The Game

Inside the Secret World of Major League Baseball's Power Brokers

De: Jon Pessah

Narrado por: Jeremy Arthur

The incredible inside story of power, money, and baseball's last twenty years.

In the fall of 1992, America's National Pastime is in crisis and already on the path to the unthinkable: cancelling a World Series for the first time in history. The owners are at war with each other, their decades-long battle with the players has turned America against both sides, and the players' growing addiction to steroids will threaten the game's very foundation.

It is a tipping point for baseball, a crucial moment in the game's history that catalyzes a struggle for power by three strong-willed men: Commissioner Bud Selig, Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, and union leader Don Fehr. It's their uneasy alliance at the end of decades of struggle that pulls the game back from the brink and turns it into a money-making powerhouse that enriches them all.

This is the real story of baseball, played out against a tableau of stunning athletic feats, high-stakes public battles, and backroom political deals -- with a supporting cast that includes Barry Bonds and Mark McGwire, Joe Torre and Derek Jeter, George Bush and George Mitchell, and many more.

Drawing from hundreds of extensive, exclusive interviews throughout baseball, The Game is a stunning achievement: a rigorously reported book and the must-read, fly-on-the-wall, definitive account of how an enormous struggle for power turns disaster into baseball's Golden Age.

Reseñas de la Crítica

Finalist for the 2015 CASEY Award for Best Baseball Book of the Year

"A compelling, high-stakes look at baseball.... Pessah does a great job of providing glimpses of conversations fans were not privy to, while placing them in context by describing what was happening on the field in that moment. Essential for fans of 1990s- and 2000s-era baseball."—Library Journal (starred review)

"The action is in the boardroom, not the ballpark, in this dramatic account of the business side of baseball.... Pessah includes engaging play-by-play from key games, but his focus is on contract negotiations, revenue models, politics, deal-cutting, and the commercial calculations behind moving a team or injecting steroids. The resulting account of off-field strategizing is as engrossing as any stadium showdown."—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Engaging, nitty-gritty account of the Bud Selig era, including backroom battles with George Steinbrenner, Don Fehr and steroids."—Sports Illustrated

"Pessah has made his book read like a great novel.... The author also brilliantly shows the impact the game had and continues to have on American life, and how it maintains its prominent place in the cycle and fabric of our country's summers. Pessah is adept at revealing the ebb and flow of fan despair, anger, and joy."—Russell P. Gantos Jr., New York Journal of Books

"In clear, accessible prose, [THE GAME] covers strikes, steroids and everything in between. Not an easy task. The most memorable sections are about Steinbrenner. Pessah deftly captures the man's heavy-handed--and often underhanded--leadership."—Michael S. Schmidt, New York Times

One of "The Season's Best Baseball Books"

"A poignant account of the power struggle between three men: MLB Commissioner Bud Selig, Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, and player's union leader Don Fehr."—Robert Birnbaum, The Daily Beast

"This might be the definitive account of how front offices control Major League Baseball.... Pessah crafts freeze-frame descriptions of the most critical backroom moments of the modern era...."—Rob Fischer, Men's Journal

"There are lots of fresh notes, quotes and anecdotes in The Game, but its chief value for those who care is its meticulous reconstruction of the fraught era.... The most compelling parts of The Game deal with baseball's abject failure to confront the steroid plague."—Edward Kosner, Wall Street Journal

"A gritty and sensational history of America's national pastime... a juicy and engrossing story that reads like a thriller, with a star supporting cast... A must-read before 2016 labor negotiations begin. Pessah calls the game perfectly."—Marilyn Dahl, Shelf Awareness

A mist for Milwuakee Brewers fans

If you love Bud or hate him you'll understand him much better. What will be his true legacy?

You don't have to like baseball to enjoy this book

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Absolutely! I don't know anything about baseball, or particularly care about sports in general, but I was mesmerized by the story on many levels--self-indulged athletes, power brokers, and rich owners.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Steinbrenner--I had not known about him or his history of ownership of the Yankees. He used his money and power to cajole, manipulate and win.

What does Jeremy Arthur bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

He helped engage me with a story I was not sure I could care about.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The unfolding of the drug use and how "baseball" reacted (slowly) to it. Power and money were part of this story, too

Any additional comments?

I highly recommend this book even if you are not interested in baseball. It was one of the best books I listened to this year.

So great!

If you are a fan of the business of baseball - the way it works behind the scenes - this is the book you've been waiting for.

Should have been called Bud and George

I'm fully aware you can't have a baseball book about the last 20 or 30 years and night feature the New York Yankees prominently in the book. The book I'd listen to before this was the Yankee years by Joe Torre and at least of the fourth of a book was basically repeated from the Yankee years. I learned more than I knew going into it it's a good read or listen for any baseball fan. But it's basically about bud selig and George Steinbrenner. I did come away liking George Steinbrenner more than I used to which after listening to the Yankee years was really hard.

A great job of reportage and storytelling

Would you listen to The Game again? Why?

I wouldn't listen again because Pessah's story is so intricately woven that I have a deep understanding of the issues and the timeline.

What other book might you compare The Game to and why?

This book reads to me as fluently and well researched as any Jeffrey Toobin book about the intricacies of the Supreme Court or Bob Woodward's forays into Washington politics.

What does Jeremy Arthur bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

The reader does a fine job of clearly conveying the flow of the narrative. His differentiation among speakers could be more nuanced, but that isn't really a problem.

Any additional comments?

To call this a "baseball" book is to do it an injustice. It is a deeply researched, clearly exposited story about the inner workings of the baseball business--a giant business at that. It is the story of greed, passionate beliefs, and conflicts among iron willed captains of an industry that represents itself as our National Passtime. Terrific!