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Charlie Finley: The Outrageous Story of Baseball's Super Showman |  | Authors: G. Michael Green, Roger D. Launius
Publisher: Walker & Company
Category: Book
List Price: $27.00
Buy New: $14.42
as of 9/7/2010 07:19 CDT details
You Save: $12.58 (47%)
New (31) Used (9) from $14.42
Seller: ---greatbookdeals
Rating:  12 reviews
Sales Rank: 39628
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Pages: 368
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.5 x 1.3
ISBN: 0802717454
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.357092
EAN: 9780802717450
ASIN: 0802717454
Publication Date: July 6, 2010
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| • | ISBN13: 9780802717450 | | • | Condition: New | | • | Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed |
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Product Description
Before the "Bronx Zoo" of George Steinbrenner and Billy Martin, there were the Oakland Athletics of the early 1970s, one of the most successful, most colorful—and most chaotic—baseball teams of all time. They were all of those things because of Charlie Finley. Not only the A's owner, he was also the general manager, personally assembling his team, deciding his players' salaries, and making player moves during the season—a level of involvement no other owner, not even Steinbrenner, engaged in. Drawing on interviews with dozens of Finley's players, family members, and colleagues, G. Michael Green and Roger D. Launius present "Baseball's Super Showman" (Time magazine's description of Finley on the cover of an August 1975 issue) in all his contradictions: generous yet vengeful, inventive yet destructive. The stories surrounding him are as colorful as the life he led, the chronicle of which fills an important gap in baseball's literature.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 12
 Charlie O. August 22, 2010
GeorgeD
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Anything to do with Charlie O. is fascinating. He is quintessentially American....someone fascinating to me ever since I was a young boy who loved baseball in the 70s. Overall a very good book and worth the money.
 Charley Finley, the Outrageous Story of Baseball's Super Showman August 21, 2010
teacher (central CA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
We heard about this bio during the Giants sports broadcast. The team of reporters was discussing
what an insightful and interesting book this was. We definitely agree. It is a great read and is filled
with lots of inside stories from baseball glory days. This one will definitely keep you entertained
between games.
Long overdue August 14, 2010
H. Argun (United States)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is a truly interesting book and should have been written long ago. The book is a biography of Charles O. Finley former insurance executive, businessman and owner of the Oakland A's. The book starts out describing Finley's simple beginnings and progresses to how he made his fortune in the insurance industry which gave him the money to buy the Kansas City Athletics. From there it describes the move of the ball club to Oakland and the many changes Finley brought to major league baseball as well as the many people he came into conflict with and aggravated. Finley's ideas were numerous from orange baseballs to the designated hitter to having a player on the active roster whose sole job it was to be a pinch runner, and he definitely sought to bring change to MLB. The book also revealed his personal relationships which were usually filled with conflict as well as his many legal battles. I thought the description of the departure of Catfish Hunter from the A's and the eventual beginning of free agency was particularly detailed and well written. The book is a page turner with (thanks to Finley's antics and ideas) never a dull moment. There is also a section of black and white photos of Finley, his family members, and members of the Oakland A's. Overall, this is a very well written and detailed book and for any baseball fan of the 1970's or fan of the Oakland A's is must reading and will not disappoint.
A must-read for every baseball fan August 6, 2010
J. Samuel Walker (University Park, Maryland USA)
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
This is a terrific book that should be on the reading list of every baseball fan. It demonstrates how Finley, a colorful and controversial character by any standard, played a key role in bringing about important changes in the rules and practices of major league baseball, including the designated hitter in the American League, night World Series games, and neon uniforms. It also demonstrates how the pennant-winning empire he built in Oakland was destroyed by free-agency and his own blustering ineptitude. Green and Launius show that Finley was both a brilliant innovator and a bumbling buffoon, and they discuss his personality and his career fully, frankly, and convincingly. They combine the research and analytical skills of scholars with superb writing skills to produce an illuminating and thoroughly enjoyable book.
Charlie Finley - A Compelling Account of One of Baseball's Most Fascinating and Important Owners August 3, 2010
Ed Edmonds
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
Mike Green and Roger Launius have done a masterful job of producing an entertaining and readable account of the life of Charlie Finley, one of baseball's most controversial owners. Combining painstaking research with interviews of family members, former players, employees, broadcasters, and baseball officials, the authors have covered both the high and low points of Finley's years as an owner. Finley was a quintessential micromanager. He fired managers at a high rate long before George Steinbrenner bought the Yankees. Green and Launius describe in detail his relationship with his managers, players, other owners, and, in particular, his nemesis Bowie Kuhn, the Commissioner of Baseball during most of the period that Finley owned the Kansas City and Oakland A's. The authors have also contributed strongly to the published books on Finley and the A's by describing the substantial impact of Finley's divorce from Shirley, his wife from 1941 until March 1974. The divorce was messy and nasty because Finley refused to comply with numerous court orders requesting information and documents. Near the end of the book, the authors quoted noted Washington Post sportswriter Shirley Povich on Finley's legacy and life: "Was he a genius or a crackpot, a career maverick or a buffoon, a liar, an angry man, an egomaniac, good for baseball or bad for baseball?" After reading Green and Launius' account of his life, you may tend to agree with Povich that "he was all of the above."
- Ed Edmonds, Associate Dean for Library and Information Technology, Professor of Law, Notre Dame Law School
Showing reviews 1-5 of 12
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