Review: The Last Manager (2025)

By John W. Miller

It doesn't take long to figure out that we are in good hands when reading John W. Miller's fine biography of Earl Weaver, "The Last Manager." I clocked it at less than two chapters. 

The book starts at the end of the 1982 season, when Weaver was about to end a remarkable run as the skipper of the Baltimore Orioles. Weaver's team lost that one-game playoff against Milwaukee for the division title, but the day became a chance for the fans there to celebrate a spectacular run of success for the franchise. Since 1968, the Orioles had won a World Series, lost three others, and taken several division titles in becoming consistent winners. 

And in that opening chapter, Miller points out that Weaver should be remembered for more than arguing with umpires ... although, in fairness, no one was better than Earl in that department. Weaver was an amazing innovator when it came to the game, revolutionizing the thinking that went into the job as manager. He was way ahead of his time when it came to philosophy and matchups, serving as a pioneer in the effort to maximize his team's chances of winning. We might call it analytics today, but Weaver certainly pointed us in that direction. The Orioles manager also carried certain philosophies. Just as an example, Weaver said you only get 27 outs, and you shouldn't give any away. In other words, if you play for one run, that's how many runs you'll get. Weaver emphasized pitching, defense and three-run homers over one base at a time with sacrifice bunts. 

Then in chapter two, we find ourselves back in the spring of 1952. Weaver had worked his way up the ladder of the St. Louis Cardinals organization to the point where he had a good chance of making the major league team. The problem was that the Cardinals had just named an infielder named Eddie Stanky as the manager, and Eddie didn't think he was completely washed up as a player. So while Weaver had a good spring training, Stanky wasn't going to cut himself from the roster. So a broken-hearted Weaver went back to the minors. It was the crucial turning point in his life up to that point. He played a few more years but his heart really wasn't in it.

But everyone realized that Earl knew baseball inside and out, so a switch to manager was almost inevitable. He again worked his way up that ladder, stopping in more small towns along the way. In order to make ends meet, he sold cars in the offseason in Elmira, New York. A friend of mine remembers how Weaver sold his father a car while balancing my pal as a young child on his knee. Eventually, though, Weaver reached the majors. Earl took over the Orioles in 1968, and became one of the most beloved figures in Baltimore's baseball history. No wonder there's a statue of him in Camden Yards.

Weaver developed a particular style of managing that you wouldn't exactly call "corporate." The overriding philosophy shown here is that Weaver didn't merely want to win. He had to win. That meant if an umpire's call went the "wrong way," he was going to hear about it from Weaver. Heck, Earl got himself thrown out of games before they started, which is a pretty good trick. Those arguments with the umps featured plenty of colorful words and a few stunts such as turning his hat around by 180 degrees in order to get more of a face-to-face discussion going. The fans, of course, liked the idea that someone shared their passion for the team. Weaver always figured that the team was better off without him than without one of the players, who had a direct influence on a game's outcome.

Off the field, Weaver did some of his best work in the clubhouse. No, he didn't get along with everyone. His "feud" with Hall of Fame pitcher Jim Palmer was almost legendary, and others sometimes weren't happy about Weaver's style either. But while Earl was maybe too direct in spots, he never carried a grudge to the next day. What's more, Weaver certainly got the most out of his players. Many of them were never better then they were for Earl's teams. 

That sort of passion carries a price, of course. Baseball's schedule is relentless, and Weaver missed a lot of birthdays and anniversaries and dinners and so on. He was divorced from his first wife by the time he reached Double-A. Miller also concludes that Weaver probably could be considered an alcoholic by most standards. That's the way people of that era sometimes blew off steam, for better or worse (mostly worse, of course). Miller points out along the way that writer Bill James once estimated that 17 of the top 25 managers in baseball history were alcoholics. It would be interesting to see that list, although you'd hope that today's skippers are a little more aware of the dangers of traveling down that road.

Miller's workload in putting together this book is quite obvious. He personally visited several of Weaver's stops, from his native St. Louis through Elmira and Baltimore. The author has a long list of items that are source material. At the book's end, the reader really has the idea of what went right in Weaver's life - it's a good-sized list - and what went wrong. It's a balanced and full portrait. 

It's been almost 40 years since Earl Weaver last bounced out of the dugout to complain about, well, something. That might limit the potential number of readers for "The Last Manager." That's too bad, but almost anyone interested in Weaver and the profession of baseball managing will find this just about completely satisfying.

Five stars

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Review: Gut Punch (2024)

By Bob Gutkowski with Wallace Matthews

As a chief executive of a sports operation, you'd have to say that Bob Gutkowski has a fine track record.

