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The best team money can buy : the Los Angeles Dodgers' wild struggle to build a baseball powerhouse / Molly Knight.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: New York : Simon & Schuster, 2015Edition: First Simon & Schuster hardcover editionDescription: 324 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : color illustrations ; 24 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 1476776296
  • 9781476776293
Subject(s):
Contents:
The billionaire boys' club -- Burn the ships -- The ace -- It's time for Donnie Baseball -- The collapse -- Puigatory -- The run -- The best team money can buy -- No new friends -- The best front office money can buy.
Summary: "The inside-the-clubhouse story of two tumultuous years when the Los Angeles Dodgers were re-made from top to bottom, from the ownership of the team to management to the players on the field, becoming the most talked-about and most colorful team in baseball"-- Provided by publisher.Summary: In 2012, an investment group bought the Los Angeles Dodgers from Frank McCourt, who had driven the team into bankruptcy in the midst of an acrimonious divorce. They spent more than double the previous record for an American sports franchise, and they promised to increase the club's anemic payroll, win back frustrated fans, and turn the Dodgers back into a contender. Within two years, Los Angeles had the highest payroll in professional baseball and a roster loaded with eccentric and expensive superstars. Although titles continued to elude the team, it was clear that the infusion of cash had put the Dodgers back in contention, and that the new ownership group was determined to add more banners to the team's storied history, regardless of cost and clashing personalities. Author Molly Knight was granted access to ownership, management, and players. The result is one of the smartest and most revelatory baseball books ever published.--Adapted from book jacket.
Fiction notes: Click to open in new window
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library NonFiction 796.3576 K71 Available 33111008031615
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

"From the outside looking in, the Dodgers have been a bubbling cauldron of personality, talent and moods, with the occasional dollop of jealousy. In The Best Team Money Can Buy , it's as if Molly Knight ushers you behind the closed clubhouse doors to see it for yourself." --Buster Olney, ESPN

News-making, inside revelations about the tumultuous years when the Los Angeles Dodgers were remade from top to bottom--from the ownership of the team to management to the players on the field--becoming the most talked-about and most colorful team in baseball.

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.

Now 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, and why the team was not overpriced, as well as what the Dodgers actually knew in advance about rookie phenom and Cuban defector Yasiel Puig and how they and teammates handled him during his first two roller-coaster seasons. 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 (42-8) of any team since World War II, before losing in the NLCS. Knight also provides a rare glimpse into the infighting and mistrust that derailed the team in 2014, and resulted in ridding the roster of difficult personalities and the hiring of a new front office.

Knight also reveals new facts behind the blockbuster trade with the Red Sox . She paints an intimate portrait of star pitcher Clayton Kershaw, probably the best pitcher in the game today, 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, Molly Knight's account is a must-read for baseball fans and anyone who wants the inside story of today's Los Angeles Dodgers.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

The billionaire boys' club -- Burn the ships -- The ace -- It's time for Donnie Baseball -- The collapse -- Puigatory -- The run -- The best team money can buy -- No new friends -- The best front office money can buy.

"The inside-the-clubhouse story of two tumultuous years when the Los Angeles Dodgers were re-made from top to bottom, from the ownership of the team to management to the players on the field, becoming the most talked-about and most colorful team in baseball"-- Provided by publisher.

In 2012, an investment group bought the Los Angeles Dodgers from Frank McCourt, who had driven the team into bankruptcy in the midst of an acrimonious divorce. They spent more than double the previous record for an American sports franchise, and they promised to increase the club's anemic payroll, win back frustrated fans, and turn the Dodgers back into a contender. Within two years, Los Angeles had the highest payroll in professional baseball and a roster loaded with eccentric and expensive superstars. Although titles continued to elude the team, it was clear that the infusion of cash had put the Dodgers back in contention, and that the new ownership group was determined to add more banners to the team's storied history, regardless of cost and clashing personalities. Author Molly Knight was granted access to ownership, management, and players. The result is one of the smartest and most revelatory baseball books ever published.--Adapted from book jacket.

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