Rating: 
Summary: An excellent read for baseball fans
Review:
This is a rare book about the history of baseball owners. That wouldn't seem like a subject that's nearly as interesting as the feats of the players (and it's not), but it's a fascinating story all the same. There's great stories about eccentric owners like Charlie Finley, Walter O'Malley, Ted Turner, and George Steinbrenner. It shows their consistent ineptitude at dealing with issues like arbitration, free agency, revenue issues and fan relations. And yet the game of baseball goes on no matter how they try to screw it up. And why is major league baseball the nation's only legal cartel? Helyar explains it for you.
Rating: 
Summary: This book blows..........
Review: A terrible book... Long winded, boring, difficult to follow.... No big surprises in the gist of the book, either: the owners are jerks and they are tight-fisted... Only if you live in a box will this book enlighten you...
Rating: 
Summary: A great read..
Review: After reading this book and reviewing the history of the player/owner relationship it is apparent to even the casual baseball fan how baseball has always been a selfish business instead of the game we all remember as children. Helyar details the labor struggles between the employer and the employee with humor and facts bringing out the bitterness and cynicism which has built up throughout the century. Read it and tell a friend, it will not dissapoint
Rating:
Summary: A baseball book for the true fan
Review: As a genre, baseball books are of two general types- the rarely interesting memoirs of a jock, or the baseball writer/enthusiast's dissection of the game in general, or a season or team in particular.Author John Heylar has written a much different book here. "The Lords of Baseball" is an insightful analysis of the business of baseball- the relationship between capital and labor, and their precarious relationship with the fans who attend games. For many a baseball enthusiast, this is a timely reminder that baseball is not merely a sport or pastime. It is a business. A writer for The Wall Street Journal, Heylar's prose is efficient and businesslike. The subject could be a dull one, but Heylar navigates it with confidence and gives the reader an informative, if dry, look at baseball's finances.
Rating:
Summary: A baseball book for the true fan
Review: As a genre, baseball books are of two general types- the rarely interesting memoirs of a jock, or the baseball writer/enthusiast's dissection of the game in general, or a season or team in particular. Author John Heylar has written a much different book here. "The Lords of Baseball" is an insightful analysis of the business of baseball- the relationship between capital and labor, and their precarious relationship with the fans who attend games. For many a baseball enthusiast, this is a timely reminder that baseball is not merely a sport or pastime. It is a business. A writer for The Wall Street Journal, Heylar's prose is efficient and businesslike. The subject could be a dull one, but Heylar navigates it with confidence and gives the reader an informative, if dry, look at baseball's finances.
Rating:
Summary: The Business of Baseball
Review: As with "Barbarians at the Gate", Helyar makes what could be a boring topic into an enlightening read. A walk through baseball's past from a business perspective, looking at the issues that shaped the game we watch today. If you're a true baseball fan, check out this book.
Rating:
Summary: The Business of Baseball
Review: As with "Barbarians at the Gate", Helyar makes what could be a boring topic into an enlightening read. A walk through baseball's past from a business perspective, looking at the issues that shaped the game we watch today. If you're a true baseball fan, check out this book.
Rating:
Summary: One of the Best Baseball Books Written!
Review: Awesome! Although it's been more than five years since I read it, I always see it on my bookshelf and ask myself if I should read it again. It was one of those books, especially for baseball fans like myself, that I never wanted to end.
Rating:
Summary: Helyar locates the real winners and losers of the game.
Review: Helyar's Lords of the Realm, published in 1994 and updated in 1995 to cover the strike of '94, offers us a near definitive portrait of the evolution of baseball as a corporate enterprise and "big money" phenomenon. While he covers the entire evolution of the game, his emphasis is on the last thirty years or so, when the issues have been the TV-ization of the game and the battle for a player's association--which resulted in free agency, skyrocketing salaries, and an increasingly sour relationship between and among team owners, general managers, players, and fans. Helyar exposes the seamier side of these issues, and at times everyone concerned looks shabby. However, there are moments of heroism as well: A. Bartlett Giamatti's ill-fated attempt to broker changes that would please both owners and players (a task worthy of a Quixote) stands out in this regard. While the owners often come off looking like venal cutthroats, it is ironic that their fears about driving up payrolls and alienating fans have come to pass. Helyar is excellent at turning an anecdote--like Ted Turner's barking like a dog in a hotel lobby to get himself banned from the game for a year--into a piece in a much larger puzzle. I understood after reading it how much more is involved in baseball than who won last night's game, or even this year's World Series. Strongly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: FINALLY: A Real, factual History of Baseball
Review: Heylar has written a detailed, sometimes complicated, book that fully explains the state of baseball in 2000. Perhaps, some readers will find the narrative slow and plodding but if you are interested in baseball, the rich detail, of the book, that omits no information that would help explain a particilar point is most welcome. Heylar weaves the familar of baseball history such as Cobb, Ruth, Mantle, and the major historic games of the sport with the economics that really drove the game but was kept out of sight until Marvin Miller stepped onto the stage of baseball. The book is valuable and unique because of the coverage of the economic underside of baseball and how the power structure within the game has shifted since the early 1970s. The book is a must read for someone who is interested in the real "history" of baseball.
|
