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Split Season: 1981: Fernandomania, the Bronx Zoo, and the Strike that Saved Baseball by Jeff Katz
orangefan65's review
4.0
As always, I am a fan of sports histories. This one is about the MLB season of 1981, interrupted by a strike that lasted 2 months, and then resumed as a "separate" but equal half-season instead of continuing where they left off. This was the year of the rookie phenom, Fernando Valenzuela, of the LA Dodgers, the year Pete Rose broke Stan Musial's all-time National League hits record, and the year that George Steinbrenner proved to be out of control in his daily interference with the Yankees. In the end, the World Series consisted of Yankees vs. Dodgers when the best records in baseball would have had Oakland A's vs. Milwaukee Brewers in AL and St. Louis Cardinals vs. Cincinnati Reds in NL for the right to play in World Series.
nathaniel_1206's review
4.0
The research in this book regarding the 1981 strike is tremendous. It's well done, it's told well, and it's entertaining. The Fernando Valenzuela story is also well told, and is well tied into the Dodgers winning the World Series. There is a lot of space given to the Yankees, and it's done well. I think there are better books about the Yankees of that season, and the "Bronx Zoo" stuff is well over done. Especially when the entire Zoo is boiled down to George Steinbrenner was an overbearing bully, Reggie Jackson was egomanacial (except that one time), Gene Michael was a stat guy well before it was fashionable, and Dave Winfield didn't hit.
The book is completely weirdly organized, especially when it comes to being about the baseball season. The baseball only section are jumbled mess, and how stories are told seem completely haphazard. Katz is good writer, but its not like it was beautiful transitions from subject to subject, and it be a shame if you lost that writing. If you contrast the baseball section with the nicely organized epilogue, one wonders what might have been.
Among the other interesting stories is the team focus, Katz can find stories to tell in Oakland - former Yankee manager, and Steinbrenner foil Billy Martin is there; Montreal- star pitcher Steve Rogers was a crucial member of the players negogiating with the owners; Philadelphia - Pete Rose's pursuit of the NL career hit leader Stan Musial and Bob Boone was another crucial player in the strike negogiations; sort of in Houston - Nolan Ryan was magnificent late but less in Milwaukee and even less in Kansas City.
There virtually no mention of Kansas City in the second half until the As sweep them in the Divisonal Series. Milwaukee, who would have won the division, if not for the weird split-season set up, gets more mention, but they're incidential to Katz's narrative.
None of this is unusual cause writers have to make decisions and shape their focus, and that would be acceptable except for the ridiculous amount of space that is devoted to the All Star Game and Cooperstown (I found out later Katz is from Cooperstown, which explains it.) If the All-Star Game was some well played masterpiece, or something historically notable happened, I'd be fine, and understand. It's importance, first game back for the players after the strike, is unquestioned, but it was kind of a disaster of a game. That's disappointing because one could have told interesting stories in Montreal, Milwaukee and Kansas City. Montreal, especially.
It's a weird dichotomy in this book, Katz writes for baseball fans -there is minimal biographical information in the book, and there is even less baseball history in the book. How good was Andre Dawson in 1981, this book doesn't tell you. Steve Rogers, one of the focal points? Nope. If you don't know, this book isn't going to help you. Hard feelings about Thurman Munson gets between Craig Nettles and Reggie Jackson. And who is he, again? Not a sentence. There's this star-player aspect to the book. Fernando! Reggie! Rose! Ryan! It's a book for baseball fans, but baseball fans who only know who the best players are by who makes the All-Star teams.
Also just to mention, I read a Kindle edition (yeah I know its says hardcover) and the formatting by, I assume, Thomas Dunne Books was unforgiving. A joy of e-books is you can screw around with font size, and line spacing and margins. Some days I like small type, some days, I need like second line on a eye test big. This book brooked no nonsense with line spacing, and at certain font size (8 point I think) it couldn't format it, so it decided to format about every five screens, leaving me with four blank screens. I'm not sure if that was the publishers first experience formatting for an e-book and were unfamiliar the formatting option Kindle gives readers, or if they were just being hard-asses, but it was disappointing.
(I didn't read this in a day, like I've lied to GR. I don't note the days I start books. I put this down for months on end. I can't even guess how long it took me.)
The book is completely weirdly organized, especially when it comes to being about the baseball season. The baseball only section are jumbled mess, and how stories are told seem completely haphazard. Katz is good writer, but its not like it was beautiful transitions from subject to subject, and it be a shame if you lost that writing. If you contrast the baseball section with the nicely organized epilogue, one wonders what might have been.
Among the other interesting stories is the team focus, Katz can find stories to tell in Oakland - former Yankee manager, and Steinbrenner foil Billy Martin is there; Montreal- star pitcher Steve Rogers was a crucial member of the players negogiating with the owners; Philadelphia - Pete Rose's pursuit of the NL career hit leader Stan Musial and Bob Boone was another crucial player in the strike negogiations; sort of in Houston - Nolan Ryan was magnificent late but less in Milwaukee and even less in Kansas City.
