The Game

Starred review from May 18, 2015
The action is in the boardroom, not the ballpark, in this dramatic account of the business side of baseball. Journalist Pessah follows the 23-year reign of retiring baseball commissioner Bud Selig. During his tenure, the sport wrestled with labor conflicts over ballooning player salaries, including a work stoppage that cancelled the 1994 World Series; a split between large-market and small-market teams over revenue-sharing; and the simmering scandal of steroid abuse, which threatens to wreck the game (after helping rescue it by fostering crowd-pleasing home run hitters). Pessah sometimes styles Selig as the man who saved baseball, but that judgment is belied by the hard-hitting substance of his narrative, which often shows the comissioner using underhanded tactics and making ill-considered decisions in pursuit of the narrow interests of owners (especially himself). Depicted as more heroic are Don Fehr, the players' union chief who parried Selig's maneuvers, and Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, the always entertaining tyrant who built great teams while improving the sport's finances. Pessah includes engaging play-by-play from key games, but his focus is on contract negotiations, revenue models, politics, deal-cutting, and the commercial calculations behind moving a team or injecting steroids. The resulting account of off-field strategizing is as engrossing as any stadium showdown.

Jeremy Arthur's narration shapes the story of the power struggle that occurred in baseball from the early 1990s to 2010. He never camps up accents, never uses imitations; he just recounts the three parallel stories: the inner turmoil in the Yankees front office, led by George Steinbrenner; the politicking surrounding the administration of baseball commissioner Bud Selig; and the labor fight between union and management. Save for a couple of mispronunciations, Arthur capably narrates this twenty-year moment in time, on and off the diamond. His occasional incredulity is appropriate as the listener hears about some of the behind-the-scenes bumbling that went on. M.B. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine

A massive institutional history of Major League Baseball since 1992. In this hefty tome, Pessah, a founding editor of ESPN the Magazine, provides a history of baseball from the vantage point not of the players or even the games on the field, but rather through the lens of three of its most powerful off-the-field figures. The first of these is Bud Selig, Milwaukee Brewers owner-turned Commissioner of Baseball and the central personality in the narrative. Indeed, the book is essentially a history of Selig's tenure in the commissioner's office. The second is Don Fehr, the head of the MLB Players Association, the most powerful and successful union in professional sports (and maybe in American life). Rounding out Pessah's troika is the most dubious selection, George Steinbrenner, the late New York Yankees owner. Steinbrenner was undoubtedly a significant presence in baseball history but not necessarily that much more essential than a number of other owners and others stalking the game's circles of power. Serious baseball fans will appreciate the author's deep research and his ability to weave multiple stories together into a graceful narrative. But those who want to focus on the game on the field may leave unsatisfied, as some of the major events in baseball's history in the last quarter-century or so get short shrift-e.g., the epic 2004 postseason run of the Boston Red Sox and dozens of other vital moments. In their places are front-office battles, Machiavellian machinations, and boardroom egos. These are not unimportant topics, and they are what Pessah promises, but they may not be the most important in the minds of those who love the game. Labor strife and controversies over performance-enhancing drugs absolutely are essential to baseball's recent history, but the author presents them as virtually the only parts that matter. An important but incomplete picture of baseball's Bud Selig era. COPYRIGHT(1) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from May 15, 2015

Not many books about baseball focus on the perspectives and motivations of owners and officials as much as this one. Pessah, a founding editor of ESPN Magazine, weaves a large amount of research to create a compelling, high-stakes look at baseball from 1992, just before the resignation of former Commissioner of Baseball Fay Vincent, until 2010. Central to the story are some of the most famous figures in baseball during that time: commissioner Bud Selig, New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, and Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) executive director Don Fehr. The author delves into topics such as the rise of steroids and the resulting scandals, disputes between the MLBPA and team owners, and the advent of revenue sharing. The strength of this work is that it pulls no punches. Bud Selig is seen as obsessed with controlling public perception of his legacy; that desire is evident in the decisions he makes as commissioner. Pessah does a great job of providing glimpses of conversations fans were not privy to, while placing them in context by describing what was happening on the field in that moment. VERDICT Essential for fans of 1990s- and 2000s-era baseball.--Matt Schirano, Magnus Wahlstrom Lib., Bridgeport, CT

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.