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Ebbets to Veeck to Busch: Eight Owners Who Shaped Baseball

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For anyone interested in the business of baseball this is an interesting and informative collective biography of several of the owners of major league baseball teams throughout the history of the sport. Taking the approach, with which I agree, that the real action of the MLB takes place off the field, this husband and wife team of authors profile the careers of eight significant figures in MLB history. Taking a chronological approach these include Charles Ebbets of the Brooklyn Dodgers, Barney Dreyfuss of the Pittsburgh Pirates, Helene Britton of the St. Louis Cardinals, Clark Griffith of the Washington Senators, Walter O'Malley of the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers, Bill Veeck of the Chicago White Sox/St. Louis Browns/Cleveland Indians, Charlie Finley of the Kansas City/Oakland A's, and Augie Busch of the St. Louis Cardinals.

All of the individual chapters are well researched and offer a solid biographical assessment of the individual owner. They also emphasize various aspects of the ideas at play in the game and its ownership. This is an interesting collection and well worth reading.

The choices of who is profiled here is probably one of the most interesting points to debate. The Boxerman's eight owners is not the same that I would have chosen, and among the missing are such notables as anyone from the most successful of all of the teams in baseball, the New York Yankees, Tom Yawkey from the Boston Red Sox, Connie Mack from the Philadelphia A's, Ted Turner of the Atlanta Braves, anyone from the New York/San Francisco Giants, or anyone from any of the expansion teams created since the 1960s.

So what do we learn from this collection of baseball owners' biographies? Each person made unusual and above the norm contributions to the game as played at the major league level. Bill Veeck was a showman and tried to entertain. Charlie Finley was an innovator who argued for the designated hitter and night playoff games. Walter O'Malley moved the Dodgers to Los Angeles.

This is an enjoyable and sometimes insightful exploration of a complex and interesting subject.

The collaborative effort of Burton and Benita Boxerman, Ebbets To Veeck To Busch: Eight Owners Who Shaped Baseball is a grand survey of eight remarkable individuals whose time, fortunes, and effort invested in the baseball teams they owned helped shape the course of this great American sport throughout the 20th Century. Especially focusing on the contributions that each one made to their respective teams, as well as to the sport as a whole (rather than centering upon their financial or personal lives), Ebbets To Veeck To Busch is a remarkable and highly commended study of influence and the fruits of hard labors at the highest level of athletic team management and baseball club ownership.

I've been a baseball fan for years, and have always enjoyed stories that provided insight into the players, coaches and managers in the game. However, I didn't realize how little I knew about baseball owners until I read this book. I found a wealth of knowledge about eight of the most influential baseball owners, with enough information and anecdotes to give me a feel for their personalities. This is a great book for fans that want a better perspective on the history of the game of baseball.

My only complaint about this book is the $35.00 price tag for a paperback book. Otherwise I believe the idea of choosing eight owners who shaped the course of baseball is a great idea for a book. I have to admit I have never heard of Helene Britton, a one-time owner of the St. Louis Cardinals. The choices of Walter O'Malley, Bill Veeck, Charlie Finley, and "Gussie" Busch should be very familiar to anyone who has followed the game the past 50 years. Charles Ebbets, who proclaimed, "Baseball is in its infancy.", Clark Griffith, who hated doubleheaders because fans got to see two games for the price of one, and the recently elected member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, Barney Dreyfuss (along with O'Malley) are all worthy choices for this book. I found most of the anecdotes about the individuals in this book have been covered in other books, but the reader is provided with a good summary of their careers. On page 79 the authors state that Eddie "Kid" Foster had such great bat control that Clark Griffith allowed a runner at first to go at will and "was duly credited with introducing a new hit-and-run play to baseball." However, the much respected baseball writer Fred Lieb in his book entitled The Baltimore Orioles credit John McGraw and Willie Keeler with the introduction of the hit-and-run play in the 1890s. You will find that many of the labor problems that plagued baseball in the 1970s were really nothing new dating back to before the turn of the 20th century. We read plenty of books about the men who play the game. Take a seat and see the game from the owners' point of view. I think you will find it to be quite interesting.

I thought this book was written for baseball experts, for those who know bios, stats, names and numbers. Was I wrong! I do enjoy baseball, but I am far from an expert on names, numbers or stats. Actually, the book had a lot of that kind of information, but it is tucked inside such interesting stories that you don't feel like you are being smothered in dry facts and numbers. Every chapter, a story unto itself, gives you a look into the team owners - a little about their personal life, but mostly how they acquired their teams, how they related to their teams, and the relationships with the other team owners. Also, every one of the owners in the book has made some special contribution to the game, and I kept finding myself saying, "Wow! I didn't know that!" I would recommend the book to any baseball fan and to anyone who has an interest in baseball and would just enjoy a good read.