-
The Great Baseball Revolt
- The Rise and Fall of the 1890 Players League
- Narrated by: Gary Galone
- Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $19.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Publisher's summary
The Players League, formed in 1890, was a short-lived professional baseball league controlled and owned, in part, by the players themselves, a response to the National League’s salary cap and “reserve rule” which bound players for life to one particular team. Led by John Montgomery Ward, the Players League was a star-studded group that included most of the best players of the National League who bolted, not only to gain control of their wages but also to share ownership of the teams.
Lasting only a year, the league impacted both the professional sports and labor politics of athletes and nonathletes alike. The Great Baseball Revolt is a historic overview of the rise and fall of the Players League which fielded teams in Boston, Brooklyn, Buffalo, Chicago, Cleveland, New York, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh.
Though it marketed itself as a working-class league, the players were underfunded and had to turn to wealthy capitalists for much of their start-up costs, including the new ballparks. It was in this context that the league intersected with the organized labor movement and, in many ways, challenged by organized labor to be "by and for the people".
In its only season, the Players League outdrew the National League in fan attendance. The Great Baseball Revolt brings to life a compelling cast of characters and a mostly forgotten but important time in professional sports when labor politics affected both athletes and nonathletes.
"Makes a substantial contribution to our understanding of the early days of the business of baseball." (New York Journal of Books)
"This text is outstanding." (New York Labor History)
“You will absolutely love this book." (Dave Zirin, sports editor of The Nation)
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Fifty-Nine in '84
- By: Edward Achorn
- Narrated by: Ax Norman
- Length: 11 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1884, Providence Grays pitcher Charles "Old Hoss" Radbourn won an astounding 59 games - more than anyone in major-league history ever had before, or has since. He then went on to win all three games of baseball's first World Series. Fifty-nine in '84 tells the dramatic story not only of that amazing feat of grit but also of big-league baseball two decades after the Civil War - a brutal, bloody sport played barehanded, the profession of uneducated, hard-drinking men who thought little of cheating outrageously or maiming an opponent to win.
-
-
A MLB record that will never be broken
- By Steven Gerweck on 11-21-23
By: Edward Achorn
-
The Summer of Beer and Whiskey
- How Brewers, Barkeeps, Rowdies, Immigrants, and a Wild Pennant Fight Made Baseball America's Game
- By: Edward Achorn
- Narrated by: Ax Norman
- Length: 9 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Chris Von der Ahe knew next to nothing about baseball when he risked his life’s savings to found the St. Louis Browns, the franchise that would become the St. Louis Cardinals. Yet the German-born beer garden proprietor would become one of the most important - and funniest - figures in the game’s history.
-
-
Well written and extensive research but just not interesting
- By Samuel C on 07-30-20
By: Edward Achorn
-
Willie Horton: 23
- Detroit's Own Willie the Wonder, the Tigers' First Black Great
- By: Willie Horton, Kevin Allen - contributor, Jake Wood - foreword, and others
- Narrated by: Bill Andrew Quinn
- Length: 8 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At fifteen, Willie Horton received his first contract offer to become a professional baseball player. At twenty, he smacked his first major-league home run. At twenty-four, Horton stood in full uniform on the hood of his car, in the midst of burning homes and overturned vehicles, and pleaded for an end to the violence of the 1967 Detroit riots. In this new autobiography, Horton shares the fascinating story of his life and career, from growing up in Detroit's Jeffries Projects as the youngest of twenty-one children to winning a World Series with his hometown Tigers in 1968.
-
-
Motown loves Willie
- By B Ingram on 04-12-24
By: Willie Horton, and others
-
Jim Kaat
- Good as Gold: My Eight Decades in Baseball
- By: Jim Kaat, Bob Costas - foreword, Douglas Lyons - contributor
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 6 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With a career that has now touched eight decades, Jim Kaat has had a prime front row seat for baseball's continuing evolution. Not only was he a major-league pitcher for twenty-five seasons, but his time as a pitching coach and his many years as a broadcaster have given him a singular long view of the game. In Good as Gold, Kaat weaves the tale of a lifetime, taking fans on the field, into the clubhouse, and behind the mic as only he can.
