|
Three Nights in August: Strategy, Heartbreak, and Joy Inside the Mind of a Manager |  | Author: Buzz Bissinger
Publisher: Mariner Books
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
Buy Used: $0.01
as of 7/31/2010 14:15 PDT details
You Save: $14.94 (100%)
New (39) Used (171) from $0.01
Seller: thrift_books
Rating:  105 reviews
Sales Rank: 64144
Media: Paperback
Pages: 320
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.1 x 5.4 x 0.9
ISBN: 0618710531
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.3570977866
EAN: 9780618710539
ASIN: 0618710531
Publication Date: April 4, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
| |
| Features:
| • | ISBN13: 9780618710539 | | • | Condition: New | | • | Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed |
|
| Also Available In:
| • | Hardcover - Three Nights in August: Strategy, Heartbreak, and Joy Inside the Mind of a Manager | | • | Paperback - Three Nights in August: Strategy, Heartbreak, and Joy Inside the Mind of a Manager | | • | Paperback - Three Nights in August: Strategy, Heartbreak, and Joy Inside the Mind of a Manager | | • | Audible Audio Edition - Three Nights in August: Strategy, Heartbreak, and Joy Inside the Mind of a Manager | | • | Hardcover - Three Nights in August | | • | Audio CD - Three Nights in August: Strategy, Heartbreak, and Joy Inside the Mind of a Manager | | • | Audio Cassette - Three Nights in August: Strategy, Heartbreak, and Joy Inside the Mind of a Manager |
|
| Similar Items:
| |
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Three Nights in August captures the strategic and emotional complexities of baseball's quintessential form, the three-game series. As the St. Louis Cardinals battle their archrival Chicago Cubs, we watch from the dugout through the eyes of legendary manager Tony La Russa, considered by many to be the shrewdest mind in the game today. In his twenty-seven years of managing, La Russa has been named Manager of the Year a record-making five times and now stands as the third-winningest baseball manager of all time. A great leader, he's built his success on the conviction that ball games are won not only by the numbers but also by the hearts and minds of those who play.
Drawing on unprecedented access to a major league manager and his team, Buzz Bissinger brings a revelatory intimacy to baseball and offers some surprising observations. Bissinger also furthers the debate on major league managerial style and strategy in his provocative new afterword.
|
| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 105
 Just Does Not Deliver June 24, 2010
A Humble Reader
I was really lookinig forward to reading this book. To me, Tony LaRussa is one of the best in-game managers in baseball and this book promised to give us an inside look at his mindset and strategies throughout a 3 game series with the Cubs. Overall? Not bad and, especially early on, I was enjoying the book and the intimacy of "seeing" LaRussa's thought process in various situations. It simply didn't last throughout, or it seemed to bog down or become repetitive. I enjoyed the book as a whole, but the latter third of it became slow, almost tedious at times.
I'm ready for opening day. Three Nights in August helped. January 27, 2010
JOHN GODFREY (Milwaukee ,WI USA)
The NFL is great & maybe game for game more exciting. But I love baseball. Two more games & the NFL is outta here. From April to October, thru the dog days of summer baseball supplies my daily fix of escape from the real world. Three Days encapsulates so much of what baseball is in the format of a late season three game series between the Cards & Cubbies. Buzz Bissinger dissects the games pitch by pitch with the percision of an expert surgeon, through the baseball mind of Tony LaRussa mgr. of St. Louis. In his lifetime of baseball, you'd imagine, LaRussa has seen everything there is to see. You'd be incorrect. Everyday every pitch is new & feeds his love for the game. Buzz roams far & wide on his subject. Games played years ago & anaylyed pitch by pitch could get tedious. LaRussa's experiences provide the basis for many of the stories. Emotionally, LaRussa has experienced more ups & downs than a high speed elevator. Baseball is cruel, especially to relationships. Baseball is & always will be LaRussa's first love. He know this & so did his wife & his kids, now grown. It's very nature ensues long separations during the best time of the year, summertime. Hall of Fame baseball manager, not so much family man. I still admire him. Every pitch of every game has meaning. LaRussa believes in playing it the right way. Most baseball players don't know how & cettainly most fans don't. I've been a fan for 50 years &, swear if I worked at it I'd bee hard pressed to extract the right thing to do every pitch a fraction of the time. Tony does this for a living. I watch for recreation, every summer. In these times, looking for something that endures, Baseball, it seems will always be there.
