Back-to-back Most Valuable Player and World Series winner Joe
Morgan entered the Hall of Fame in 1990 on the first ballot, a
"good little player" who achieved greatness by hard work,
dedication, and baseball intelligence. In this entertaining book,
be tells the story of his extraordinary life in baseball and offers
provocative insights into the game's past, present, and future. The
box score? The most complete player of his time has given us the
complete baseball book, from the grit of the infield dirt on his
spikes as he turned a double play against a charging Frank Robinson
to no-holds-barred banter in the locker room with Johnny Bench,
Tony Perez, and Pete Rose, from the frustration of seeing good
teams destroyed by racism and incompetence to the triumph of
winning it all with the most talented, and the smartest, team in
baseball, Cincinnati's Big Red Machine. In vivid anecdotes, Joe
Morgan recounts starting out in the minor leagues in the
still-segregated South, the only black player on the Durham Bulls;
earning a trip to the majors with the expansion Colt 45s (soon to
become the Houston Astros), a rag tag collection of over-the-hill
veterans and inexperienced youngsters with its own band of outlaws,
"The Dalton Gang"; honing his game with the help of all-time-great
Nellie Fox; competing against the likes of Willie Mays, Sandy
Koufax, Bob Gibson, Tom Seaver, Reggie Jackson, Willie McCovey, and
Willie Stargell; winning back to back MVP awards and World Series;
dramatic seasons with the Philadelphia Phillies, San Francisco
Giants, and Oakland A's; and being welcomed into the Hall of Fame
by his childhood idol, Ted Williams. At the heart of the book is
the tale of how four big, combative egos - Johnny Bench, Tony
Perez, Pete Rose, and Morgan himself - learned to win together
under Sparky Anderson's leadership, transforming the Cincinnati
Reds into the Big Red Machine, the most successful team of the
1970s. Joe Morgan shows us how the Reds dominated games with sheer
baseball smarts as well as awesome physical skill, and he gives us
up-close views of his teammates, including Sparky Anderson's gift
for molding individuals into a team dedicated to winning, Johnny
Bench's flair for the dramatic play, Tony Perez's unquenchable
will-to-win in the clutch, and Pete Rose's tumultuous experiences
on and off the field. It's all here, from the day Dave Concepcion
took a ride in the locker room dryer to George Foster's reply to an
accusation of cheating: "I don't cork my bat. I cork my arm."
Bringing his unparalleled feel for winning baseball right up to the
present, Morgan also gives us hard-hitting commentary on the
current state of the game, discussing why today's teams play brain
dead, what keeps Rickey Henderson and other stars from being as
great as they think they are, why good teams self-destruct so
easily, why the new commissioner will find it hard to act "in the
best interests of baseball," and how baseball ought to deal with
such issues as expansion, free agency, and minority hiring. His
controversial prescription for baseball's future - the appointment
of a baseball ambassador empowered to negotiate with both players
and owners for the good of the game - will spark lively debate all
through the season and beyond. The final tally: here is a baseball
read with the spark that made Joe Morgan the winningest player of
his time.
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