Steeling games

Average rating 3. Rating details. More filters. Sort order. May 25, Chris Jaffe rated it really liked it Shelves: baseball , sports. This is a good book, not a great book. I debated between giving it three or four stars here. I opted for three because author Maury Klein does a good job avoiding the pitfalls of this type of book.

What is "this type of book" then? A history of a season - how a team did during it. Many books like this lapse into a predictable and wearying litany of game accounts. Then this happened, then this happened, and Klein is aware of it, and continually bounces back and forth between game accounts and life off the field.

Sometimes it's biographical material about the players. Sometimes it's other things going on in New York City -ranging from a big heat wave to the popularity of a new amusement park on Coney Island. But Klein keeps the narrative moving. The odd thing about this book is that it takes half of its time just to get to There is an extended background on John McGraw and how he'd run the Giants since taking over a decade before.

It's good stuff. You can see McGraw's first great team fall apart and him learn the lesson of rebuilding - and was to be the year they took off and so they did.

It's good, but a bit long. The main problem with this book, and the reason I'm tempted to give it just three starts, is there is so little payoff. OK, games and played. The pennant is won. The World Series is lost. Everyone dies. The end. I'm less aggrieved that the book doesn't live up to the hyperbole of the subtitle "How John McGraw Transformed Baseball with the New York Giants" that some marketing whiz stuck on it - but mostly Why does it matter?

I dunno. Why focus on this team. It's professional. It's well-written. It's underwhelming. Jan 19, Kristen rated it really liked it Shelves: baseball , first-reads , uncorrected-proof. I hope the title on the ARC is the true title because John McGraw is the true focus of the book and that title is more descriptive of the contents of the book. His early career as a feisty infielder with the Baltimore Orioles and eventual player-manager with Baltimore is covered in the first part of the book.

The second section covers his move to New York to manage the Giants with the bulk of this section being a month by month breakdown of the pennant race followed by a game by game description of the World Series. The final 25 pages follow the remaining years of McGraw's life as well as the fates of the rest of the members of the Giants.

I thought the writing style was a little drier than I remembered from Klein's book about Jay Gould especially in the early chapters but the action picked up once the narrative of the season began.

Fans interested in the early days of major league baseball's "modern era" should find the book interesting and informative.

Full disclosure: I won a free version of an Advanced Reader copy in exchange for an honest review. May 17, Joseph Adelizzi, Jr. Very interesting reading how the game was so different back then, with brains and speed being keys to success, pitchers throwing over innings in a season as well as displaying much more competence with the bat than the overly specialized pitchers of today. Also surprising to see how quickly the managers pulled pitchers from a game when met with early inning problems - which seems almost paradoxical given what I just said about the number of innings pitched by individual pitchers during the s Very interesting reading how the game was so different back then, with brains and speed being keys to success, pitchers throwing over innings in a season as well as displaying much more competence with the bat than the overly specialized pitchers of today.

Also surprising to see how quickly the managers pulled pitchers from a game when met with early inning problems - which seems almost paradoxical given what I just said about the number of innings pitched by individual pitchers during the season. Most memorable, I'm sure, will be the many tales of integrity, professionalism, and compassion from the likes of the gritty McGraw, to the cerebral Mack, through to many of the Giants players.

Lastly, it was an added bonus for me, a life-long Philadelphian, to read how the Philadelphia Athletics defeated the Giants in that World Series. Mar 20, Billy rated it really liked it. I originally picked up Stealing Games because I recognized the cover as being a Graig Kreindler painting, and I love Kreindler's artwork. Klein goes into detail not just about the Giants team of the years leading up to but also what was happening in New York City at the time.

You definitely do not need to be a Giants fan to enjoy this captivating look at baseball's distant past. Nov 02, Carl rated it liked it. Klein an economic historian takes on baseball's dead ball era with mixed results.

Klein spends nearly half of the book leading up to the season in a section that works as both a team biography and a bio of their manager John McGraw.

Slowly and painstakingly Klein brings us to the season and guides us with verve and wit through the tumultuous season. In the series The Philadelphia A's completely shut down the vaunted Giant's running game winning the series in 6 games.

Jan 28, Kerry Gleason rated it liked it. The historical detail was interesting and fast-paced until the critical season. Then, it became mired in day-by-day statistics and fewer biographical gems.

Mar 02, Doctor Moss rated it liked it Shelves: baseball. I picked up Klein's book to get an experience of the how baseball felt to fans and players in the early s. The McGraw teams in particular were exciting and even revolutionary for their emphasis on speed, intelligence, and tactics as against size and strength.

I have to say the book comes up a little short on conveying that feel. It is long on facts and shorter on color and excitement. The first part of the book builds up to the season. McGraw was part of a distinctive approach to the game, exemplifying, along with Willie Keeler, this new approach — stealing bases, bunting for hits, hitting and running,. That theme, I think, is the most interesting in the book.

The Giants led the National League with stolen bases, including an incredible 15 in one game. Klein takes us through the season, game by game. Klein includes a good, lengthy discussion of the complications of the investigation, which was never truly resolved. I certainly know much more about that era of baseball than I did before reading his book.

And he conveys that feeling of everydayness in the careers of distant legends. Klein seems at his best when conveying what happened, and not so much at his best when drawing out big themes or setting up the drama of situations.

I was looking for a little more of the latter, but readers looking more for the facts may love the book. Oct 14, David Belisle rated it really liked it Shelves: sports. Klein takes us back to the s in all it's wooden ballpark glory. He captures all the nicknames of the times, the social nuances and problems that plagued the sport. This may be perhaps the most in-depth book on the managerial skills of arguably the best manager in the history of baseball, with a tip of the hat to Connie Mack.

The New York Giants changed the way the sport was played and Klein takes us through the season game by game, player by player. It's salted peanut wrapped in nostalg Klein takes us back to the s in all it's wooden ballpark glory. It's salted peanut wrapped in nostalgia. A Four-Star read I highly recommend. Mar 10, Jim Blessing rated it really liked it Shelves: baseball. I really enjoyed this book about major league baseball, particularly the New York Giants, in the early part of the 20th century.

Feb 27, Josh Davis rated it it was amazing. I loved this book, even though it was not what I expected. It does a great job of balancing game by game detail with big picture stories about teams and people. But it is about much more than simply the season.

In fact it takes half of the book just to get there. TileManio pop! Basketball Stars pop! Miami Crime Simulator 3D pop! Grand Shift Auto pop! Star vs Evil Avatar Maker. Grand City Car Thief. Bob The Robber. Stick City. Grand Shift Auto. SpiderMan Hazards at Horizon High. Motor Wars Wasteland.

Kogama Cops And Robbers. Adventure City. Bob The Robber 5 Temple Adventure. King of Thieves. Battle for the Galaxy. Money Movers 1. Duck Hunter autumn forest. KiX Dream Soccer. Curve Fever Pro. Russian Grand City Auto. Tank Off 2. Bob the Robber 4 Russia. Water Wars. Martian Wars. Cars Thief. Money Movers Maker. Pirate Booty. Escape Fast. Ship The Sheep. Met Rage. Toon Off. Motor Toons. Dominus 2.