Rating: 
Summary: A blueprint for Major League Baseball
Review: As a former card carrying baseball fan, I can relate exactly to the issues that Bob Costas brings up in his book, "Fair Ball". He pinpoints the major issues as to why fans left the game and why taxpayers won't support new stadiums. Here in south Florida, we had our hearts wrenched from our bodies after the 1997 World Series and many of us won't soon forget that. Reading "Fair Ball", I became once again energized on the game and feel so strongly about it that I am mailing my copy of the book to John Henry, the Marlins owner. Not only do I think that the book should be used as a blueprint by MLBaseball but they should hire Mr. Costas to lead the overhaul. Chances are that Mr.Costas would undertake such an undertaking for free due to his love and passion for the game. This book is a must read for all baseball fans !
Rating: 
Summary: Not original or workable
Review: Bob Costas just rehashes old ideas which are not workable in today's baseball climate. Why should one owner be forced to share his team's revenue when he bought the team for a higher price than another owner's team? Presumably, the size of the market and the broadcast revenues were built into the price. Why should an owner, such as the owner of the Twins who has probably more individual wealth than any other owner, be permitted to cry poverty while pocketing revenues and putting nothing back into the team? Why should the teams who have made good personnel decisions, such as the Yankees and Braves, be penalized when it is clear that other teams with equal or greater payrolls, such as the Orioles and Dodgers, have made dumb decisions? Why should teams owned by huge corporations, such as the Cubs and Mariners, be allowed to refuse to improve their teams? Finally, some cities should not have teams because they never have supported them, such as Montreal, Miami, and Tampa Bay. The real problem is the owner's greed in allowing expansion and dilution of talent for the quick buck of entrance fees. This where the real problem lies. Unfortunately, in the last ten years, Bob Costas has become unlistenable because of his know-it-all attitude,and it extends to this book. He still won't admit that the wild card has created excitement for most teams and fans, and has given them hope. Bob, the Fifties are over.
Rating:
Summary: Costas For Commissioner
Review: Bob Costas presents an intelligent, well reasoned, and objective analysis of the state of baseball. From revenue sharing and realignment to the barber shop debates over the DH, Pete Rose, and the size of the strike zone, Costas outlines a prescription to both revitalize the great American pasttime yet keep it in balance with its long tradition. Fans of the big market teams will find his pill hard to swallow; but having grown up around Kansas City and St. Louis baseball, it seems medication worth considering. Costas steps away from the passioned positions of owners and players to present a plan that will, in the long run, make The Game better. I highly recommend this short, readable book. You may not agree with Costas or like him, but anyone who respects baseball will find his ideas worth consideration. Hey, Bud Selig, are you out there?
Rating:
Summary: True true
Review: In Fair Ball, Mr. Costas offers an interesting and thought provoking argument on how to fix the current state of baseball. He mixes the economic of the current sports world and keeping an all important eye on the history of the game. True that some of his ideas are probably borrowed but he is the first to assemble these thoughts into a concise, clear plan. If you care even the slightest about the affairs of baseball, you owe it to yourself to read this book. I hope the owners and the players get a chance to read this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Costas Hook Slides Into the Bargin Bin
Review: That such a slim (and I mean that in both the physical and intellectual sense) volume could boast a retail price of $21 seems as implausible as the fact that Brady Anderson once hit 50 home in a season. Both feats are freakishly true. The book is essentially a collage of old ideas for improving the Grand Old Game largely by tinkering with its economics -- salary caps, revenue sharing and a smattering of other financial fixes. None of the ideas he forwards are bad. Nor are any of them uniquely his. If you are a baseball fan (and you'd have to be to even consider purchasing the book) there's probably very little here that you haven't heard elsewhere. If you are one of the legion of Costas fans and are determined to buy this book, follow the advice heard by forlorn Brooklyn Dodgers fans of the 1950s : Wait 'Til Next Year when it's reduced to bargin bin pricing.
