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Fairball

Fairball

List Price: $29.95
Your Price: $19.77
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A must read for true baseball fans!
Review: This is the first non-thriller that I have not been able to put down. Mr. Costas addresses all the significant issues in baseball and presents realistic workable solutions. This probably means that the lords of baseball will not even consider most of the ideas.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The value of baseball
Review: It is true that money is a big factor in baseball. Baseball player are the role models for young kids. But what we see now how baseball players are trying to as much money as they can. And how the owners are willing to spend the money to compete in the league. Bob Costa is a excellent writer, he gave me a different view about the baseball.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Costas's Views....This is the NEW millenium
Review: I usually agree with most of what Costas says. His passion and knowledge of the game is unquestioned. What I do have issues with is the fact that Costas seems to want to keep the game the way it was in the 60's and 70's. Yes baseball was, in my opinion, a "better" game then. But this is not the 60's and 70's, and some of the changes that he reccomends are just insanity. Abolish the wild card? There are 30 teams in MLB, the season is 162 games, the season is 6 months long, and having 8 teams make the playoffs is too many? If anything it helps keep hope alive in 10-12 cities with teams that have a shot at the playoffs. What Costas fails to realize is that not everyone has the depth of passion that he has. That, to keep up with the other sports, Baseball has to draw in the "fringe" fan. Is baseball perfect, no but at least they are trying. I think the central problem that I had with the book was the fact that Costas failed to aknowledge the validity of any other argument or point of view.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: More grist for the baseball mill...
Review: The toughest thing about reading this fine book is realizing many of Costas' suggestions will never be read by the people who have the power to positively change baseball, let alone implemented. Costas does a good job articulating and attaching an urgency to trends in the game lots of fans are only vaguely aware of. I admit I was skeptical of the sharing of revenue idea, but the author convinced me it's needed. Good as his analysis of baseball's financial situation is, I would have liked to have seen him more fully address problems on the field, particularly the proliferation of offense, which I think is distorting the game in fundamental ways. Maybe baseball, the poorest-run of the four major sports, will wake up to what Costas says, but I doubt it. At least not until the public has abandoned it to the point the game's power brokers have no choice.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Eloquence Is This Book's Best Quality
Review: Many who have read "Fair Ball" have stated that this book does not put forth a lot of ideas that are original to Bob Costas. That is true. However, what Bob Costas does in this book is eloquently state many of Major League Baseball's problems and offer sensible solutions, which I had not previously seen anyone else do to any significant degree in print. As I read this book, I often thought to myself, "Yes! I've been saying that for years!" And now, whenever someone offers a viewpoint on the direction of Major League Baseball that I find rediculous or unperceptive, and when that viewpoint is addressed in "Fair Ball", I can simply refer that person to the appropriate chapter or passage in "Fair Ball" for a great counterargument without worrying about how I can best express that counterargument. Where necessary, I can elaborate, but most of the organization of points on various subjects is already done in "Fair Ball".

On a related note, while most of the ideas expressed in "Fair Ball" are shared by millions of baseball fans, most of these same ideas are also vigorously opposed by millions of baseball fans, and apparently few, if any, of these ideas are prevailing among the people who have the power to implement these ideas, namely the majority of Major League team owners and players. Therefore, while "Fair Ball" will not appear particularly groundbreaking to many, or will be rejected as "hogwash" by others, it does state its ideas eloquently, and where it will not change individual opposing opinions, it at least challenges those individuals to offer a valid and equally eloquent rebuttal.

If "Fair Ball" seems to some to be a bit expensive in price given its length, bear in mind that the book states that all of the profits from sales of the book go to a charitable aid fund (the description of which escapes me at this moment, but is definitely baseball related). To put the book's arguable overpricing in perspective, it's probably a one time sacrifice of that extra beer or hotdog at a Major League ballgame. In the long run, you won't miss it, and you'll still have the book. I encourage Major League Baseball followers to buy or at least read this book.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Book of Common Sense
Review: Bob Costas has provided the major players of baseball with a detailed manuel for bringing financial stability coupled with "real" pennant races with little financial pain to anyone.

Of course, Costas is too logical and correct to expect the owners or players to entertain any of his proposals. His book also underlines the reasons that so many people are turning away from all professional sports.

By the way Bob, what did you do to tick off New York readers? They seem to be the only readers of the book to disagree with your opinions.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Guide to Repairing the National Pastime
Review: Mr. Costas offers concise, comprehensive, and well thought out solutions to the problems that currently plague the great game of baseball. All involved in baseball from players to owners would be wise to read this book and hopefully use it as a template to right the wrongs of baseball as they stand today. Thank you, Mr. Costas, for giving the fans a published voice.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Read This Book, Bud Selig!
Review: Bud Selig NEEDS to read this book. The owners NEED to read this book. The players and their union reps NEED to read this book. And all true fans of the game NEED to read this book.

Bob Costas has become one of America's most trusted and admired sports commentators. He has earned this status by being informed about the games he telecasts from. He has HUGE encyclopedias of sports stats and factoids. God only knows how he gets some of the stats (ie: "Gary Sheffield bats .232 on artificial turf when it's raining outside, but get him outdoors and he slugs out an astonishing .406 when runners are on first and third.").--note: not an actual Bob Costas quote, but could be close.