He was the President of Madison Square Garden during a portion of the early 1990s, and that was a very good time for New York sports. You might remember that the New York Rangers won the Stanley Cup in 1994 - the only time that has happened since 1940. You also might remember that the New York Knicks reached the NBA Finals in 1995, only to fall just short in the series with the Houston Rockets. Still, there were some good times for the Knicks along the way. 

In hindsight, that accomplishment of having twin winners in New York looks even better now than it did then. Perhaps Gutkowski's biggest strength was getting some strong-willed people to work together, at least temporarily. 

Now, about 30 years later, Gutkowski looks back on his career in sports business with "Gut Punch." It's an easy read about some interesting times for all concerned.

Gutkowski's career dates back to 1970, when he was a page at NBC in New York. His main job was to herd crowds into programs like "The Tonight Show" and "Jeopardy." That may not sound like much, but among those who once had that job were Michael Eisner, Ted Koppel and Regis Philbin. From there things got more serious as Gutkowski worked on the business side of NBC Sports. He left for ESPN at just the right time, as the Connecticut-based network had just about figured out how to survive in a changing landscape.

From there it was on to Paramount Television, which took over Madison Square Garden, in 1985. Bob led the MSG Network for a few years and became president of Madison Square Garden in 1991. Let's face it - on the list of cool if stressful jobs, that's a pretty good one. It also supplies the meat of the book. 

Cleaning up the business end of the operation was the easy part for Gutkowski, who worked to bring in top concerts and some boxing matches to the New York City complex.   Getting the Rangers and Knicks to thrive was more difficult. The problem was personality clashes. In hockey, general manager Neil Smith and coach Mike Keenan didn't get along too well. OK, they couldn't stand each other. A highlight of the book was Gutkowski's meeting with the two of them early in 1994, figuring out how to help the team go on a playoff run. A flurry of trades before the deadline followed, and the Rangers went on to end a 54-year drought. 

In basketball, there weren't many personalities bigger in basketball at the time than Pat Riley, and he was the coach during that era. Riley worked for general manager Dave Checketts, and they had some major disagreements as well. When the dust finally settled, Riley was off to Miami, and the Knicks' era of top-level of play ended shortly after that. 

Gutkowski's stories about all of this work rather well. He also has some tales about George Steinbrenner, the late owner of the New York Yankees. Gutkowski helped negotiate a television deal between MSG and the Yankees that represented nearly a half-billion dollars in revenues .... which was good money at the time. Gutkowski also essentially had the idea for what became the YES Network. While that worked out well for the Yankees, and is still working out for the Yankees, Gutkowski didn't get a piece of the pie for his efforts and watched others profit from the concept. 

You don't land jobs like these without having a bit of an ego, and that's occasionally on display here. But Gutkowski comes across here as a rational man who can laugh at himself. He'd be a good companion over a nice dinner, if this is any indication.

There are a couple of obvious problems with the book. Sports business is a rather narrow of interest for most people. especially in the parts that are more business than sports. Some may get a little lost in the discussions at that end. Meanwhile, the most interesting portions of the publication deal with matters that are 30 years old or so. That leaves out quite a number of people.

Still, it's nice to have this side of the story down on paper. "Gut Punch" goes by quickly and sticks to the subject. Those who are interested enough in Gutkowski's stories to pick the book up in the first place will be happy they read it.

Three stars

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Review: The Why is Everything (2024)

By Michael Silver

Football fans no doubt have heard of the phrase "coaching tree" over the years. The concept centers on the idea that great football coaches often pick top-notch assistant coaches, who go on to work for other teams. Sometimes those assistants have learned their lessons and match or even top the accomplishments of their mentors; sometimes they fall short. But it's always interesting to trace the genealogy of a particular coach. 

The concept may have gotten off to a flying start in the late 1950s with the New York Giants. The head coach of the team then was a man named Jim Lee Howell, who won quite a few games and one championships back then. But he's been overshadowed by his two main assistant coaches, who would be called coordinators today. Vince Lombardi was one, and Tom Landry was the other. You can find out more about them by visiting the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton.

Bill Walsh has a coaching tree, thanks to his great work with the San Francisco 49ers. There's an indirect connection there between Walsh and Mike Shanahan, who popped up on the Niners' staff during the early 1990s. Shanahan had some success as a coordinator with the Broncos in the 1980s, and helped develop Steve Young into a championship quarterback with the 49ers in the early 1990s. From there he was instrumental as Denver's head coach toward the claiming of two more titles. 

Taking notes along the way was Mike's son, Kyle. If you look at the right footage from those good times, you sometimes can see Kyle hoping the cords to the headphones that his dad wore on the sidelines. (Soon that job disappeared when everything went wireless.) You could tell that Kyle had a strong interest in the coaching business, and you could guess that he'd be good at it. 