 Great book October 11, 2009
J. Pichette
Great read for any baseball fan. Get a behind the scenes look at the 3-game series between the St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs.
Rekindling excitement and respect for the game I grew up with October 8, 2009
Brian Wright (Merrimack, NH USA)
Since the baseball players strike in 1994, and probably well before that, I've had only a casual interest in the game. Of course, on and around the years the Detroit Tigers won the World Series (1968 and 1984), I paid attention. I even attended perhaps 5-10 games per season at old Tiger Stadium, when--in the era before the giant Government-Corporate Suck Machine (GCSM, pronounced "Jasism") kicked in--you could enjoy reserved seats close to the dugout for the price of taking your girlfriend out for a nice dinner. And the field was right there.
Reading Three Nights in August nearly rekindles that excitement I used to feel for the game. In grade school, when we lived in Overland Park, a suburb of Kansas City, I could sit in front of a transistor radio and do nothing except listen to the Kansas City Athletics' play by play. Cheap thrills.
...
For my complete review of this book and for other book and movie
reviews, please visit my site [...]
Brian Wright
Copyright 2009
Insightful peak into the challenges of being a modern-day major league manager July 25, 2009
cs211 (United States)
Love him or loathe him, by many measures Tony LaRussa is one of the most successful managers in MLB history, especially in recent decades. To create "3 Nights in August" (3NIA), he allowed Buzz Bissinger unprecedented access to his team, his staff, and his inner thoughts and feelings. There are still areas which are off limits, of course, but this access allowed Buzz Bissinger to create a more insightful baseball book than the typical "fan book". For those baseball fans who imagine themselves to be managers (which is probably most fans other than casual fans), 3NIA provides details on what the job is actually like - but it also leaves the fan/reader thirsting for even more.
3NIA is a peak inside the mind of a major league manager, showing the pressures and challenges he has to deal with, and the decisions he has to make over the course of a season, a three game series with an arch-rival in a pennant race, and individual games and at bats. Baseball is a game with many layers and complexities, and 3NIA reveals many of the games within the game, the sub plots, and the background. First and foremost is the human element, in determining the composition of the team (the roster), the roles for the different players, and motivating them to perform their best (something that not even a master like La Russa is capable of doing all the time with all his players). Dealing with injuries, adversities and bruised egos is another major element of a manager's job, and 3NIA reveals many challenges in these areas that don't usually make the papers. This reminds us armchair managers that, when we criticize the decisions of the manager of our favorite team, we simply do not have access to all the information that he does.
3NIA also delves into the strategic game decisions that a manager makes. These are important, and La Russa is definitely one of the more creative, innovative MLB managers in this respect, but 3NIA shows that managing the human element is even more important. As all managers do, La Russa has to decide when to punish, encourage and reward, and how best to use these tools to extract maximum performance from his players, some of whom care deeply about being the best they can be, and some who do not.
3NIA also reveals the personal and lifestyle challenges that La Russa has faced over the course of his career as a manager. He himself is very dedicated to his job and being the best he can be, and his family has paid a significant price because of this.
While Cardinal fans will appreciate 3NIA the most, the book definitely makes worthwhile reading for baseball fans in general.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 105
|
|
|
CERTAIN CONTENT THAT APPEARS ON THIS SITE COMES FROM AMAZON SERVICES LLC. THIS CONTENT IS PROVIDED ‘AS IS’ AND IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE OR REMOVAL AT ANY TIME.
| |
