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8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Best Sports Writing of the Year!!!, September 19, 2005
I usually read only fiction as I find non-fiction and biography to be on the heavy side; however, my husband forced me to read this book after he thought it was one of the best books he ever read, saying, "if you enjoyed Seabiscuit, then you'll love this, because it's ten times better." I can honestly say that while it's not ten times better than Seabiscuit, it is definitely on the same level.
Goldman does an amazing job showing how Stengel was really an intelligent man, displaying an American wit, typical of one from the Midwest and the great Mark Twain. After reading "Forging Genius" I discovered that Stengel was an incredibly funny guy with tremendous observational powers. It was truly a compelling and fluid story and I was surprised at how talented this first-time author is.
Forging Genius was meticulously researched, and what really shines through was how much the author enjoyed researching and writing about this colorful personality. It may make Goldman's story a tad biased on the positive side, but in today's cynical society, it was refreshing to see just a touch of hero-worship in a book about a man long considered to be a buffoon in baseball circles. Goldman proves that Stengel was ahead of his time and a genius to boot!
DON'T PASS THIS ONE UP!!!
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
the title is perfect, April 6, 2008
This review is from: Forging Genius: The Making of Casey Stengel (Paperback)
Goldman, who writes for the NY Sun and more significantly, Baseball Prospectus, is a historian who interviewed nine of Stengel's players and tirelessly read 60 years worth of New York newspapers and books for this book.
George Weiss stunned baseball insiders, the press corps and Yankee fans when he hired Stengel in the fall of 1948. Many derided Stengel as a clown and a "second division manager." Stengel won 5 straight World Series with the Yankees (and an overall total of 7 titles and 10 pennants). After his unparalleled success, many of those who scoffed began to call him a genius. Goldman's book only spends two chapters on Casey's time with the Yankees; the bulk of it is about his playing and earlier managing career, where his genius was created and tested.
The highlights and major points of the book are the following:
1) his relationship with John McGraw
2) how McGraw platooned Stengel, thus creating the manager who would bring the platoon into vogue
3) how Bucky Harris invented the stopper with Joe Page, and how Stengel adopted and adapted his strategy
4) Stengel's love and ability to teach young players
5) how he used humor and obfuscation with the press
6) his relationship with Frankie Frisch
7) his relationship with Billy Martin
8) how, unlike most people inside and outside of baseball, he was able to learn and adapt as he grew older and moved up the chain of command
It's a wonderful, informative book with loads of quotes and funny stories.
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18 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Boring, July 11, 2005
Goldman takes one of baseball's most entertaining characters and somehow manages to present us a story as lifeless as a pine tar rag. There is no organizing theme to this narrative. Although the chapters are presented chronologically (playing career, managing in Brooklyn, then Boston), the anectodes skip around in an unorganized way -- making it hard to keep track of what is happening when, or why we should care.
Here's what's interesting:
- Casey Stengel played for John McGraw, and they had a close relationship that amounted to McGraw willingly tutoring and nuturing Stengel's active mind. McGraw was an important mentor to Stengel, as a faculty advisor is an important mentor to a graduate student. (McGraw's influence among 20th century managers has been well documented by Bill James).
- Casey was instrumental in shaping Billy Martin's playing career, both with the Oaks in the PCL and with the Yankees. But there are important differences between Stengel and Martin's approach to managing (although this is never discussed).
- Casey managed some incrediblly bad teams (Boston Braves, NY Mets) and some incrediblly good ones. And he liked to platoon players, use his bench, and valued multi-positional players that increased his decision-making flexibility. On his best teams was able to rely on a few switch-hitters or star hitters that allowed him to save his platoon match-ups for players with reserve or part-time roles. However, this rarely (if ever) was extended to pitchers, whom he constantly moved in and out of different roles regardless of their talent level.
What we don't read about in this book is how managers that came after Stengel also employed these kinds of techniques. Whitey Herzog (for example) valued multi-positional players. Earl Weaver built active benches with situational hitters around a few switch-hitting or star regulars (as did Herzog) and used complez defensive and offensive platoons.
There is a good anecdote or two in the text, but this is not the best source for reader's looking for funny Stengel stories. At worst, this book merely reinforces the idea that baseball players are little more than Strat-o-matic cards to be shuffled in and out of the line up to manipulate probability distributions. Upon finishing the book, we are left with little idea of how Casey actually liked to built his teams, communicate with players, solve problems or provide leadership. We are told Stengel was (and considered himself) a good teacher, but we don't really know what Stengel was trying to teach, which is disappointing.
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