The TL;DR version of this review: I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the Dodgers or avid baseball fans in general despite two disappointing chapters at the end.
When I first hear about this book, I was incredibly excited for it. The last few years for the Dodgers have probably been the most exciting since the 80s. After finishing the book over the weekend, I really enjoyed reading it, though my excitement was tempered a bit through the last couple chapters.
First, Molly Knight is an excellent writer. There is never a point where the book drags or lulls. I found myself reading this much faster than I usually do because of the flow. The writing pulls you into the drama of moments, recreating the uncertainty, the unpredictably, so that you feel the same surprises and tension all over again. This is a book you won't want to put down once you start.
Knight also does an excellent job of laying out the scene and the absolutely absurdity of everything that was going on with the Dodgers in 2012 and 2013. She goes back all the way to the sale of the Dodgers from the O'Malley family to Fox, then to the McCourts, detailing the circumstances that led to each sale and what put the Dodgers in their sad state in 2011. As a Dodger fan, it was painful to relive those moments, but they have poignancy because of Knight's writing. Knight goes into what led to the bankruptcy, what led to the sale to the Guggenheim group, and the crazy season that progressed in 2013 with all of its highs and lows.
Knight does a good job of giving everyone a fair shake. That doesn't mean that every person comes out looking great, but Knight avoids using common perception to cover the people in her book. She presents the facts as they are and lets her readers decide what to think. This is probably no more true for anyone than Yasiel Puig. Knight goes to great lengths to show his whole story, focusing both on the good and the bad parts of his persona, but never passing judgment on him one way or the other. She simply presents the picture leaving it to readers to decide whether he is a privileged child who was never reined in or a player who was constantly in fear of losing his family or his life and left without proper support.
My only disappointment with the book came in the last two chapters. By far the best part of the book is Knight's coverage of the 2013 season where she goes into great detail of the Dodgers awful start, the injury bug that the team couldn't shake in the first half, and the subsequent outburst that came in the second half of the season. The problem is that so much time was spent on that one season that the rest of the book feels rushed. It takes about six chapters to cover the 2013 season; the 2014 season and the offseason after are covered in just two. Perhaps the part that I was looking forward to the most - the replacement of Ned Colletti and the front office with Friedman and his crew - was the least detailed part of the book. There aren't any revelations about how the Dodgers were able to pull Friedman away from Tampa Bay when so many other teams had failed, or the rationale behind creating the front office in the way they did. The 2014 season was also glossed over aside from some details on how the playoffs played out. This isn't too say that it's not well written in those chapters, but those chapters felt more like a season recap in a sports magazine.
Overall, I highly recommend this book. Despite the last two chapters, it was a fascinating read and it kept my attention the entire time. Knight is an excellent writer that expertly captures the behind-the-scenes events during some of the most exciting Dodgers seasons in recent memory. I hope this is the first of many books she writes on baseball because she has a gift for it.
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A well written book on the 2013-2015 Los Angeles Dodgers
Reviewed in the United States on May 15, 2020
To be honest, this book was well written but it was overhyped. A lot of the stuff written in this book I could have found in the Los Angeles Times Sports pages during and after the 2013 through 2015 Los Angeles Dodger seasons, on the Dodgers' MLB.com site, or from fan comments on Dodgers YouTube pages.The good news about this book is that Molly Knight is a heck of a writer and she was super objective in this book, even though she is a huge Dodgers fan. You gotta give her credit for that.Pros of this book: Like I said before, the book was well written and objective. I also liked how Knight spent a lot of space in this book on unsung or no-name players on the Dodgers' 2013-2015 teams like IF Nick Punto, OF Skip Schumaker, IF Michael Young, and others.Cons of this book: This book was overhyped. A lot of stuff in this book was common knowledge especially if you're a big or even casual Dodger fan. Every Dodger fan knew that Yasiel Puig and Matt Kemp didn't really get along, that the McCourts mucked up the Dodgers' progress, and so on.In conclusion, Knight wrote a well put together book that will appease Dodger fans who can recall the 2013 to 2015 seasons.
Reviewed in the United States on May 15, 2020
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Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 20, 2015
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 1, 2016
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 15, 2020
The good news about this book is that Molly Knight is a heck of a writer and she was super objective in this book, even though she is a huge Dodgers fan. You gotta give her credit for that.
Pros of this book: Like I said before, the book was well written and objective. I also liked how Knight spent a lot of space in this book on unsung or no-name players on the Dodgers' 2013-2015 teams like IF Nick Punto, OF Skip Schumaker, IF Michael Young, and others.
Cons of this book: This book was overhyped. A lot of stuff in this book was common knowledge especially if you're a big or even casual Dodger fan. Every Dodger fan knew that Yasiel Puig and Matt Kemp didn't really get along, that the McCourts mucked up the Dodgers' progress, and so on.
In conclusion, Knight wrote a well put together book that will appease Dodger fans who can recall the 2013 to 2015 seasons.
A well written book on the 2013-2015 Los Angeles Dodgers
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 15, 2020
To be honest, this book was well written but it was overhyped. A lot of the stuff written in this book I could have found in the Los Angeles Times Sports pages during and after the 2013 through 2015 Los Angeles Dodger seasons, on the Dodgers' MLB.com site, or from fan comments on Dodgers YouTube pages.Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 15, 2020
The good news about this book is that Molly Knight is a heck of a writer and she was super objective in this book, even though she is a huge Dodgers fan. You gotta give her credit for that.
Pros of this book: Like I said before, the book was well written and objective. I also liked how Knight spent a lot of space in this book on unsung or no-name players on the Dodgers' 2013-2015 teams like IF Nick Punto, OF Skip Schumaker, IF Michael Young, and others.
Cons of this book: This book was overhyped. A lot of stuff in this book was common knowledge especially if you're a big or even casual Dodger fan. Every Dodger fan knew that Yasiel Puig and Matt Kemp didn't really get along, that the McCourts mucked up the Dodgers' progress, and so on.
In conclusion, Knight wrote a well put together book that will appease Dodger fans who can recall the 2013 to 2015 seasons.
Images in this review
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Thomas Pringle
A fantastic book
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on August 3, 2015