There virtually no mention of Kansas City in the second half until the As sweep them in the Divisonal Series. Milwaukee, who would have won the division, if not for the weird split-season set up, gets more mention, but they're incidential to Katz's narrative.
None of this is unusual cause writers have to make decisions and shape their focus, and that would be acceptable except for the ridiculous amount of space that is devoted to the All Star Game and Cooperstown (I found out later Katz is from Cooperstown, which explains it.) If the All-Star Game was some well played masterpiece, or something historically notable happened, I'd be fine, and understand. It's importance, first game back for the players after the strike, is unquestioned, but it was kind of a disaster of a game. That's disappointing because one could have told interesting stories in Montreal, Milwaukee and Kansas City. Montreal, especially.
It's a weird dichotomy in this book, Katz writes for baseball fans -there is minimal biographical information in the book, and there is even less baseball history in the book. How good was Andre Dawson in 1981, this book doesn't tell you. Steve Rogers, one of the focal points? Nope. If you don't know, this book isn't going to help you. Hard feelings about Thurman Munson gets between Craig Nettles and Reggie Jackson. And who is he, again? Not a sentence. There's this star-player aspect to the book. Fernando! Reggie! Rose! Ryan! It's a book for baseball fans, but baseball fans who only know who the best players are by who makes the All-Star teams.
Also just to mention, I read a Kindle edition (yeah I know its says hardcover) and the formatting by, I assume, Thomas Dunne Books was unforgiving. A joy of e-books is you can screw around with font size, and line spacing and margins. Some days I like small type, some days, I need like second line on a eye test big. This book brooked no nonsense with line spacing, and at certain font size (8 point I think) it couldn't format it, so it decided to format about every five screens, leaving me with four blank screens. I'm not sure if that was the publishers first experience formatting for an e-book and were unfamiliar the formatting option Kindle gives readers, or if they were just being hard-asses, but it was disappointing.
(I didn't read this in a day, like I've lied to GR. I don't note the days I start books. I put this down for months on end. I can't even guess how long it took me.)
jfranco77's review
3.0
Much like a split season, this is a split book. Katz starts describing the 1981 season, mixes in some backstory about the current labor situation, and then about 1/3 of the way through, the book shifts to full-on strike coverage. The strike ends, the season resumes, and so does the baseball coverage. I think Katz does a better job describing the labor talks than the baseball. Still, the end of the season was exciting, and the baseball is fun.
johnnygamble's review
4.0
Liked the detail and the flow. Hardly even-handed: it's one-sidedness was distracting.
stevenk's review
4.0
A great look a the personalities involved in the 1981 baseball strike and the unusual split season that resulted. It was a strange time in major league baseball: free agency wasn't that old; Steinbrenner hadn't been screwing up baseball and the Yankees organization for that long (although he was trying his darnedest); Gary Carter, Andre Dawson and the Expo's were playing some great baseball in the purgatory of Montreal; and Pete Rose was chasing the NL hit record as a member of the Phillies. There were lots of larger than life personalities involved on both sides of the strike and the negotiations took place before the age of the 24 hour news cycle and instant communications. This book was fun to read, full of insights into the backrooms of the labor negotiations as well as the fortunes of lots of the clubs, from those who were there, as well as great narratives of some of the important games of the season. I received a free ARC copy of this book through Goodreads First reads giveaways.
contrabanddonut's review
4.0
The research in this book regarding the 1981 strike is tremendous. It's well done, it's told well, and it's entertaining. The Fernando Valenzuela story is also well told, and is well tied into the Dodgers winning the World Series. There is a lot of space given to the Yankees, and it's done well. I think there are better books about the Yankees of that season, and the "Bronx Zoo" stuff is well over done. Especially when the entire Zoo is boiled down to George Steinbrenner was an overbearing bully, Reggie Jackson was egomanacial (except that one time), Gene Michael was a stat guy well before it was fashionable, and Dave Winfield didn't hit.
The book is completely weirdly organized, especially when it comes to being about the baseball season. The baseball only section are jumbled mess, and how stories are told seem completely haphazard. Katz is good writer, but its not like it was beautiful transitions from subject to subject, and it be a shame if you lost that writing. If you contrast the baseball section with the nicely organized epilogue, one wonders what might have been.
Among the other interesting stories is the team focus, Katz can find stories to tell in Oakland - former Yankee manager, and Steinbrenner foil Billy Martin is there; Montreal- star pitcher Steve Rogers was a crucial member of the players negogiating with the owners; Philadelphia - Pete Rose's pursuit of the NL career hit leader Stan Musial and Bob Boone was another crucial player in the strike negogiations; sort of in Houston - Nolan Ryan was magnificent late but less in Milwaukee and even less in Kansas City.
