Fair Ball : A Fan's Case For Baseball

Bob Costas loves baseball. And he's worried about the state of the game — superstar players abandoning the teams that helped them rise to greatness, the awkward interleague play system, the pennant-race-weakening wild cards, and the payroll disparity that effectively eliminates two-thirds of the teams in the league from having any chance to win the World Series — even before Opening Day.

Costas addresses these problems and offers provocative solutions in Fair Ball: A Fan's Case For Baseball.

Baseball Almanac Top Quote

"This isn't a commentator's diatribe against the sport, but rather a fan's case for baseball. What do I want? I think the same thing that most baseball fans want: To see the game prove worthy of our devotion." - Bob Costas

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Fair Ball: A Fan's Case For Baseball

From his perspective as a journalist and a true fan, Bob Costas, NBC's award-winning broadcaster, shares his views on the forces that are diminishing the appeal of Major League Baseball and proposes realistic changes that can be made to protect and promote the game's best interests.

In this cogent - and provocative - book, Costas examines the growing financial disparities that have resulted in nearly two-thirds of the teams in Major League Baseball having virtually no chance of contending for the World Series. He argues that those who run baseball have missed the crucial difference between mere change and real progress. And he presents a withering critique of the positions of both the owners and players while providing insights on the wild-card system, the designated-hitter rule, and interleague play. Costas answers each problem he cites with an achievable strategy for restoring genuine competition and rescuing fans from the forces that have diluted the sheer joy of the game.

Balanced by Costas's unbridled appreciation for what he calls the "moments of authenticity" that can still make baseball inspiring, Fair Ball offers a vision of our national pastime as it can be, a game that retains its traditional appeal while initiating meaningful changes that will allow it to thrive into the next century.

Los Angeles Times: "Costas is that rare hybrid in sportscasting with converging wit, erudition and superb communication skills."

New York Times: "Costas comes out of a tradition of gentle baseball eloquence."

People Magazine: "Intelligent, witty, good-natured, he is the very antithesis of the shills who dominate most sports programming."

P.O.V.: "With his unique ability to weave intellect into a typically anti-intellectual medium, he's the best in the business."

Booklist: Think of it this way: your incredibly cute drinking partner opens his mouth and metamorphoses into a baseball wonk. He pushes aside your brew and delivers - in the cadenced tones of a very famous sportscaster - an extended diatribe, carefully thought out and logically developed, about the current and future state of the game. You are enchanted. That's what it's like reading Costas' passionately argued screed. He has a Plan. Balance the revenue, he pleads, laying it out in charts that show how major-league baseball could practice revenue sharing and make it work, saving the lesser franchises from being permanent also-rans. Cap and bottom salaries, he exhorts, laying that out with incentives and a reworking of free agency. He realigns baseball with only one team shifting leagues: the Houston Astros, and makes so strong a case against the wild card that any objections are swept aside with the beer. In the end, he talks about the designated hitter, the All-Star game, umpires, and Pete Rose, too. He makes it all seem right without once letting go of his toe-curling delight in the game itself. Costas says he's a Bull Durham guy, not a Field of Dreams guy, but if we read it, maybe they'll all come to their senses.

five starsCostas is the kind of guy I'd like to have 13-14 drinks with and talk baseball until the bartender turns out the lights. He has solutions that are sensible...great idea to share local TV/radio revenues, the 3-0 playoff (which gets rids of that crappy Wild Card), and realignment (can't you just smell the radical disaster brewing in Selig's office as we speak).

five starsIn my opinion Bob Costas is right in just about every issue he writes about in this book. I am a fan of a big market club (Red Sox) but I agree that something MUST be done in order to ensure baseball has a prosperous future. The propositions he put forth were well thought out and an excellent plan to at the very least consider. I also must agree with him on the issue of the wild card and how it has damaged Major League Baseball. It is now impossible to be sitting home in September and getting really excited about a game between the first and second place team in a division because they will either both make the playoffs, they are seperated by alot of games or neither of them are all that good. It is just sad to think that the youth of America like me (14) might never be fortunate enough to witness a great pennant/divisional race.

five starsBob Costas, the nationally praised sports commentator wrote his first book Fair Ball. He tries to explain why baseball is losing its fans, and attempts to find a remedy for the problem that only a few teams having a chance at winning the world series before the season starts. He does a brilliant job writing the book, and advocates revenue sharing, which is his main plan to give all teams a fair shot at the World Series. He has made me a believer in his ways by bringing up useful charts throughout the book. Costas has hit a home run in this concise book. I could make a legitimate case for Bob Costas to be the commissioner of baseball.

Fair Ball: A Fan's Case For Baseball

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Fair Ball: A Fan's Case For Baseball

Author: Bob Costas.
Pages: 179.
Published: April 4, 2000.
Publisher: Broadway Books.

ISBN: 0767904656.

Baseball Book Shelf: Fair Ball

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Baseball Almanac read the book following a fan's opinion on our message board which stated that Bob Costas should be considered for the Commissioner of Major League Baseball.

More than sixty readers took the time to review Fair Ball and the average rating was four out of five possible. Baseball Almanac completely agrees with their overall rating.

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