-
-
Touch ‘em All Kaat
- By David on 06-21-23
By: Jim Kaat, and others
-
Baseball in the Garden of Eden
- The Secret History of the Early Game
- By: John Thorn
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 11 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is the true story of how organized baseball started, how gambling shaped the game from its earliest days, and how it became our national pastime and our national mirror. Baseball in the Garden of Eden draws on original research to tell how the game evolved from other bat-and-ball games and gradually supplanted them, how the New York game came to dominate other variants, and how gambling and secret professionalism promoted and plagued the game.
-
-
Good analysis of game origins but . . .
- By Mallard on 04-19-22
By: John Thorn
-
Whispers of the Gods
- Tales from Baseball’s Golden Age, Told by the Men Who Played It
- By: Peter Golenbock, John Thorn - foreword
- Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
- Length: 7 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Peter Golenbock brings to life baseball greats from the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s through timeless stories told straight from the players themselves. Like the enduring classic The Glory of Their Times, this book features the reminiscences of baseball legends, pulled from hundreds of hours of taped interviews with the author. The players interviewed were All-Stars, Hall of Famers, and heroes to many, and their impact on the national pastime is still seen to this day. Baseball history comes alive, offering a fascinating account of the golden age of baseball.
-
-
Stories have not heard before
- By Tyler on 10-16-24
By: Peter Golenbock, and others
-
Fifty-Nine in '84
- By: Edward Achorn
- Narrated by: Ax Norman
- Length: 11 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1884, Providence Grays pitcher Charles "Old Hoss" Radbourn won an astounding 59 games - more than anyone in major-league history ever had before, or has since. He then went on to win all three games of baseball's first World Series. Fifty-nine in '84 tells the dramatic story not only of that amazing feat of grit but also of big-league baseball two decades after the Civil War - a brutal, bloody sport played barehanded, the profession of uneducated, hard-drinking men who thought little of cheating outrageously or maiming an opponent to win.
-
-
A MLB record that will never be broken
- By Steven Gerweck on 11-21-23
By: Edward Achorn
-
The Summer of Beer and Whiskey
- How Brewers, Barkeeps, Rowdies, Immigrants, and a Wild Pennant Fight Made Baseball America's Game
- By: Edward Achorn
- Narrated by: Ax Norman
- Length: 9 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Chris Von der Ahe knew next to nothing about baseball when he risked his life’s savings to found the St. Louis Browns, the franchise that would become the St. Louis Cardinals. Yet the German-born beer garden proprietor would become one of the most important - and funniest - figures in the game’s history.
-
-
Well written and extensive research but just not interesting
- By Samuel C on 07-30-20
By: Edward Achorn
-
Willie Horton: 23
- Detroit's Own Willie the Wonder, the Tigers' First Black Great
- By: Willie Horton, Kevin Allen - contributor, Jake Wood - foreword, and others
- Narrated by: Bill Andrew Quinn
- Length: 8 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At fifteen, Willie Horton received his first contract offer to become a professional baseball player. At twenty, he smacked his first major-league home run. At twenty-four, Horton stood in full uniform on the hood of his car, in the midst of burning homes and overturned vehicles, and pleaded for an end to the violence of the 1967 Detroit riots. In this new autobiography, Horton shares the fascinating story of his life and career, from growing up in Detroit's Jeffries Projects as the youngest of twenty-one children to winning a World Series with his hometown Tigers in 1968.
-
-
Motown loves Willie
- By B Ingram on 04-12-24
By: Willie Horton, and others
-
Jim Kaat
- Good as Gold: My Eight Decades in Baseball
- By: Jim Kaat, Bob Costas - foreword, Douglas Lyons - contributor
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 6 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With a career that has now touched eight decades, Jim Kaat has had a prime front row seat for baseball's continuing evolution. Not only was he a major-league pitcher for twenty-five seasons, but his time as a pitching coach and his many years as a broadcaster have given him a singular long view of the game. In Good as Gold, Kaat weaves the tale of a lifetime, taking fans on the field, into the clubhouse, and behind the mic as only he can.
-
-
Touch ‘em All Kaat
- By David on 06-21-23
By: Jim Kaat, and others
-
Baseball in the Garden of Eden
- The Secret History of the Early Game
- By: John Thorn
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 11 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is the true story of how organized baseball started, how gambling shaped the game from its earliest days, and how it became our national pastime and our national mirror. Baseball in the Garden of Eden draws on original research to tell how the game evolved from other bat-and-ball games and gradually supplanted them, how the New York game came to dominate other variants, and how gambling and secret professionalism promoted and plagued the game.