There virtually no mention of Kansas City in the second half until the As sweep them in the Divisonal Series. Milwaukee, who would have won the division, if not for the weird split-season set up, gets more mention, but they're incidential to Katz's narrative.
None of this is unusual cause writers have to make decisions and shape their focus, and that would be acceptable except for the ridiculous amount of space that is devoted to the All Star Game and Cooperstown (I found out later Katz is from Cooperstown, which explains it.) If the All-Star Game was some well played masterpiece, or something historically notable happened, I'd be fine, and understand. It's importance, first game back for the players after the strike, is unquestioned, but it was kind of a disaster of a game. That's disappointing because one could have told interesting stories in Montreal, Milwaukee and Kansas City. Montreal, especially.
It's a weird dichotomy in this book, Katz writes for baseball fans -there is minimal biographical information in the book, and there is even less baseball history in the book. How good was Andre Dawson in 1981, this book doesn't tell you. Steve Rogers, one of the focal points? Nope. If you don't know, this book isn't going to help you. Hard feelings about Thurman Munson gets between Craig Nettles and Reggie Jackson. And who is he, again? Not a sentence. There's this star-player aspect to the book. Fernando! Reggie! Rose! Ryan! It's a book for baseball fans, but baseball fans who only know who the best players are by who makes the All-Star teams.
Also just to mention, I read a Kindle edition (yeah I know its says hardcover) and the formatting by, I assume, Thomas Dunne Books was unforgiving. A joy of e-books is you can screw around with font size, and line spacing and margins. Some days I like small type, some days, I need like second line on a eye test big. This book brooked no nonsense with line spacing, and at certain font size (8 point I think) it couldn't format it, so it decided to format about every five screens, leaving me with four blank screens. I'm not sure if that was the publishers first experience formatting for an e-book and were unfamiliar the formatting option Kindle gives readers, or if they were just being hard-asses, but it was disappointing.
(I didn't read this in a day, like I've lied to GR. I don't note the days I start books. I put this down for months on end. I can't even guess how long it took me.)
The book is completely weirdly organized, especially when it comes to being about the baseball season. The baseball only section are jumbled mess, and how stories are told seem completely haphazard. Katz is good writer, but its not like it was beautiful transitions from subject to subject, and it be a shame if you lost that writing. If you contrast the baseball section with the nicely organized epilogue, one wonders what might have been.
Among the other interesting stories is the team focus, Katz can find stories to tell in Oakland - former Yankee manager, and Steinbrenner foil Billy Martin is there; Montreal- star pitcher Steve Rogers was a crucial member of the players negogiating with the owners; Philadelphia - Pete Rose's pursuit of the NL career hit leader Stan Musial and Bob Boone was another crucial player in the strike negogiations; sort of in Houston - Nolan Ryan was magnificent late but less in Milwaukee and even less in Kansas City.
There virtually no mention of Kansas City in the second half until the As sweep them in the Divisonal Series. Milwaukee, who would have won the division, if not for the weird split-season set up, gets more mention, but they're incidential to Katz's narrative.
None of this is unusual cause writers have to make decisions and shape their focus, and that would be acceptable except for the ridiculous amount of space that is devoted to the All Star Game and Cooperstown (I found out later Katz is from Cooperstown, which explains it.) If the All-Star Game was some well played masterpiece, or something historically notable happened, I'd be fine, and understand. It's importance, first game back for the players after the strike, is unquestioned, but it was kind of a disaster of a game. That's disappointing because one could have told interesting stories in Montreal, Milwaukee and Kansas City. Montreal, especially.
It's a weird dichotomy in this book, Katz writes for baseball fans -there is minimal biographical information in the book, and there is even less baseball history in the book. How good was Andre Dawson in 1981, this book doesn't tell you. Steve Rogers, one of the focal points? Nope. If you don't know, this book isn't going to help you. Hard feelings about Thurman Munson gets between Craig Nettles and Reggie Jackson. And who is he, again? Not a sentence. There's this star-player aspect to the book. Fernando! Reggie! Rose! Ryan! It's a book for baseball fans, but baseball fans who only know who the best players are by who makes the All-Star teams.
Also just to mention, I read a Kindle edition (yeah I know its says hardcover) and the formatting by, I assume, Thomas Dunne Books was unforgiving. A joy of e-books is you can screw around with font size, and line spacing and margins. Some days I like small type, some days, I need like second line on a eye test big. This book brooked no nonsense with line spacing, and at certain font size (8 point I think) it couldn't format it, so it decided to format about every five screens, leaving me with four blank screens. I'm not sure if that was the publishers first experience formatting for an e-book and were unfamiliar the formatting option Kindle gives readers, or if they were just being hard-asses, but it was disappointing.
(I didn't read this in a day, like I've lied to GR. I don't note the days I start books. I put this down for months on end. I can't even guess how long it took me.)
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