Customer Reviews

A Baseball Dynasty: Charlie Finley's Swingin' A's

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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.

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.

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