-
-
Good analysis of game origins but . . .
- By Mallard on 04-19-22
By: John Thorn
-
Whispers of the Gods
- Tales from Baseball’s Golden Age, Told by the Men Who Played It
- By: Peter Golenbock, John Thorn - foreword
- Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
- Length: 7 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Peter Golenbock brings to life baseball greats from the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s through timeless stories told straight from the players themselves. Like the enduring classic The Glory of Their Times, this book features the reminiscences of baseball legends, pulled from hundreds of hours of taped interviews with the author. The players interviewed were All-Stars, Hall of Famers, and heroes to many, and their impact on the national pastime is still seen to this day. Baseball history comes alive, offering a fascinating account of the golden age of baseball.
-
-
Stories have not heard before
- By Tyler on 10-16-24
By: Peter Golenbock, and others
-
Playing Through the Pain
- Ken Caminiti and the Steroids Confession That Changed Baseball Forever
- By: Dan Good
- Narrated by: Tom Parks
- Length: 14 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Playing Through the Pain, writer Dan Good seeks to make sense of MLB MVP Ken Caminiti's fascinating, troubled life. The story of Caminiti, the player who opened the lid on performance-enhancing drugs in baseball, has never been properly told. Caminiti voluntarily admitted in a 2002 Sports Illustrated cover story that he used steroids during his career, including his 1996 season, and guessed that half of the players were using performance-enhancing drugs. Good's on-the-record sources include Caminiti's steroids supplier, people who attended rehab with him, and more.
-
-
Dull Reader, decent story
- By Amazon Customer on 02-24-23
By: Dan Good
-
Baseball
- A History of America's Game
- By: Benjamin G. Rader
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 12 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A succinct history of baseball, newly revised and updated. In this third edition of his lively history of America's game, widely recognized as the best of its kind, Benjamin G. Rader expands his scope, covering record crowds and record income, construction of new ballparks, a change in the strike zone, a surge in recruiting Japanese players, and an emerging cadre of explosive long-ball hitters. The book is published by The University of Illinois Press.
-
-
Good book!
- By Judy Ellis on 04-15-18
-
Ty Cobb
- A Terrible Beauty
- By: Charles Leerhsen
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 15 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ty Cobb is baseball royalty, maybe even the greatest player who ever lived. His lifetime batting average is still the highest of all time, and when he retired in 1928, after twenty-one years with the Detroit Tigers and two with the Philadelphia Athletics, he held more than ninety records. But the numbers don't tell half of Cobb's tale. The Georgia Peach was by far the most thrilling player of the era: "Ty Cobb could cause more excitement with a base on balls than Babe Ruth could with a grand slam," one columnist wrote.
-
-
Two Cobb Books, One Review of a Maligned Legacy
- By Jonathan Love on 05-17-16
By: Charles Leerhsen
-
Astroball
- The New Way to Win It All
- By: Ben Reiter
- Narrated by: Ben Reiter
- Length: 7 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Astroball is the inside story of how a gang of outsiders went beyond the stats to find a new way to win. When new Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow and his top analyst, the former rocket scientist Sig Mejdal, arrived in Houston in 2011, they had already spent more than half a decade trying to understand how human instinct and expertise could be blended with hard numbers. Astroball is the story of the next wave of thinking in baseball and beyond, at once a remarkable underdog story and a fascinating look at the cutting edge of evaluating and optimizing human potential.
-
-
Now a book on cheating?
- By Peter R. on 02-01-20
By: Ben Reiter
-
Big Hair and Plastic Grass
- A Funky Ride Through Baseball and America in the Swinging '70s
- By: Dan Epstein
- Narrated by: Dan Epstein
- Length: 12 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Bronx Is Burning meets Chuck Klosterman in this wild pop-culture history of baseball's most colorful and controversial decade. The Major Leagues witnessed more dramatic stories and changes in the 70s than in any other era. The American popular culture and counterculture collided head-on with the national pastime, rocking the once-conservative sport to its very foundations. For the millions of fans who grew up during this time, Big Hair and Plastic Grass serves up a delicious trip down memory lane.
