2024 the best money democracy can buy review

Price: $21.99 - $13.50
(as of Dec 05, 2024 16:54:15 UTC - Details)

With a new Afterword covering the 2015 season.

The bestselling, inside-the-clubhouse story of two tumultuous years when the Los Angeles Dodgers were re-made from top to bottom, becoming the most talked-about and most colorful team in baseball. “It’s as if Molly Knight ushers you behind the closed clubhouse doors.” (Buster Olney, ESPN)

In 2012 the Los Angeles Dodgers were bought out of bankruptcy in the most expensive sale in sports history. Los Angeles icon Magic Johnson and his partners hoped to put together a team worthy of Hollywood: consistently entertaining. By most accounts they have succeeded, if not always in the way they might have imagined.

In The Best Team Money Can Buy, Molly Knight tells the story of the Dodgers’ 2013 and 2014 seasons with detailed, previously unreported revelations. She shares a behind-the-scenes account of the astonishing sale of the Dodgers, as well as what the Dodgers actually knew in advance about rookie phenom and Cuban defector Yasiel Puig. We learn how close manager Don Mattingly was to losing his job during the 2013 season—and how the team turned around the season in the most remarkable fifty-game stretch of any team since World War II. Knight also provides a rare glimpse into the in-fighting and mistrust that derailed the team in 2014 and paints an intimate portrait of star pitcher Clayton Kershaw, including details about the record contract offer he turned down before accepting the richest contract any pitcher ever signed.

Exciting, surprising, and filled with juicy details, “a must-read for fans of the Dodgers and all Los Angeles sports teams….Knight’s undercover work is like none other” (Library Journal). The Best Team Money Can Buy is filled with “fascinating perspectives” (Los Angeles Times) and “interesting anecdotes about some of baseball’s most compelling figures” (The Sacramento Bee).

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Simon & Schuster; Reprint edition (April 5, 2016)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 359 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 147677630X
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1476776309
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 13.1 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.9 x 9 inches
Reviewer: P. Quadrino
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Phenomenal book, hard to put down
Review: I was shocked at how absorbing this book was to read. Often I couldn't put it down.I didn't expect a book about the most recent iterations of the LA Dodgers to be quite this interesting, but what a beautiful mess that team is. Such an eclectic and discordant mix of talent, wealth, entitlement, immaturity, and insecurity.Year after year, statistical projections predict the Dodgers to be at the very top of the league and then each season unfolds into a melodramatic roller coaster ride for them. Molly Knight's book provides all the most intimate details of these adventures.Starting off with the story of the transition of the LA Dodgers franchise from bankrupt pathetic embarrassment under crook owner Frank McCourt to the financially flourishing Guggenheim ownership regime with lots of behind-the-scenes details, the book (paperback version) covers the period of 2012 to 2015 focusing on the human side of the game without ever drifting into the territory of hero worship or platitudes or cliches. Just lots and lots of fascinating, entertaining stories about very proud and powerful personalities trying to coexist.Knight certainly knows baseball and when she does discuss the play on the field or statistical performance, she handles it adeptly. But the heart of this book is its human stories---the peculiarity of pitcher Zack Greinke, the pouty star outfielder Matt Kemp, paranoid middle man manager Don Mattingly, the loose cannon polarizing rule-breaker Yasiel Puig, the focused and determined superstar Clayton Kershaw, and so much more.The style sometimes reminded me of Dan Okrent's classic book "Nine Innings" in which the description of a single ballgame sets off lengthy tangents detailing the history of this or that player, all the events of their career that led them to that point.My only complaint (a minor one) is that things seem to fade toward the end, as though she wasn't sure how to conclude this great book. I was really hoping for super in-depth detail and discussion of the organization assembling what Knight calls "The Best Front Office Money Can Buy" but felt that section was a little too truncated. That powerhouse front office, an All Star team of former GMs and sought-after execs, is (I think) the most fascinating thing about the current Dodgers and I hoped for more stories about how that all came about and how they managed to function. Was shocked to see Knight mention a few times that the team had missed out on a trade or a signing because the front office was too focused on some other matter. Sounds like exactly what this braintrust was built to avoid and completely contradicting the stories that were coming out during the 2014-15 winter meetings when all the ex-GMs in the front office were wheeling and dealing separately, divide-and-conquer style.But I guess all of that is a story for another book.

Reviewer: Jeff DeSurra
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: A Strong Book with a Few Missteps
Review: 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.

Reviewer: octim
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Great for Dodger fans and baseball fans alike! Awesome!
Review: I loved this book. Best researched book ever on the inner workings of a team and organization. Molly Knight got insider views on the changeover from evil McCourt to the new ownership team. The year is profiled and it was quite a year, with the Dodgers suffering massive injuries and then going from last to first with a record 42-8 run, best ever.I have been a dodger fan for 48 years, but I learned a lot about players and the clubhouse. Puig, Mattingly, Ethier, Kemp, Greinke, Kershaw you get to know much better than ever before. Amazing sources and trust from the players gives you the unvarnished truth. Could the Dodgers overcome injuries? Could Puig be controlled? Could they keep 4 outfielders happy with three slots.The book for me was worth it just for the long interview she got with Kershaw at his home. He shared his strict minute by minute pitching day routine and it's fascinating.Getting inside Greinkes amazing baseball mind was awesome. This book is full of new information, not s rehash of old stories.She pulls no punches, plays no favorites and has amazing story telling skills. Lots of great color photos, too.To me, it explained a LOT about a season I thought I knew. The personalities, the ups and downs, etc.Frank McCourt is definitely the Villian if they make this into a movie. McCourt scammed Fox into giving him the mighty Dodgers for a parking lot, with no money down. He cut payroll despite record attendance, fired staff, cut parking lot security, made his wife club president, used the Dodgers as a personal ATM. Then he took them into bankruptcy court and made over a Billion dollars clear.It's a fun cast of characters to follow! 5 stars! Best baseball book I have ever read! Scoops galore!

Reviewer: Mark Harrison
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Molly Knight gets incredible access to the Dodgers, a team with one of the biggest payrolls in all sports. If you like Kershaw you'll love this, a lot on the Dodgers' ace and the group that took over the team. I flew through this book, real easy read.

Reviewer: Cliente de Amazon
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Excelent book! Molly Knight just hit it over the wall. Us who have followed the team all the way through the McCourt dark years and now these new Guggenheim can connect the dots behind the team we saw in the field every day. Awesome book

Reviewer: Mimmo Ciccone
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Insightful as it details how money does not always win championships. Chemistry and cohesion and a willingness to win mentality at all costs

Reviewer: Amazon Customer
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: This book had so much more insight than I'd hoped. Molly Knight was given some great access and used it to make an interesting, enjoyable and very easy to read sports book about one of the most unique franchises in Major League Baseball.

Reviewer: Olivia Nelson
Rating: 2.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: The pages came still stuck together. Had to cut them apart myself meaning the pages are all frayed and some have rips now. It arrived on time and all but the copy was basically half a tree at this point. Not overly impressed.