Champions: The Story of the First Two Oakland A's Dynasties and the Building of the Third [Hardcover]

Glenn Dickey (Author), Vida Blue (Author), Joe Morgan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 2002

Not long after its original publication some fifteen years ago, A Golf Story assumed its rightful place as one of the classics of golf literature. This book intertwines the stories of three immortal subjects the legendary player Bobby Jones; the Augusta National; and the Masters Tournament; into a compelling narrative that is much greater than the sum of its parts.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

The Oakland A's baseball team has spawned two minidynasties in the last 30 years and currently seems ready to do it again. In his account of the team's glory years, Dickey, a veteran San Francisco Chronicle sportswriter, effectively mixes a straight narrative approach with lively oral history. The original A's dynasty of the early seventies featured Reggie Jackson and Catfish Hunter, but the dominant personality belonged to owner Charles Finley. Dickey ably re-creates Finley's larger-than-life persona: penurious, egomaniacal, and a meddler of the worst sort, yet an owner who assembled an organization that worked. In the late eighties, under new ownership, the A's put together another outstanding team, built around Mark McGwire. In profiling the two earlier dynasties and the current team, Dickey conveys a vivid sense of how three very different organizations were able to sign talented young players and nurture them to stardom. A treat for anyone who wants to revisit two of baseball's most colorful teams--and a learner's manual for all those other teams that can't ever get it right. Wes Lukowsky
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author

Charles Price spent three years interweaving his firsthand experience with Augusta and the Masters that dates back to 1948 (including, uniquely, access to Augusta's prized archives) with an equally unique friendship with the great man himself, Bobby Jones.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Triumph Books (March 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 157243421X
• ISBN-13: 978-1572434219
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,471,095 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Best Account Yet of the Best Team Ever, April 17, 2002

By 

Steven Douglas (Oakland, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Champions: The Story of the First Two Oakland A's Dynasties and the Building of the Third (Hardcover)

I consider myself not only an avid baseball fan, but a die hard Oakland Athletics fan. I have read numerous books about the A's, but never has there been a book as thorough, original and entertaining as Champions. The detailed account Dickey provides of the three dynasties, from Finley to Henderson to Giambi, is both informative and enlightening.

Champions is easy to read, easy to follow and impossible to put down. I recommend this book to all baseball fans, particularly those with a soft spot for the Oakland Athletics.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A GOOD LOOK AT BUILDING THE A'S DYNASTIES, September 2, 2002

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Champions: The Story of the First Two Oakland A's Dynasties and the Building of the Third (Hardcover)

I HIGHLY SUGGEST THIS FOR ANYONE WHO WANTS TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THE GREAT A'S TEAMS OF THE PAST AND PRESENT. I ADMIRED AND RESPECTED THOSE THE TEAMS OF THE EARLY 70'S. THEY TRULY WERE ONE OF THE BEST TEAMS IN MODERN HISTORY. THE TEAMS OF THE LATE 80'S AND EARLY 90'S WERE AWSOME WITH THE BASH BROTHERS. THE TEAM OF NOW HAS GREAT PITCHING AND TIMELY HITTING EVEN WITH THE LOSS OF THE GIAMBINO. THE AUTHOR DOES DOES A GREAT JOB DESCRIBING THE EVENTS THAT LED UP TO THE DYNASTIES AND SOME FACTS ABOUT THE PRIVATE LIFE OF THE MAJOR CONTRIBUTORS. ALL IN ALL IT IS A VERY DETAILED AND INTERESTING READ. ALL BASEBALL FANS SHOULD READ THIS BOOK.