Counsel in the Crease: A Big League Player in the Hockey Wars [Hardcover]

Robert O Swados (Author), Scotty Bowman (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 3, 2005

In his diverse, exciting, and very active forty-five-year legal career, spent mainly in the world of professional sports, attorney Robert O Swados has worn many hats - owner, league executive, counsel, and franchise builder. In this wide-ranging and good-humoured memoir, Swados offers many behind-the-scenes insights into the players, coaches, executives, and owners who have created today's sports entertainment industry. Swados describes his early involvement in professional sports through his efforts in the 1960s to bring a Major League Baseball franchise to his hometown of Buffalo, NY. The deal was so close that a "New York Daily" News headline erroneously announced that new franchises would go to San Diego and Buffalo. But things really got interesting when in 1969 Swados helped Seymour Knox III and Northrup Knox to establish the Buffalo Sabres. Thus began an exciting thirty-year journey through the ups and downs of the National Hockey League. As part owner, vice chairman, and counsel of the Sabres, Swados has had many opportunities to 'score from the crease', and sometimes the action behind the scenes is just as rough and tumble as that on the ice. He tells many fascinating tales about his dealings with winning coaches including Scotty Bowman, with General Managers Punch Imlach and John Muckler, with owner John McMullen, and with commissioners John Ziegler and Gary Bettman, among others. He also talks frankly about the impact of Adelphia's bankruptcy on the fate of the Sabres and about the obsessions and frustrations of the 2004 NHL lockout. Perhaps no one in professional sports has had such an engaging and productive view. For hockey fans in the US and Canada, especially Buffalo Sabres fans, and anyone interested in the business of bigtime sports, Robert Swados's entertaining and informative story is a must-read.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Reading attorney Swados's fascinating if overlong autobiography of his half-decade of legal battles is rather like reading the full transcript of federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's recent indictment of vice-presidential aide "Scooter" Libby. Initially, both seem interminably meticulous accounts of relatively simple events, yet readers who stick with them until the end are greatly rewarded, since each author uses an obsession with detail in a sophisticated way to reveal the complexity behind his subject. In Swados's case, the bulk of his career was as counsel to various professional baseball and hockey organizations, and most of his book covers his single-minded efforts to bring sports franchises to the Buffalo, N.Y., area. But starting with an account of his WWII experience liberating Dachau when he was in the army, he begins a theme of unremitting conflict in which most incidents in the book are described in military terms, as wars Swados must win. One of his major battles was establishing the Buffalo Sabres in the National Hockey League, and fans of that team will thoroughly enjoy Swados's insider views of the Sabres and its various owners. General hockey fans will be enlightened by Swados's insights into the sport's various financial and legal imbroglios. (Jan.)
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About the Author

Robert O. Swados (Buffalo, NY) is presently a counsel for Phillips Lytle Hitchcock Blaine & Huber, a leading Buffalo law firm, and an officer for the Buffalo Sabres Hall of Fame and Foundation. He has been a member of the Hall of Fame since 1995 and chairman of its selection committee since 2001.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 492 pages
• Publisher: Prometheus Books (October 3, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1591023556
• ISBN-13: 978-1591023555
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,408,879 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable and informative reading, June 19, 2006

By 

RADICALRED (Niagara Falls, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Counsel in the Crease: A Big League Player in the Hockey Wars (Hardcover)

I loved this book. It was not only entertaining, but it gave a lot of insight into the workings of the legal field in pro sports as well as television and entertainment. I found myself thinking "I'd forgotten all about that" or "Is that how that came about?", and the hockey names from the past that I'd long since forgotten were brought back to the present by the writing of Mr. Swados. This was well worth the time it took to read it!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A strong memoir of his encounters with coaches, players, and owners alike, March 5, 2006

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Counsel in the Crease: A Big League Player in the Hockey Wars (Hardcover)

Hockey fans who are avid followers of the sport will surely recognize the name of Robert O. Swados, who has been a league owner, executive, and franchise builder in the professional hockey world for over forth years. Counsel In The Grease: A Big League Player In The Hockey Wars provides a strong memoir of his encounters with coaches, players, and owners alike, describing the many changes he's observed in the sport since his initial involvement in the 1960s, and his up and down years with the National Hockey League. A lively set of insights on the sports world as a whole makes Counsel In The Grease a highly recommended pick indeed.

8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Where'sThe Fact Checker???, February 26, 2006

By 

Taro Tsujimoto "Taro Says" (Buffalo, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Counsel in the Crease: A Big League Player in the Hockey Wars (Hardcover)

Good grief Robert, who was your fact checker?? Understandably this book was written by an aging old employee of the Sabres so a pass is given to him on his recollection of facts but GEEZ somebody at the publishing company should have checked this over before releasing this. Where do I begin? OK, Joe Daley was NOT traded for Roger Crozier...that was Tom Webster, Pat Lafontaine did not suffer his concussion against the Bruins, it was the Penguins, the Atlanta Flames entered the NHL in 1972 not 1974, the Capitals entered in 1974 not 1972, Floyd Smith was not the coach when Tony McKegney was drafted, Swados says he attended a game at the Copps Coliseum in Hamilton in 1981 and then in the next paragraph he says the building didn't exist in the early 1990's, which is it? Gil Perreault was not drafted in the Fall of 1969, Willie O'Ree was long out of the NHL (1960-61) when the Knox's had Oakland Seals ties, the Sabres did not play their first game in 1969, Dave Forman died in 1987 so how did you call him and ask for advice in the 1990's? The Buffalo Braves did not make the playoffs in the first 3 years etc. Facts like this should have been checked by SOMEBODY! All this and I'm only half way through the book. I'm all for telling the TRUE story of the Buffalo Sabres but find somebody who knows what's going on. What's Paul Wieland doing these days? John B.