-
-
Excellent but biased
- By Andy on 02-25-21
By: Dan Epstein
-
1954: The Year Willie Mays and the First Generation of Black Superstars Changed Major League Baseball Forever
- By: Bill Madden
- Narrated by: David Drummond
- Length: 8 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jackie Robinson heroically broke the color barrier in 1947. But how—and, in practice, when—did the integration of the sport actually occur? Bill Madden shows that baseball’s famous black experiment” did not truly succeed until the coming of age of Willie Mays and the emergence of some star players—Larry Doby, Hank Aaron, and Ernie Banks—in 1954. And as a relevant backdrop off the field, it was in May of that year that the US Supreme Court unanimously ruled, in the case of Brown v. Board of Education, that segregation be outlawed in America’s public schools.
-
-
Acumen bugaboo
- By steve finkelstein on 04-25-21
By: Bill Madden
-
Death of the Territories
- Expansion, Betrayal and the War That Changed Pro Wrestling Forever
- By: Tim Hornbaker
- Narrated by: Kyle Tait
- Length: 11 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
By creating WrestleMania, jumping into the pay-per-view field, and expanding across North America, Vince McMahon changed professional wrestling forever.
-
-
An Enjoyable Listen
- By Casey on 03-21-19
By: Tim Hornbaker
-
The Real Madrid Way
- How Values Created the Most Successful Sports Team on the Planet
- By: Steven G. Mandis
- Narrated by: Charles Constant
- Length: 8 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Real Madrid is the most successful sports team on the planet. The soccer club has more trophies than any other sports team, including 11 UEFA Champions League trophies. However, the story behind the triumph goes beyond the players and coaches. Generally unnoticed, a management team consisting mostly of outsiders took the team from near bankruptcy to the most valuable sports organization in the world. How did Real Madrid achieve such extraordinary success? Columbia Business School adjunct professor Steven G. Mandis investigates.
-
-
Football, business, analytics
- By Anonymous User on 10-09-23
By: Steven G. Mandis
-
Walter Johnson
- Baseball's Big Train
- By: Henry W. Thomas
- Narrated by: Ian Esmo
- Length: 17 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
To many, Walter Johnson is the greatest pitcher of all time. He was a star second to none from the dawn of the game's modern era through the "Golden Age of Sports" of the Roaring Twenties. The playing career of "The Big Train", as the sportswriters called him, spanned the era of such greats as Cy Young, Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, Lou Gehrig, and Al Simmons. Johnson knew every President from William Howard Taft to Franklin Roosevelt, and was friends with the likes of Will Rogers and Douglas Fairbanks.
-
-
Greatest Pitcher of All Time?
- By David on 04-05-07
By: Henry W. Thomas
-
The Old Ball Game
- How John McGraw, Christy Mathewson, and the New York Giants Created Modern Baseball
- By: Frank Deford
- Narrated by: Frank Deford
- Length: 7 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Old Ball Game, Frank Deford, NPR sports commentator and Sports Illustrated journalist retells the story of an unusual friendship between two towering figures in baseball history.
-
-
Good story but annoying narrator...
- By Richard on 03-24-19
By: Frank Deford
-
The Betrayal
- The 1919 World Series and the Birth of Modern Baseball
- By: Charles Fountain
- Narrated by: Bob Reed
- Length: 11 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the most famous scandal of sports history, eight Chicago White Sox players - including Shoeless Joe Jackson - agreed to throw the 1919 World Series to the Cincinnati Reds in exchange for the promise of $20,000 each from gamblers reportedly working for New York mobster Arnold Rothstein. Heavily favored, Chicago lost the Series five games to three. Although rumors of a fix flew while the series was being played, they were largely disregarded by players and the public at large.
-
-
Great telling of a truly American story
- By Robert Taylor on 01-06-21
By: Charles Fountain
-
Trading Bases
- A Story About Wall Street, Gambling, and Baseball (Not Necessarily in That Order)
- By: Joe Peta
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 9 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An ex-Wall Street trader improved on Moneyball’s famed sabermetrics to place bets that would beat the Vegas odds on Major League Baseball games - with a 41 percent return in his first year. Trading Bases explains how he did it. After the fall of Lehman Brothers, Joe Peta was out of a job. He found a new one but lost that, too, when an ambulance mowed him down. In search of a way to cheer himself up while he recuperated, Peta started watching baseball again. That’s when inspiration hit: Why not apply his outstanding risk-analysis skills to improve on sabermetrics, the method made famous by Moneyball?