Sure enough, that's essentially what happened. Kyle was part of a group that has had a strong influence on football philosophy in the NFL. Author Michael Silver chronicles their story fully and completely in his frequently fascinating book "The Why Is Everything." 

These were coaches who worked hard and played hard, sometimes to their own detriment. If someone had came up with an idea about a particular aspect of the game, it was welcomed into the discussion no matter what the source was - but it had to be defended fully loudly from the comments of the rest of the coaches. In others, the presenting coaching had to explain why his idea was sound ... and the "why" was everything in that setting. It was almost a laboratory for coaching.

If you are a fan of the NFL, you know the names involved: Sean McVay, Raheem Morris, Matt LaFleur and Mike MacDonald. They all reached the exalted status of head coach in the NFL. McVay even won a Super Bowl, and Kyle Shanahan has come close. Today there is still a friendship there most of the time, but they also are rivals too. There's nothing better they like to do than beat the other guys.

What's fascinating, though, is that Silver does a great job of getting those involved and their associates to open up so much about the past decade. Little seems to be off the record here. Therefore there are plenty of great stories about such topics as Jared Goff's ups and downs with the Los Angeles Rams, Trey Lance's mostly downs with the 49ers, Tua Tagovailoa's emergence with the Miami Dolphins, and Aaron Rodgers' awkward departure from the Green Bay Packers.  Other tales about football come out as well, such as Robert Griffin's problems in Washington. 

In other words, this is like sitting down with some assistant coaches after practice over a few beers, and having them swap stories. Yes, the language is rather profane at times, although in some cases it seems to add to the authenticity of the feelings expressed. 

The one complaint that some might have about the book deals with the fact that it can be a little technical. Not all of the readers will be so well versed with football terminology that they'll understand the various schemes and plays that are outlined here. So this isn't really a book for the casual fan.

But for the others, "The Why is Everything" is as close as we'll get to finding out what's really happening in pro football. They'll enjoy every page.

Five stars

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Review: The Price (2024)

By Armen Keteyian & John Talty

Taken a look around college football these days? It's a mess. 

Players have started to make money, and they often aren't satisfied with what they get. Throw in the fact that if someone is benched because of a bad game, he starts to look into the transfer portal the first chance he gets. The rosters often change greatly from year to year. 

Meanwhile, the coaches often can't wait to move along to the next big job. Merely the threat of that switch is enough for their current employers to rewrite their contracts with some more zeroes involved. 

And scheduling has become a minefield. Rivalries that have been taking place for many decades are thrown by the wayside as conference affiliations seem to be rewritten on a yearly basis. That's led to such oddities as Stanford playing in the Atlantic Coast Conference, and the Mountain West Conference courting Northern Illinois to join as a football-only member. Bowl games are played before mostly empty seats with several players refusing to play because an injury might threaten their NFL draft status.

There's no rhyme or reason to all of this. It's a good idea to examine what's happening, and Armen Keteyian and John Talty help with this solid, long look at where we are in their book, "The Price." 

This sort of explosion was a long time in coming. The rules involving student-athletes had been exploitive for years. Their performances pulled in millions and millions of dollars to the universities, and all they saw out of it was a full scholarship. If they were in a bad situation for one reason or another, they had to wait a year to transfer ... which the coaches that picked them to receive grants-in-aid had no such restriction. The class example of the situation was when Doug Flutie walked around the Boston College campus in his playing days, and saw classmates wearing Flutie jerseys. His take from that purchase was $0. 

A group of lawsuits eventually worked their way through the system, and some of the rules disappeared. The phrase "Name, Image & Likeness" or NIL became ever-present around college sports, as there was a race to cash in on the opportunities. But any sort of system to standardize the rights of athletes hasn't been worked out. So no one knows what's legal, and no one knows what they can do. As Clemson coach Daby Swinney said, "There's no rules, no guidance, no nothing. It's out of control. It's not sustainable. It's an absolute mess and a train wreck, and the kids are going to be the ones who suffer in the end."

Keteyian and Talty have come along with a series of good-sized snapshots on events that have taken place in the sport recently. Some of the big names in the business are profiled nicely. Nick Saban, arguably the greatest coach of all time, was one of the most driven personalities in college football. Even he was worn down by everything around him, and retired from Alabama. That set off a chain reaction of coaching moves that affected several universities including the University at Buffalo, which lost its coach well into the offseason. Speaking of big names, Jim Harbaugh left Michigan right after winning the national championship, with something of a dark cloud following in the form of investigations. Jimbo Fisher was paid more than $77.6 million to go away. The way that coaches' agents try to manipulate the hiring process also gets a long look here.

