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Juicing the Game: Drugs, Power, and the Fight for the Soul of Major League Baseball by Howard Bryant
jake_wont_shut_up's review
5.0
You might read the title and instantly think, "This book will be about steroids in baseball." You are slightly right. But it would be more accurate to say it's about drugs, power, and the fight for the soul of Major League Baseball.
Crazy, right?
It begins with the famous strike of '94, the actual fight between players and managers that stopped a season. It ends with some of baseballs largest figures being interviewed in Congress about what may or may not have happened in all those locker rooms.
In between, we have the struggle to bring fans back to the ballparks, the home run chase of '98, huge TV money pouring into baseball, questions about whether steroids really drove the offensive surge of the late '90s and early '00s, and a constant argument about who's to blame for what happened.
The short answer? Everyone. Everyone knew, or had an idea of what was happening, and hardly anyone actually wanted the questions answered. In the end, that's roughly the indictment, but it was certainly worth the journey if you're still interested.
Crazy, right?
It begins with the famous strike of '94, the actual fight between players and managers that stopped a season. It ends with some of baseballs largest figures being interviewed in Congress about what may or may not have happened in all those locker rooms.
In between, we have the struggle to bring fans back to the ballparks, the home run chase of '98, huge TV money pouring into baseball, questions about whether steroids really drove the offensive surge of the late '90s and early '00s, and a constant argument about who's to blame for what happened.
The short answer? Everyone. Everyone knew, or had an idea of what was happening, and hardly anyone actually wanted the questions answered. In the end, that's roughly the indictment, but it was certainly worth the journey if you're still interested.
whitejamaica's review
2.0
+ There's something nostalgic about baseball. I'll take any chance to take a deeper dive into the game I love. Bryant's book is a true exploration of several aspects of the game that take place behind-closed-doors, and I found the narratives to be both entertaining and informative.
- I enjoyed Bryant's style but I do have a gripe to pick with the editor. The cuts between player profiles and historical depictions is jarring. When Bryant is not jumping back and forth between profiles on McGuire and Sosa and Matt Williams, he's discussing commissioner turnover, then the strike, then the steroid era, then back to the union's conflict with the commissioner.
- The editor's hastiness in proof-reading is evident, as every third page appears to have a letter missing or an incorrect tense.
- "To John Hoberman, a steroid expert at the University of Texas, the impulse on the part of the baseball leadership to immediately defend the use of a product neither it nor the game's many, better-qualified medical experts knew much about offered a telling glimpse into how the sport was prepared to deal with the sudden, important revelation that, like the rest of the sporting world, baseball players had been exposed to the power of supplements." ... Why do I feel like I was the first person to read this line?
- I enjoyed Bryant's style but I do have a gripe to pick with the editor. The cuts between player profiles and historical depictions is jarring. When Bryant is not jumping back and forth between profiles on McGuire and Sosa and Matt Williams, he's discussing commissioner turnover, then the strike, then the steroid era, then back to the union's conflict with the commissioner.
- The editor's hastiness in proof-reading is evident, as every third page appears to have a letter missing or an incorrect tense.
- "To John Hoberman, a steroid expert at the University of Texas, the impulse on the part of the baseball leadership to immediately defend the use of a product neither it nor the game's many, better-qualified medical experts knew much about offered a telling glimpse into how the sport was prepared to deal with the sudden, important revelation that, like the rest of the sporting world, baseball players had been exposed to the power of supplements." ... Why do I feel like I was the first person to read this line?
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