-
-
A fascinating book, but buy the print version.
- By Cameron on 04-18-16
By: Joe Peta
Related to this topic
-
Baseball
- A History of America's Game
- By: Benjamin G. Rader
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 12 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A succinct history of baseball, newly revised and updated. In this third edition of his lively history of America's game, widely recognized as the best of its kind, Benjamin G. Rader expands his scope, covering record crowds and record income, construction of new ballparks, a change in the strike zone, a surge in recruiting Japanese players, and an emerging cadre of explosive long-ball hitters. The book is published by The University of Illinois Press.
-
-
Good book!
- By Judy Ellis on 04-15-18
-
The Extra 2%
- How Wall Street Strategies Took a Major League Baseball Team from Worst to First
- By: Jonah Keri
- Narrated by: Lloyd James
- Length: 9 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Extra 2%, financial journalist and sportswriter Jonah Keri chronicles the remarkable story of one team's Cinderella journey from divisional doormat to World Series contender. By quantifying the game's intangibles, they were able to deliver to Tampa Bay an American League pennant. This is an informative and entertaining case study for any organization that wants to go from worst to first.
-
-
No Strategies or Insight
- By Victor Luera on 10-11-12
By: Jonah Keri
-
How Baseball Happened
- Outrageous Lies Exposed! The True Story Revealed
- By: Thomas W. Gilbert
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 10 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The fascinating, true origin story of baseball - how America’s first great sport developed and how it conquered a nation.
-
-
superb reading. ate it up in 2 days.
- By Bill on 01-13-22
-
Fall from Grace
- The Truth and Tragedy of "Shoeless Joe" Jackson
- By: Tim Hornbaker
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 10 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Considered by Ty Cobb as the "finest natural hitter in the history of the game," "Shoeless Joe" Jackson is ranked with the greatest players to ever step onto a baseball diamond. With a career .356 batting average - which is still ranked third all-time - the man from Pickens County, South Carolina, was on his way to becoming one of the greatest players in the sport's history. That is until the "Black Sox" scandal of 1919, which shook baseball to its core.
-
-
Entertaining and Educational
- By Colorfinger on 06-14-19
By: Tim Hornbaker
-
A Nice Little Place on the North Side
- Wrigley Field at One Hundred
- By: George Will
- Narrated by: Mark Deakins
- Length: 5 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In A Nice Little Place on the North Side, leading columnist George Will returns to baseball with a deeply personal look at his hapless Chicago Cubs and their often beatified home, Wrigley Field, as it enters its second century. Baseball, Will argues, is full of metaphors for life, religion, and happiness, and Wrigley is considered one of its sacred spaces. But what is its true, hyperbole-free history?
-
-
It's EEE-lia, not Ah-LEE-ah
- By Shawcago on 04-25-16
By: George Will
-
The Club
- How the English Premier League Became the Wildest, Richest, Most Disruptive Force in Sports
- By: Joshua Robinson, Jonathan Clegg
- Narrated by: Shaun Grindell
- Length: 13 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
No one knew it when their experiment began, but without any particular genius or acumen, the motley cast of billionaires and hucksters behind the modern Premier League struck gold. Pretty soon, everyone wanted to try their luck, from Russian oligarchs to Emirati sheikhs, American tycoons, and Asian Tiger titans. Some succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. Some lost everything. Today, players are sold for tens of millions, clubs are valued in the billions, and games are beamed out to nearly 200 countries, all while the league struggles to preserve its English soul.
-
-
Read don't listen
- By JR3 on 01-23-19
By: Joshua Robinson, and others
-
Baseball
- A History of America's Game
- By: Benjamin G. Rader
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 12 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A succinct history of baseball, newly revised and updated. In this third edition of his lively history of America's game, widely recognized as the best of its kind, Benjamin G. Rader expands his scope, covering record crowds and record income, construction of new ballparks, a change in the strike zone, a surge in recruiting Japanese players, and an emerging cadre of explosive long-ball hitters. The book is published by The University of Illinois Press.
-
-
Good book!
