If They Don't Win It's a Shame: The Year the Marlins Bought the World Series

Rating:
Summary: Too Much Sarcasm
Review: As an insider account of a team's championship season, particularly of a team that hard to believe won the Series just two years ago but seems more like a thousand years ago given what's happened to the Marlins since, this book is a must. Unfortunately, Dave Rosenbaum in my opinion goes way too far with his mean-spirited sarcasm and desire to denigrate everything the 97 Marlins accomplished. Sure, they bought a championship quickly in the hopes of a new stadium payoff which didn't come, and sure there's a lot of unpleasant stuff that take place in the locker room. But at the same time, you do have to give credit to Jim Leyland and his team for being able to win it all that year and I think it's unfair to denigrate that as Rosenbaum does merely in light of what happened to the team afterwards. Considering how the Baltimore Orioles, Los Angeles Dodgers and Anaheim Angels have tried to duplicate what the Marlins did through the same approach and failed miserably you have to in my opinion still respect the accomplishment in spite of the warts that Rosenbaum uncovers along the way. In my opinion, he simply doesn't do enough of that.

Rating:
Summary: A model addition to the baseball bibliography.
Review: In "If They Don't Win It's A Shame: The Year the Marlins Bought the World Series," Dave Rosenbaum provides us with the proverbial view of the 'fly on the wall.' The 1997 Florida Marlins, winners of the World Series, are the protype of the 'buy now-win now' baseball teams for the next century. Rosenbaum had the distinct good fortune of following a play-off contender for a year, and made the most of it.

The cast of characters are as motley as any you might find in a baseball clubhouse. Rosebaum, in the tradition of John Feinstein's, "Play Ball: The Life and Troubled Times of Major League Baseball," points outs the dichotomy between the game boys play and the business men participate in. Although the World Series ring is the prize, money is the focus. Which player can command what salary, and for how long.

Rosenbaum treats us to the behind-the-scenes look at the Marlins, for better or worse...as players and as men. Though, we see Marlin manager Jim Leyland as the benevolent baseball man, Rosenbaum portrays him as a kind of manic-depressant personality. Trying to reconcile the personas may prove challenging, but perhaps we know as fans of baseball, that winning the big games requires many emotions from the manager.

Following teams around and writing about the experiences is nothing new to baseball bibliography, but Rosenbaum provides an enlightening look at a team destined to win, and destined to be torn apart at the baseball seams.

Rating:
Summary: 1997 A FISH STORY
Review: THIS IS ABOUT THE MAKE IT OR BREAK IT YEAR FOR THE FLORIDA MARLINS. THE OWNER DECIDED TO BEEF UP THE PAYROLL AND TAKE A BIG GAMBLE TO BRING HOME A WINNER AND INCREASE ATTENDANCE. BUT HIS REAL REASONS WAS TO HAVE A DOMED STADIUM BUILT FOR HIM. HIS TEAM WON THW WORLD SERIES AND THEN HAD A VERY LARGE LIQUIDATION SALE AND SOLD THE TEAM AFTER NOT GETTING HIS DOMED STADIUM. MR HUIZENGA WHO OWNED BLOCKBUSTER JUST COULDNT STAND LOSING MONEY. HE SOLD OUT THE FANS OF A VERY GOOD TEAM. THIS IS A BEHIND THE SCENES OF HOW THIS WAS DONE IN GREAT DETAIL. TO ME THE TRUE BAFFOON BESIDES HUIZENGA IS JIM LEYLAND. WHAT AN EXAMPLE OF A TOTAL JACKASS. I LIKED THIS BOOK AND RECOMMEND IT.