Brian26
02-22-2004, 10:03 PM
I've been meaning to read this book for years, and I finally had the chance to pick it up off Amazon.com. I plowed through it in two weeks, and I'd thought I do a quick review for those who may be interested in reading it down the line.
The book was fantastic. The book was written around 1963, so unfortunately Bill doesn't write about his second stint with the White Sox and how he saved them from moving to Seattle when Art Allyn went bankrupt. However, Ed Linn does include an afterword that talks about the 2nd Veeck ownership and sums up the highs and lows.
Although Bill writes about his early years, growing up in suburban Hinsdale and getting into the business due to his father's association with the Cubs, a majority of the book centers around Bill's ownership of the Milwaukee minor league franchise, the Cleveland Indians (who won the pennant in '48), the St. Louis Browns, and finally the White Sox.
The book is loaded with great stories. I was amazed at Bill's memory, as he was able to go into great detail about certain games and events. There are tons and tons of interesting bits of trivia that make this a fascinating read for anyone curious about the political landscape of baseball at the time.
Bill's stories about the St. Louis franchise were great. In a nutshell, he was going to be run out of town when Auggie Busch bought the Cardinals. Using the Cardinals essentially as a tax write-off to sponsor Budweiser, Veeck was helpless in St. Louis. He hoped to either move the franchise up to Milwaukee or to Baltimore, but the National League basically screwed him over. The Boston Braves ended up with the Milwaukee franchise, and Baltimore was voted in after Veeck was forced to sell the Browns due to bankruptcy. The owners at the time decided to stall on the vote because they knew Veeck couldn't meet payroll for another year in St. Louis.
Veeck was a pioneer. One of his ideas was to purchase the Philadelphia franchise and stock the entire roster with Negro league players (long before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier). Veeck goes into great detail about how he forced major league baseball to come up with certain rules. When he was in Milwaukee, they built a retractable chain-link fence that he would slide in or out depending on who was coming to town to play. In Cleveland, they had several sets of fence posts dug in the outfield, and before each series, they would adjust the fence location based on the power of the visiting team.
Interestingly enough, Veeck really worked as both the owner and general manager in his days in Cleveland and St. Louis. I'm not sure if the general manager role really existed that early in baseball (although he talks about Frank Lane in Chicago and Hank Greenberg later on), but it seemed like Veeck really enjoyed being in charge of all player transactions.
Veeck brought Larry Doby and Satchell Paige into the league with Cleveland in the late 40's, and Paige ended up pitching for Veeck years later in Florida, possibly at the age of 62.
Most of the Chicago stuff is common knowledge for Sox fans. Veeck talks about the exploding scoreboard, his battles with the Yankees at the time, his plot to set off fireworks from a rented lot across the street from Yankee Stadium, winning the '59 pennant and being mobbed at Midway airport after they came back from Cleveland.
Lots of time is spent talking about financial points and future expansion in baseball. It's fascinating to read this in hindsight knowing how everything turned out.
Remarkably enough, many of the ideas Veeck talked about back then still hold true today. The most impressive thing I came away from the book with was how important Veeck felt it was to go out and meet the paying customers on the lecture/speaking circuit. When's the last time Reinsdorf went to a school or luncheon and gave a speech about the Sox? Veeck was a media darling, and really that's 180 degrees from where the current ownership stands.
This was one of the best baseball books I've ever read, and I highly recommend it.
The book was fantastic. The book was written around 1963, so unfortunately Bill doesn't write about his second stint with the White Sox and how he saved them from moving to Seattle when Art Allyn went bankrupt. However, Ed Linn does include an afterword that talks about the 2nd Veeck ownership and sums up the highs and lows.
Although Bill writes about his early years, growing up in suburban Hinsdale and getting into the business due to his father's association with the Cubs, a majority of the book centers around Bill's ownership of the Milwaukee minor league franchise, the Cleveland Indians (who won the pennant in '48), the St. Louis Browns, and finally the White Sox.
The book is loaded with great stories. I was amazed at Bill's memory, as he was able to go into great detail about certain games and events. There are tons and tons of interesting bits of trivia that make this a fascinating read for anyone curious about the political landscape of baseball at the time.
Bill's stories about the St. Louis franchise were great. In a nutshell, he was going to be run out of town when Auggie Busch bought the Cardinals. Using the Cardinals essentially as a tax write-off to sponsor Budweiser, Veeck was helpless in St. Louis. He hoped to either move the franchise up to Milwaukee or to Baltimore, but the National League basically screwed him over. The Boston Braves ended up with the Milwaukee franchise, and Baltimore was voted in after Veeck was forced to sell the Browns due to bankruptcy. The owners at the time decided to stall on the vote because they knew Veeck couldn't meet payroll for another year in St. Louis.
Veeck was a pioneer. One of his ideas was to purchase the Philadelphia franchise and stock the entire roster with Negro league players (long before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier). Veeck goes into great detail about how he forced major league baseball to come up with certain rules. When he was in Milwaukee, they built a retractable chain-link fence that he would slide in or out depending on who was coming to town to play. In Cleveland, they had several sets of fence posts dug in the outfield, and before each series, they would adjust the fence location based on the power of the visiting team.
Interestingly enough, Veeck really worked as both the owner and general manager in his days in Cleveland and St. Louis. I'm not sure if the general manager role really existed that early in baseball (although he talks about Frank Lane in Chicago and Hank Greenberg later on), but it seemed like Veeck really enjoyed being in charge of all player transactions.
Veeck brought Larry Doby and Satchell Paige into the league with Cleveland in the late 40's, and Paige ended up pitching for Veeck years later in Florida, possibly at the age of 62.
Most of the Chicago stuff is common knowledge for Sox fans. Veeck talks about the exploding scoreboard, his battles with the Yankees at the time, his plot to set off fireworks from a rented lot across the street from Yankee Stadium, winning the '59 pennant and being mobbed at Midway airport after they came back from Cleveland.
Lots of time is spent talking about financial points and future expansion in baseball. It's fascinating to read this in hindsight knowing how everything turned out.
Remarkably enough, many of the ideas Veeck talked about back then still hold true today. The most impressive thing I came away from the book with was how important Veeck felt it was to go out and meet the paying customers on the lecture/speaking circuit. When's the last time Reinsdorf went to a school or luncheon and gave a speech about the Sox? Veeck was a media darling, and really that's 180 degrees from where the current ownership stands.
This was one of the best baseball books I've ever read, and I highly recommend it.