- By Judy Ellis on 04-15-18
-
The Extra 2%
- How Wall Street Strategies Took a Major League Baseball Team from Worst to First
- By: Jonah Keri
- Narrated by: Lloyd James
- Length: 9 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Extra 2%, financial journalist and sportswriter Jonah Keri chronicles the remarkable story of one team's Cinderella journey from divisional doormat to World Series contender. By quantifying the game's intangibles, they were able to deliver to Tampa Bay an American League pennant. This is an informative and entertaining case study for any organization that wants to go from worst to first.
-
-
No Strategies or Insight
- By Victor Luera on 10-11-12
By: Jonah Keri
-
How Baseball Happened
- Outrageous Lies Exposed! The True Story Revealed
- By: Thomas W. Gilbert
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 10 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The fascinating, true origin story of baseball - how America’s first great sport developed and how it conquered a nation.
-
-
superb reading. ate it up in 2 days.
- By Bill on 01-13-22
-
Fall from Grace
- The Truth and Tragedy of "Shoeless Joe" Jackson
- By: Tim Hornbaker
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 10 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Considered by Ty Cobb as the "finest natural hitter in the history of the game," "Shoeless Joe" Jackson is ranked with the greatest players to ever step onto a baseball diamond. With a career .356 batting average - which is still ranked third all-time - the man from Pickens County, South Carolina, was on his way to becoming one of the greatest players in the sport's history. That is until the "Black Sox" scandal of 1919, which shook baseball to its core.
-
-
Entertaining and Educational
- By Colorfinger on 06-14-19
By: Tim Hornbaker
-
A Nice Little Place on the North Side
- Wrigley Field at One Hundred
- By: George Will
- Narrated by: Mark Deakins
- Length: 5 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In A Nice Little Place on the North Side, leading columnist George Will returns to baseball with a deeply personal look at his hapless Chicago Cubs and their often beatified home, Wrigley Field, as it enters its second century. Baseball, Will argues, is full of metaphors for life, religion, and happiness, and Wrigley is considered one of its sacred spaces. But what is its true, hyperbole-free history?
-
-
It's EEE-lia, not Ah-LEE-ah
- By Shawcago on 04-25-16
By: George Will
-
The Club
- How the English Premier League Became the Wildest, Richest, Most Disruptive Force in Sports
- By: Joshua Robinson, Jonathan Clegg
- Narrated by: Shaun Grindell
- Length: 13 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
No one knew it when their experiment began, but without any particular genius or acumen, the motley cast of billionaires and hucksters behind the modern Premier League struck gold. Pretty soon, everyone wanted to try their luck, from Russian oligarchs to Emirati sheikhs, American tycoons, and Asian Tiger titans. Some succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. Some lost everything. Today, players are sold for tens of millions, clubs are valued in the billions, and games are beamed out to nearly 200 countries, all while the league struggles to preserve its English soul.
-
-
Read don't listen
- By JR3 on 01-23-19
By: Joshua Robinson, and others
-
The League
- How Five Rivals Created the NFL and Launched a Sports Empire
- By: John Eisenberg
- Narrated by: Daniel Thomas May
- Length: 11 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The National Football League's current dominance has obscured how professional football got its start. In The League, John Eisenberg reveals that Art Rooney, George Halas, Tim Mara, George Preston Marshall, and Bert Bell took an immense risk by investing in the professional game. At that time, the sport barely registered on the national scene. The five owners succeeded only because at critical junctures in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, each sacrificed the short-term success of his team for the longer-term good of the League.
-
-
what a great book. loved it completely.
- By Daniel Mosca on 11-08-18
By: John Eisenberg
-
Homegrown
- How the Red Sox Built a Champion from the Ground Up
- By: Alex Speier
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 10 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The 2018 season was a coronation for the Boston Red Sox. The best team in Major League Baseball - indeed, one of the best teams ever - the Sox won 108 regular season games and then romped through the postseason, going 11-3 against the three next-strongest teams baseball had to offer. As Alex Speier reveals, the Sox’ success wasn’t a fluke - nor was it guaranteed. It was the result of careful, patient planning and shrewd decision-making that allowed Boston to develop a golden generation of prospects - and then build upon that talented core to assemble a juggernaut.
