Baseball And Billions: A Probing Look Inside The Big Business Of Our National Pastime [Paperback]

Andrew Zimbalist (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 6, 1994

"A savvy analysis of the game's financial problems" (Los Angeles Times), now updated throughout and featuring a new chapter on recent controversies and upheavals in the game. Selected as one of the best books of the year by Business Week.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A professor of economics at Smith College, Zimbalist ( Comparing Economic Systems ) here presents the best recent work about baseball's economic aspects. He analyzes profits, franchise values, attendance and ticket pricing, the relations between teams and their host cities, minor-league ball and player salaries. Admirably objective, he is skeptical about the owners, whose creative bookkeeping practices make their cries of poverty almost credible; he is skeptical about the players, who generally play poorly after they sign multi-year contracts; he is skeptical about the media, whom he finds massively ignorant of sports economics and presumably content to be so. Finally, he demonstrates that those who predict the demise of the national pastime need not be right. Scholarly and impressive.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

"If I were a rich man," sings Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof . Change the words of this catchy tune to "I am a rich man" and you have the owners and athletes who play catch in Zimbalist's (economics, Smith Coll.) book. Baseball and Billions describes a game with revenues approximating those of corporations, owners who receive public taxes worth millions, and ballplayers with salaries averaging over $1 million a year . The author has assembled facts and figures from owners, front office personnel, players, and politicians to present a picture of a national pastime that is threatened by greed, exploitation, and abuse of public trust. From Brooklyn to St. Petersburg, Florida there is agreement that something needs to be done to make the game less corporate and more responsible to its fans. This book will be of interest to both scholars and fans of the game who enjoy the cry, "Play ball!"-- Albert Spencer, Coll. of Education, Univ. of Nevada-Las Vegas
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books; Updated edition (April 6, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0465006159
• ISBN-13: 978-0465006151
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #340,669 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Insight into business of professional baseball, May 3, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Baseball And Billions: A Probing Look Inside The Big Business Of Our National Pastime (Paperback)

Very interesting insight into the economics that drive the business side of baseball. I recommend this to anyone interested in the behind-the-scenes business of baseball.

2 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Updated to cover recent events, June 11, 1998

By 

moneyblows books (Lee, NH) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Baseball And Billions: A Probing Look Inside The Big Business Of Our National Pastime (Paperback)

Updated to cover events such as Fay Vincent's dismissal as baseball commissioner, and the lawsuit over the Seattle Mariners and San Francisco Giants' decisions not to move to Tampa

4 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Baseball and Billions Book Review, October 20, 2002

By 

Eric Jimenez (Santa Monica, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Baseball And Billions: A Probing Look Inside The Big Business Of Our National Pastime (Paperback)

Baseball and Billions by Andrew Zimbalist is an okay book. In my opinion it is not an outstanding book because it just gave too many numbers and charts that quite didn't make sense to me, even though I do like the sport. While reading this book by Andrew Zimbalist I did learn some interesting facts about baseball that I never knew of before reading this book. Even though it might start off interesting, later in the book, in my opinion,it just gets a bit boring. Out of 5 stars I give this book 3 stars.