The "haves" share some time with the "have somes." Maryland and Arizona can't keep up with Ohio State and Michigan under most circumstances, but it at least can have a winning record in the right circumstances. The catch is that if someone succeeds at that level as a coach, he may wind up elsewhere as soon as the season ends. And the midrange schools - Macy's instead of Sacks Fifth Avenue, in the authors' words - have to start over.

That's a lot to cover, and it certainly took some work to put it all together. Kudos to Keyeyian and Talty for their legwork. There's probably only one thing missing here. The subtitle of the book is "What It Takes to Win in College Football's Era of Chaos." That concept isn't really answered here, and it would have been nice if the authors had tried to guess what a workable system would look like eventually. 

We'll probably get to that point in the relatively near future. Still, "The Price" is a good snapshot at the state of college football today. 

Four stars

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Review: Globetrotter (2024)

By Mark Jacob and Matthew Jacob

The Harlem Globetrotters have a heck of an origin story. 

Sometime in the late 1920s, when basketball was essentially in its infancy on a national scale, a group of African Americans started barnstorming around the country in an attempt to make a living. They'd drive from city to city in cars that usually had a short shelf life, and take on all comers. They were good, really good - to the point that they usually beat most of their opponents handily. In fact, they sometimes had to clown around once the game was decided in order to keep the interest of the spectators. 

And the leader of the "band" was a 5-foot-3 Jewish immigrant named Abe Saperstein. There were a handful of sports promoters in those days who made a name for themselves, and Saperstein was as good as any of them. Somehow, the Harlem Globetrotters became nationally - and then internationally famous. 

That's the story that Mark Jacob and Matthew Jacob tell in "Globetrotter." It's billed as the first biography of Saperstein, which makes it a worthwhile enterprise right from the start.

The Globetrotters are still around today, which gives this story more relevancy. The fans who are still turning out to see the Trotters may not know just how good the team used to be. 

Let's face it - there weren't many opportunities for Black basketball players to earn a living in the pre-World War II era. There were some very primitive leagues back then, but they were mostly for white players only. Saperstein, once he formed the team, had his pick of some of the best players in the country who happened to be Black. And if you take a team like that and play several nights a week, you're going to have a very competitive squad in no time at all. Saperstein made it all work financially, setting up the games and publicizing the team as word spread about its exploits.

The Globetrotters were good, and at one point in 1948 even knocked off the powerful Minneapolis Lakers, who at the time were the defending champions of the National Basketball League. The Lakers had Hall of Famers such as George Mikan and Jim Polland on the roster, so that was quite a notch on the Trotters' proverbial revolver.

The National Basketball Association was created by a merger of two leagues soon after that, and African Americans started to show up on rosters in 1950. So the Globetrotters had to adapt, emphasizing entertainment first and basketball second. With the Cold War going on, the team even played a role in international relations. America's racial laws were the subject of a heavy dose of propaganda from the rival Soviet Union in those days, and the Trotters became something of ambassadors for the USA as they played overseas. They also spread the gospel of basketball along the way, helping the sport become second to only soccer in international popularity. 

Running the Globetrotters should have been enough for Saperstein, but he couldn't help himself. He was involved in an attempt with Bill Veeck in the early 1940s to buy the Philadelphia Phillies and turn them into an all-Black baseball team. Abe helped Veeck sign Satchel Paige for Veeck's Cleveland Indians in 1948. Saperstein was the guiding force behind the American Basketball League in the early 1960s, which introduced the three-point shot to basketball. The book tells about how the NBA offered Saperstein a franchise in San Francisco if he'd fold the ABL. He unwisely turned the deal down, and the new league lost a bunch of money before folding. 

The authors deserve some major credit for bringing up the major issue surrounding the Globetrotters, which concerns their role in the entertainment picture.  Some writers have described the team's antics as a modern-day minstrel show, in which Black performers travel around the country in performing for white audiences. On the other hand, there were few aspects of life - particularly in those early days - when Blacks could make fun of white authority figures like referees and opposing players and not start a riot. No matter where you stand on this issue, few people have anything but good memories of attending a Globetrotters game, particularly if they bring children along. 

If there's a small drawback to this book, it's that Saperstein has been dead for more than 50 years. That means there aren't many people alive today who worked with him. The authors did get the cooperation of family members, which helps, and uncovered some correspondence and records. But the story feels a little thin in details in spots, which is very understandable. 

Even so, Saperstein's life was a unique one, and deserves to be told. "Globetrotter" serves as a good way to catch up on a memorable character in sports history. 

Four stars

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