-
-
Great read if you like the Red Sox or baseball ops
- By Amazon Customer on 01-11-20
By: Alex Speier
-
NFL Century
- The One-Hundred-Year Rise of America's Greatest Sports League
- By: Joe Horrigan
- Narrated by: Mark Deakins
- Length: 11 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The NFL has come a long way from its founding in Canton, Ohio, in 1920. In the 100 years since that fateful day, football has become America’s most popular and lucrative professional sport. The former scrappy upstart league that struggled to stay afloat has survived a host of challenges to produce American icons like Vince Lombardi, Joe Montana, and Tom Brady. It is an extraordinary and entertaining history that could be told only by Joe Horrigan, former executive director of the Pro Football Hall of Fame and perhaps the greatest living historian of the NFL.
-
-
Good but very business heavy vs football milestones
- By Katie Durr on 07-29-24
By: Joe Horrigan
-
Players
- The Story of Sports and Money - and the Visionaries Who Fought to Create a Revolution
- By: Matthew Futterman
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 9 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For fans of Michael Lewis, the astounding untold story of how professional sports transformed, in the span of a single generation, from a cottage industry into a massive global business. In the cash-soaked world of contemporary sports, where every season brings news of higher salaries, endorsement deals, and television contracts, it is mind-boggling to remember that as recently as the 1970s elite athletes earned so little money that many were forced to work second jobs in the off-season to make ends meet.
-
-
Starts slow...
- By John on 08-09-16
-
Our Team
- The Epic Story of Four Men and the World Series that Changed Baseball
- By: Luke Epplin
- Narrated by: Leon Nixon
- Length: 10 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The riveting story of four men - Larry Doby, Bill Veeck, Bob Feller, and Satchel Paige - whose improbable union on the Cleveland Indians in the late 1940s would shape the immediate postwar era of Major League Baseball and beyond.
-
-
Who will like this book?
- By Brian L. Quarton on 04-03-21
By: Luke Epplin
-
Done Deal
- By: Daniel Geey
- Narrated by: Simon Darwen
- Length: 8 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Whether it is a manager being sacked, the signing of a new star player, television rights negotiations, player misconduct or multi-million-pound club takeovers, lawyers remain at the heart of all football business dealings. Written by leading Premier League lawyer Daniel Geey, who has dealt with all these incidents first hand, this highly accessible book explores the issues - from pitch to boardroom - that shape the modern game and how these impact leagues, clubs, players and fans.
-
-
good book for understanding football finances
- By David A. Stadlin on 07-20-24
By: Daniel Geey
-
Forty Million Dollar Slaves
- The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Black Athlete
- By: William C. Rhoden
- Narrated by: William C. Rhoden
- Length: 9 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From Jackie Robinson to Muhammad Ali and Arthur Ashe, African American athletes have been at the center of modern culture, their on-the-field heroics admired and stratospheric earnings envied. But for all their money, fame, and achievement, says former New York Times columnist William C. Rhoden, Black athletes still find themselves on the periphery of true power in the multibillion-dollar industry their talent built. Provocative and controversial, Rhoden's Forty Million Dollar Slaves weaves a compelling narrative of Black athletes in the United States.
-
-
Book and Narrator Review
- By Leonor on 12-26-17
-
The Billionaires Club
- By: James Montague
- Narrated by: Damian Lynch
- Length: 11 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Once upon a time football was run by modest local businessmen. Today it is the plaything of billionaire oligarchs, staggeringly wealthy from oil and gas, from royalty, or from murkier sources. But who are these new masters of the universe? Where did all their money come from? And what do they want with our beautiful game? In The Billionaires Club James Montague delves deeper than anyone else has dared, to tell this story for the first time.
-
-
So boring! There is no cohesive story
- By Patrick Johnson on 02-15-22
By: James Montague
-
1954: The Year Willie Mays and the First Generation of Black Superstars Changed Major League Baseball Forever
- By: Bill Madden
- Narrated by: David Drummond
- Length: 8 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jackie Robinson heroically broke the color barrier in 1947. But how—and, in practice, when—did the integration of the sport actually occur? Bill Madden shows that baseball’s famous black experiment” did not truly succeed until the coming of age of Willie Mays and the emergence of some star players—Larry Doby, Hank Aaron, and Ernie Banks—in 1954. And as a relevant backdrop off the field, it was in May of that year that the US Supreme Court unanimously ruled, in the case of Brown v. Board of Education, that segregation be outlawed in America’s public schools.