Rating:
Summary: No Longer the "Voice of Baseball"
Review: What did we do to deserve this? Bob Costas hasn't been worth listening to for ten years. Sometime in the late 80's or early 90's, he began reading his own press. He got it into his head that he is the "Voice of Baseball." After reading this book, I'm surer than ever that he isn't. Take away the dust cover, and this is a book length version of Dana Carvey's "Grumpy Old Man" routine, something else that went stale a long time ago on NBC. "In my day," Costas intones, and every right-thinking American plugs their ears and starts to whistle "Take Me Out to the Ballgame." "We didn't have a stinkin' wild card." No Bob. You also didn't have 30 teams. Maybe a few markets besides Atlanta and NY would like to be interested in the season after the All-Star break (Ok, so interleague play *is* terrible, but it didn't take Costas to figure that out). How does having ten teams involved in the playoff hunt ruin the pennant race? I don't know, but I'd rather keep an eye on the wild card race than see my favorite team 30 games behind the Yankees and fading. Costas doesn't like the payroll disparity. Hey, other than George Steinbrenner, who does? It's *always* been there. Look at the overall winning percentages for small and large market teams since the turn of the century-- big cities are over .500, small ones under. That doesn't mean that no small market team ever won the Series. It'd be tougher nowadays, and that isn't good, but Costas offers no real solutions. Revenue sharing? Name another league where this works? "The NFL," is the immediate response. Sorry, the NFL doesn't have such a haves and have-nots problem because they have one national TV contract and split gate receipts 60/40 home and away. And this past year the sports media was crying about too *much* parity taking away from the game. So what do you want? A pennant race won by a team at 82-80? It never happened in "the good old days" of all-white baseball, and it won't happen in today's game either, no matter what Costas says. Costas' reputation was made back around the 1986 series. He's still trading on it, though he covers a couple of playoff series a year. Al Michaels is a better announcer (and whines less), and if you want a "Voice of Baseball," America, it's Joe Morgan and Jon Miller on ESPN.
Rating: 
Summary: A lazy fly to left
Review: This slim volume of Bob Costas' observations is really two books. When he's talking about the DH, divisional play or the wildcard, Costas is an eloquent, informed fan whose opinions are as valuable as any and more informed than most. But when he's talking about the economics of baseball, Costas is on far shakier ground. He favors greater revenue sharing among the owners (a relatively uncontroversial recommendation), but also demands that the players accept a hard salary cap, and says that if he ran MLB he'd force another prolonged strike if necessary to get the players to yield on this issue. As economists have noted, greater revenue sharing would alone reduce the disparity among club payrolls without a nasty, destructive labor dispute. Costas also insists that the gulf between "large market" and "small market" teams has never been greater. Tell that to anyone who rooted for the Athletics, Phillies, Browns, Senators or Pirates during the so-called "Golden Age" of baseball, when those teams went decades without contending. Costas's laments are the latest in a long line of "sky is falling" predictions. 25 years ago, Commissioner Bowie Kuhn predicted that free agency would mean "bankruptcies, sharp retrenchment of franchises and great dissatisfaction among the players themselves as the money gravitates to the top -- to the super stars -- at the expense of the majority of the players." Less than 10 years ago, Bill James lamented that the Cleveland Indians would never again be able to afford a competitive team. There's no reason to believe that Costas is any more prescient, or more accurate.
Rating:
Summary: Costas hits a home run
Review: A clear, compelling argument for remedies to baseball's problems - from the big issues of revenue sharing and salary caps to the less consequential ones of league realignment and the DH rule. Costas illustrates when and how baseball went downhill, and describes a comprehensive plan to make things right again. Now if only we could get the owners and players union to agree...
Rating:
Summary: Baseball's new hero!
Review: As a baseball fan I have become very disheartened with the buisness of it all. This book offers very rational solutions to the sports glaring problems. Costas addresses every fans questions one by one and offers a solution rather than restating the obvious. I think that next time the players and owners sit down and talk they should use this book as a step by step guide. Very informative and well thought out!
Rating:
Summary: Don't read it if you are a Yankee fan
Review: I joked with my buddy earlier this year that I am going to stop rooting for the Yankees because I think the Yankees winning another World Series would be as much fun as winning a pickup game of softball in which you get to choose the eight other players you want first rather than alternating picks. After reading this book, I became even more disenchanted with the Yankees and the unlevel playing field that exists in MLB. What is great about this book is that Costas not only makes the case of what is wrong with the system but provides very rational solutions to improve it. I would love to hear Bud Selig's thoughts on why Costas' solutions shouldn't be implemented other than George Steinbrenner, Rupert Murdoch and Ted Turner don't think it is a good idea.
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