Paths to Glory: How Great Baseball Teams Got That Way [Paperback]

Daniel R. Levitt (Author), Mark L. Armour (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 30, 2004

An essential experience of being a baseball fan is the hopeful anticipation of seeing the hometown nine make a run at winning the World Series. In Paths to Glory, Mark L. Armour and Daniel R. Levitt review how teams build themselves up into winners. What makes a winning team like the 1900 Brooklyn Superbas or the 1917 White Sox or the 1997 Florida Marlins? And how are these teams different? What makes each championship team a unique product of its time? Armour and Levitt provide the historical context to show how the sport's business side has changed dramatically but its competitive environment remains the same.

Utilizing new statistics to evaluate a player’s value and career patterns, Armour and Levitt explore the teams that took risks, created their own opportunities, and changed the game. How did the Washington Senators achieve the unthinkable and blow past Babe Ruth’s Yankees in 1924 and 1925? How did the 1965 Minnesota Twins quickly rise to the top and why did they just as suddenly fall? Did Charlie Finley assemble the last old-fashioned championship team before free agency, or was the Moustache Gang another example of winning by building from within? Why did the star-laden Red Sox of the 1930s keep falling short? In exploring these teams and more, Armour and Levitt analyze the players, the managers, and the executives who built teams to win and then lived with the consequences.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Daniel R. Levitt is a baseball researcher devoted to resolving historical questions about pitch counts and the lowest single-season ERA, but during the day he manages capital markets for a national commercial real estate firm. He lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Mark Armour is a Red Sox fan who works in the sorftware industry and dreams of the day when he can talk about his team's path to glory. He has published articles with the Society of American Baseball Research (SABR).

Product Details

• Paperback: 422 pages
• Publisher: Potomac Books Inc. (April 30, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1574888056
• ISBN-13: 978-1574888058
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,772,462 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, but not what it says it is, February 15, 2004

By 

William Johnson "Bill Johnson AKA MeisterZinger" (White Rock, NM USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Paths to Glory (H) (Hardcover)

I got this book on the recommendation of some baseball pundits that I respect greatly (the Baseball Prospectus crowd), but to be honest, I found it somewhat disappointing. The problem isn't poor scholarship (it's first-rate) nor inferior sabermetrics (the analytical approach is sound) nor any other quibbles with the findings. Rather, it's that the content is something rather different than the title implies: rather than discussing "how great baseball teams got that way," which would indeed be a fascinating subject, it digresses into two much less interesting topics.

The first ill-advised topical digression is that it rarely really talks about "great" baseball teams, at least not dynastic ones (with significant exceptions in sections on the Oakland A's of the 1970s and the Atlanta Braves of the 1990s, both of which are excellent analyses). Instead too much time is spent not just on near-misses but on one-shot wonders that never got close to real greatness. I mean, the 1924 Washington Senators may have been a great human-interest story (after all, the immortal Walter Johnson finally got his ring...), but a "great" team? Hardly, and they never had a realistic chance to be great. Too many other chapters follow this pattern of looking at the wrong teams, and not for want of subject material -- where were the discussions of the blue-smoke-and-mirrors St. Louis Cardinals of the 1960s or 1980s, the great Koufax/Drysdale/Los Angeles pitching juggernauts, and above all, the post-WWII Yankees? The subject of this book simply was not as advertised.

Second, to report *that* a thing occurred is not the same as to say *how* it occurred, much less *why*. Practically all of this book's case studies are long on data but short on analysis, and particularly short on conclusions that address the question promised in the title. Lacking such a focus, too many of the chapters don't provide much insight beyond what can be gained in the superficial team histories of a Palmer/Thorn "Total Baseball." The authors promised more, and should have delivered it.

These concerns aside, there is much to like here. The explanation of statistical techniques is excellent work, a number of historical trends in baseball are skillfully discussed, and the appendices are full of useful information. I would therefore still give "Paths to Glory" a qualified thumbs up for the thoughtful baseball fan, as long as that fan doesn't expect total fidelity to the title, or to the expectation that the "why" questions in this most beautiful of sports are going to be answered to the reader's satisfaction.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A "must-read" for professional baseball fans, June 7, 2004

By 

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

This review is from: Paths to Glory: How Great Baseball Teams Got That Way (Paperback)

Paths To Glory: How Great Baseball Teams Got That Way is a close study of how championship baseball teams came to be assembled. Focusing on both teams as a whole and the stories of great individual players, and also with an intriguing spotlight on stellar teams expected to win that didn't, Paths To Glory delves into extensive statistical research as well as logic, speculation, and wisdom from the players and coaches themselves to offer a composite portrait into what truly makes a winning team tick. A "must-read" for professional baseball fans and anyone seeking to learn team-building tips from the pros.

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of best Baseball books I have read!, August 14, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Paths to Glory (H) (Hardcover)

The writers have explored baseball in a unique format that really works. I really enjoyed how they followed teams and explained why they achieved their success and maintained it (or did not). For a student of the game or a casual baseball reader, this book is a must. It is on one hand very informative, but also well written so not so analytical that impacts your enjoyment. I would hate to compete against these guys in a fantasy league. Hope there will will be a part two that follows other teams, like the Tigers of the late 1960's.