A Hall of Fame sportsriter analyzes managers' stragegies
CONTENTS Preface to the Expanded Edition Introduction Part I: The Creators 1. The Antecedents 2. John McGraw 3. Connie Mack 4. Branch Rickey Part II: The Developers 5. Miller Huggins 6. Joe McCarthy 7. Bill McKechnie 8. Casey Stengel Part III: The Descendents 9. Leo Durocher 10. Al Lopez 11. Frank Frisch 12. Paul Richards 13. Loose Ends Part IV: The Moderns 14. Walter Alston 15. Ralph Houk 16. Alvin Dark 17. Billy Martin 18. Dick Williams 19. Earl Weaver 20. Sparky Anderson 21. Tommy Lasorda 22. The Rest of the Story 23. Looking Ahead A Final Word Appendix Index
Leonard Koppett has been writing about baseball since the 1940s (his earliest memories include seeing Babe Ruth hit and John McGraw manage) for the New York City newspapers, the San Francisco Bay Area newspapers, and The Sporting News. He is author of half a dozen baseball books including Koppett's Concise History of Major League Baseball (Temple). He is the winner of the J. G. Taylor Spink Award from the Baseball Writers' Association of America. Koppett is the only sportswriter named to the writers' wing of both baseball and basketball Halls of Fame.
"Leonard Koppett is the perfect man to write a book about managers. He could've been a terrific manager if he hadn't decided to become a terrific sportswriter. Koppett understands people. He is a master of analysis, statistical or theoretical." --Dick Schaap "Long before the 'scholarly' study of baseball became something of a cottage industry, Leonard Koppett was out there doing it on his own with his keen reporter's eye, tireless research, and logical mind. Through the years, reading Koppett has been a joy and an education." --Bob Costas "What a pleasure it is to read Leonard Koppett on the history and science--no, make that Art, with a capital A--of managing a major-league baseball team." --Robert W. Creamer, author of Babe: The Legend Comes to Life, Stengel, and Baseball in '41 "Nobody in sports has ever provided your brain with a better workout than Leonard Koppett. To borrow from the old E. F. Hutton spot, 'When Leonard Koppett talks, I listen--very, very attentively.'" --Al Michaels
"Leonard Koppett is the perfect man to write a book about managers. He could've been a terrific manager if he hadn't decided to become a terrific sportswriter. Koppett understands people. He is a master of analysis, statistical or theoretical." --Dick Schaap "Long before the 'scholarly' study of baseball became something of a cottage industry, Leonard Koppett was out there doing it on his own with his keen reporter's eye, tireless research, and logical mind. Through the years, reading Koppett has been a joy and an education." --Bob Costas "What a pleasure it is to read Leonard Koppett on the history and science--no, make that Art, with a capital A--of managing a major-league baseball team." --Robert W. Creamer, author of Babe: The Legend Comes to Life, Stengel, and Baseball in '41 "Nobody in sports has ever provided your brain with a better workout than Leonard Koppett. To borrow from the old E. F. Hutton spot, 'When Leonard Koppett talks, I listen--very, very attentively.'" --Al Michaels
The theory espoused by Koppett, a former New York Times sports columnist, is that all modern managers are descended from three seminal figures: John McGraw, who established the principle that the manager is the unquestioned boss of his team; Branch Rickey, who organized the teaching fundamentals; and Connie Mack, whose concentration on finding talented players enabled him to build two dynasties decades apart. Koppett's genealogy, for example, traces the influence of McGraw through Frankie Frisch and Leo Durocher to Bill Rigney. This otherwise splendid and original book overemphasizes New York managers, however. Among the 19 in-depth portraits, 11 are of men who led the Yankees, Giants, Dodgers or Mets. Photos not seen by PW. (Mar.)
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