Costas' plan are the super-rich superstar players like Alex Rodrigues and Manny Rimerez. The economy of words in Costas' plan is admirable. He calmly and clearly presents the details of his plan without belaboring his points or being repetitive, and he anticipates objections and addresses them. Even for those uninterested in baseball, this book is a model of persuasive writing at its best.
Rating:
Summary: He's Right
Review: In my opinion Bob Costas is right in just about every issue he writes about in this book. I am a fan of a big market club (Red Sox) but I agree that something MUST be done in order to ensure baseball has a prosperous future. The propositions he put forth were well thought out and an excellent plan to at the very least consider. I also must agree with him on the issue of the wild card and how it has damaged Major League Baseball. It is now impossible to be sitting home in September and getting really excited about a game between the first and second place team in a division because they will either both make the playoffs, they are seperated by alot of games or neither of them are all that good. It is just sad to think that the youth of America like me (14) might never be fortunate enough to witness a great pennant/divisional race.
Rating:
Summary: Costas hits a home run
Review: Bob Costas, the nationally praised sports commentator wrote his first book Fair Ball. He tries to explain why baseball is losing its fans, and attempts to find a remedy for the problem that only a few teams having a chance at winning the world series before the season starts. He does a brilliant job writing the book, and advocates revenue sharing, which is his main plan to give all teams a fair shot at the World Series. He has made me a believer in his ways by bringing up useful charts throughout the book. Costas has hit a home run in this concise book. I could make a legitimate case for Bob Costas to be the commissioner of baseball.
Rating:
Summary: The shining light of reason in all this BS
Review: Let's face it: we all love baseball, but we all hate what Major League Baseball has become. For example, in 2001 A-Rod will make more money than some teams will earn a profit. A running joke I've heard is that George Steinbrenner is going to buy the A's and make them a farm team for the Yankees. Even head honcho Bud Selig has said that something needs to and _will_ change. Well, Butch, here's the place to start. Bob Costas, in Fair Ball, has presented the best comprehensive look at baseball that I have ever seen. He's tackled all of the controversial issues in the game today, such as: realignment and the wild card, interleague play and balanced schedules, salary caps, revenue sharing, the DH rule, the All-Star Game, and lots of other stuff. He also discusses realistic, detailed remedies for all of the items discussed above. He also makes a strong point when comparing MLB to the NFL, how the salary cap has helped the NFL, and that the MLB should follow a playoff schedule like the NFL (NO wild card, first-round bye for best record in league). I sincerely hope that some of this stuff is changed/removed, because baseball has become less of a game and more of a business. For now, though, all I can do is applaud Costas for such a great look at an ailing system.
Rating:
Summary: Depressing Truths
Review: This is an excellent book and makes the case that most baseball fans would make if they were given about 30 minutes to address the owners, the players, and the union reps. But the sad reality is that not one of these factions are willing to make more than a token gesture to do anything about the imbalances in competition that are ruining the game. What baseball needs is a major financial catastrophe wherein the television networks substantially reduce what they are willing to pay MLB for broadcast rights and several teams are forced to go out of business. Then, and only then, will the teams that have an "every man for himself" attitude come to their senses and realize that crushing your opponents means putting a better team on the field and not driving them into oblivion off the field. It also wouldn't hurt to have a commissioner with the ability to twist a few arms "for the good of the game." This is a good book, but Costas is, unfortunately, preaching to the choir.
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