-
-
Acumen bugaboo
- By steve finkelstein on 04-25-21
By: Bill Madden
-
The Real Madrid Way
- How Values Created the Most Successful Sports Team on the Planet
- By: Steven G. Mandis
- Narrated by: Charles Constant
- Length: 8 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Real Madrid is the most successful sports team on the planet. The soccer club has more trophies than any other sports team, including 11 UEFA Champions League trophies. However, the story behind the triumph goes beyond the players and coaches. Generally unnoticed, a management team consisting mostly of outsiders took the team from near bankruptcy to the most valuable sports organization in the world. How did Real Madrid achieve such extraordinary success? Columbia Business School adjunct professor Steven G. Mandis investigates.
-
-
Football, business, analytics
- By Anonymous User on 10-09-23
By: Steven G. Mandis
-
The Betrayal
- The 1919 World Series and the Birth of Modern Baseball
- By: Charles Fountain
- Narrated by: Bob Reed
- Length: 11 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the most famous scandal of sports history, eight Chicago White Sox players - including Shoeless Joe Jackson - agreed to throw the 1919 World Series to the Cincinnati Reds in exchange for the promise of $20,000 each from gamblers reportedly working for New York mobster Arnold Rothstein. Heavily favored, Chicago lost the Series five games to three. Although rumors of a fix flew while the series was being played, they were largely disregarded by players and the public at large.
-
-
Great telling of a truly American story
- By Robert Taylor on 01-06-21
By: Charles Fountain
-
Death of the Territories
- Expansion, Betrayal and the War That Changed Pro Wrestling Forever
- By: Tim Hornbaker
- Narrated by: Kyle Tait
- Length: 11 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
By creating WrestleMania, jumping into the pay-per-view field, and expanding across North America, Vince McMahon changed professional wrestling forever.
-
-
An Enjoyable Listen
- By Casey on 03-21-19
By: Tim Hornbaker
What listeners say about The Great Baseball Revolt
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Buretto
- 08-29-19
What could have been
Very enlightening history of baseball at a crossroads, just as American business was in its Gilded Age. For a fleeting moment it seemed like there may have been an equitable business model to use as a template for sports entertainment. But, as it turns out, money does indeed talk. Greed, along with poor decisions, spelled doom for the great experiment. In the fullness of time, some of what was in dispute, such as salary caps and the reserve clause, have been resolved, notwithstanding MLB's antitrust exemption. But one has to wonder, given an alternative history of the business of baseball, if the game could have grown in a more healthy fashion, perhaps reigning in the boomerang effect of exorbitant modern salaries.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Steven Gerweck
- 08-06-23
Great baseball history
In “The Great Baseball Revolt,” Robert B. Ross examines the environment in the early days of professional baseball in the United States that led to the formation of the Brotherhood of Professional Baseball Players organizing the Players’ League in 1890. The new league formed to counter National League’s and American Association’s control of the players, offering them to play in a league void of the dreaded reserve clause, and giving ballplayers shared ownership of their team.
The author does a fantastic job of summarizing the control mechanisms employed by the owners to keep the players under their thumbs. The owners maintained local monopolies, territorial rights to exclude competition. The owners controlled player movement with the reserve clause, and buying and selling talent. As noted in the book, owners would require players to purchase, clean, and replace their uniforms. Teams charged players fifty cents per day for travel expenses on road trips. Often times, players were fined for profanity and even blacklisted for trivial offenses. Chicago owner Albert Spalding even hired Pinkerton agents to spy on his own players.
Led by the versatile John Montgomery Ward, the Players’ League outdrew the Nation League in 1890. However, Ross documents the reasons why the league only survived one season. The Pittsburgh franchise was so financially strapped, and turned to amateur players as replacements to cut costs and finish out the season. In the end, only the Boston franchise turned a marginal profit, leaving the league in the red. The stronger teams would merge with their National League counterparts. As Ross points out, in the coming years, the average player’s salaries declined.
Ross does a superb job establishing the Players’ League’s legacy in baseball history, and describing the aftermath of its demise. In my humble opinion, Ross hits a home run with “The Great Baseball Revolt.”
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!