A Baseball Dynasty: Charlie Finley's Swingin' A's [Paperback]

Bruce Markusen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 15, 2002

The winner of the Society of American Baseball Research's Seymour Medal as the best book of 1998, this revised edition of "Baseball's Last Dynasty" now contains added interviews with stars Jim "Mudcat" Grant, Joe Rudi, Gene Tenace, and John "Blue Moon" Odom. Other new material includes updated and expanded accounts from the raucous 1972 regular season and World Series, year-by-year statistical summaries of Oakland's dynastic run, and news-making headlines from the turbulent 1970s. Here is the full and complete story of the team known as the "Mustache Gang."

Product Details

• Paperback: 430 pages
• Publisher: Saint Johann Press (January 15, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1878282239
• ISBN-13: 978-1878282231
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 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: #164,529 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finley's Dynasty Swings Again, December 23, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: A Baseball Dynasty: Charlie Finley's Swingin' A's (Paperback)

This book is an updated and expanded version of the original book, which came out in 1998 and won the Seymour Medal from the Society for American Baseball Research as the best baseball book of the year.

I like this new edition (A Baseball Dynasty: Charlie Finley's Swingin' A's) better, since there is quite a bit of added material. It includes some headlines from the early 1970s, giving the reader a bit more flavor from that tumultuous decade. There are statistical tables on each of the A's' seasons from 1971 to 1975. And there is new interview material with Joe Rudi and Blue Moon Odom that was not included in the first edition. Also, a better title and a better cover, featuring reproductions of some classic Topps baseball cards from the 1970s. There's a 1974 Topps card of Catfish Hunter, a 1972 Topps card of Mudcat Grant (with those mutton-chop sideburns) and 1973 Topps cards of Reggie Jackson and Rollie Fingers. Good stuff.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A Drudgingly Boring Book on A Very Exciting Team, September 6, 2003

By 

Yarby "yarby" (Medina, OH United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Baseball Dynasty: Charlie Finley's Swingin' A's (Paperback)

When I picked up this book, I thoroughly expected it to be full of anecdotes about one of the most exciting teams and eccentric owners of all time. What I got was much less. Basically, this book rehashes the box scores and quotations of the time...and adds little else.

Not only that...there are typos galore.

If you idea of fun reading is statistics in paragraph form....go for it. I prefer something a little less boring.

0 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Charlie Finley's Champion A's, July 28, 2008

By 

Ellenbf (Northern NJ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Baseball Dynasty: Charlie Finley's Swingin' A's (Paperback)

Fantastic! Those were the days ... the swingin' A's ... three championship (consecutive) seasons. Excellent DVD ... great memories!