In any rate, "Fair Ball" is written by someone who loves the game of baseball in every facet. He wants change in the game--real change, not some tinkering around that only prolongs the inevitable. He has closely anlayzed the problems that have emerged since 1993 and, unlike some sports analysts, he has A PLAN. The plan is logical and it is direct in getting to the root of the problems and not merely tweeking it in spots. He argues for ways to implimate proper revenue-sharing, create a fair and better method for salary caps and "floors," and realignement. He hates the wild-card and gives up several pages in his reasons why it is blurring the distinction between baseball and other sports. He even makes his case eliminating the DH and integrating a more "global" representation to the game with worldwide scouting and drafts.

In this short book, Mr. Costas manages to make a case for baseball...a "fan's case" that is. These ideas, though maybe never put into practice, will at the very least stir up the argument more. Perhaps during players negotiations and owners meetings, these ideas will gradually make their way to the table. Hopefully we will then have a game that will incorporate what was great about baseball in years past to what is great about the game today.

Every one of Costas' ideas has strong evidence to support it. As always, he has done is homework. He stays focused and makes a strong case even addressing those that might criticize his plans as being radical and unrealistic. His ideas are radical, but only in that the changes that have already ocurred in prior years were equally radical--Mr. Costas is only trying to set things right before baseball is terribly harmed.

Being a baseball cynic since the strike of '94, I doubt that the owners nor the players have the foresight to care about anything else except their immediate gains. I still love the game and always will. But, I will long for what it was in my youth and in my father's youth. And hope and pray that Mr. Costas will take a pay cut and someday become commissioner.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Consistent, Comprehensive, Goal-Oriented Plan for Reform
Review: Fair Ball is Costas' presentation of a mission statement for baseball, and does not pretend to be a white paper offering detailed solutions to solve every one of baseball's many controversies. This book is an example of what Costas wants to see from the owners: the formulation of an overarching mission statement for baseball that identifies goals, as well as overarching strategies that are consistent with those goals.

To this extent, Costas is right on the money. Every successful business has a clearly articulated mission statement, and many of baseball's problems are due to the fact that Major League Baseball - as a corporation - has failed to articulate what it wants, where it is going, and how it should get there, with any consistency or clarity. In this book, Costas is nothing if not consistent. His overall argument is buttressed by this consistency, as well as by his appropriate use of examples, statistics, and analogies.

Although this book is not the great American novel, it is a must-read for real baseball fans because, whether or not the ideas originated from Costas' own mind, it amalgamates a consistent, comprehensive strategy for improving baseball. This holistic presentation of reform efforts is exactly what baseball needs.

I strongly suggest that all baseball owners, executives, players, and fans (regardless of positive or negative prejudices towards Bob Costas) read this book. After finishing it, come up with your own solution if you disagree. This book's most important accomplishment is that it offers solutions which invite criticism, but challenges dissenters to be as thorough in their alternative as Costas was in this work. Hopefully, additional books will follow by many authors, and hopefully, they will be just as comprehensive, for sound-bite, piecemeal, bumper-sticker length critiques do nothing to advance the discussion of how baseball should be improved.

Once this "conversation" begins -- among owners, executives, players, and fans -- real baseball reform will begin. This book is important, because it is the first step in beginning a dialogue that is way overdue.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A blueprint for the survival of Baseball
Review: In a succinct manner, Bob Costas sets forth the future of Baseball. It is not a rhapsody of why the game has been great over the generations; look elsewhere for that. But if you are concerned about what will happen to our game in the new millenium, it is at the very least worth the hour or two it will take to complete.

The short answer Costas puts forth is that there must be a cure for the disparity between the haves and have nots. Costas understands (implicitly, because he never uses these words) that the free market and Baseball cannot co-exist. Just as (he notes) no one pays to see the Yankees intra-squad games, the game does not survive without strong teams for the whole 162 game season. He opines that what is needed is revenue sharing, at least in terms of national TV money and the short term benefits gleaned by teams that open new parks with sweetheart public/private deals (like the Rangers, who with their new Ballpark went from the bottom to become one of the most valuable franchises in the league due to new digs). Of course, with this also comes the need for a salary cap. His logic is simple and compelling: what difference does it really make if Derek Jeter makes fifteen million rather than twenty million? Large market teams will certainly yell the loudest, but as he notes, it is for The Good of the Game.

Left relatively unexplored, however, is the long term impact upon the owners. What must they sacrifice? Will the rich continue to get richer? Will the rising tide lift all the boats? I think he assumes that the answer to this is yes, insofar as all teams will be able to compete (as opposed to the current system where half of the teams are practically, if not mathematically eliminated by the All Star break). Giving all of the teams an opportunity to succeed means giving the game this same opportunity to survive.

The book is nothing if not thought provoking. The comparisons between the crisis in the game vis a vis the NBA and the NFL bear serious consideration. I am not sure about some of his ideas like those about interleague play, but he is on the money regarding so-called radical realignment. Like another critique, I think he is dead wrong about Rose (suggesting banning him from Baseball while at the same time letting him in the Hall Of Fame). The book is worth a read for those who love or at least are concerned about our National Pastime.


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