Dealing: The Cleveland Indians' New Ballgame: How a Small-Market Team Reinvented Itself as a Major League Contender

by Terry Pluto

Book Overview

"Fair, honest and insightful throughout ... The book is a compelling look at the Indians' organizational thought process in what has become a challenging baseball market." -- MLB.com

For Indians fans who want to know what goes on inside the front office, this book tells all. It's an in-depth look at how the team was taken apart and rebuilt as a contender again in spite of Major League Baseball's competitive imbalance.

Tribe...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1598510495
• ISBN13: 9781598510492
• Release Date: April 2008
• Publisher: Gray & Company Publishers
• Length: 222 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.7" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

Pluto is a master

Replete with insight, key quotes and a smooth flow, this book is an easy and interesting read for any baseball fan, but naturally for Fans of the Feathered. Terry Pluto's wit and intriguing words/themes enabled me to finish this book in a few short hours on an international flight. If you want to understand the history of Cleveland baseball --- past and especially present -- get ahold of this book. It truly explains how teams like Cleveland can be reborn and then rebuilt. It also disproves the lie about money buying wins in baseball.

Tribe Fan Must

Tremendous book. Well written and very enjoyable to read. Terry Pluto does a tremendous job of explaining and helping the reader understand the behind the scene deals that have helped rebuild the Indians into the contender that they are today.

TERRY PLUTO DOES IT AGAIN

DEALING IS THE STORY OF THE CLEVELAND INDIANS RESURGANCE BACK TO A CONTENDER IN 2005 AND 2007. AUTHOR TERRY PLUTO GOES BEHIND THE SCENES AND HAS PROVIDED THE READER WITH NUMEROUS SCOUTING REPORTS, FINANCIAL DATA, OWNERSHIP INPUT AND TERRY'S PERSONAL INSIGHTS AND OPINIONS ON HOW THE INDIANS BECAME CONTENDERS AGAIN. HE BRINGS US BACK TO THE DAYS WHEN THE TEAM WAS OWNED BY DICK JACOBS AND RUN BY JOHN (SPEND ALL THE MONEY YOU CAN) HART. THE TRIBE DOMINATED THE CENTRAL DIVISION FROM 1995-99. THE TEAM WAS SOLD TO A DIFFERENT APPROACH OWNER IN FATHER AND SON MISERS LARRY AND PAUL DOLAN WHO MAKE SCROOGE LOOK LIKE GEORGE STEINBRENNER. THE PAYROLL WAS CUT, JOHN HART BAILED SHIP AND MARK (THE MIND) SHAPIRO BECAME GM AND HIRED ERIC (EINSTEIN) WEDGE AS MANAGER. THE TRIBE MADE SOME GOOD AND NOT SO GOOD TRADES DURING THIS TIME AND ALIENATED MUCH OF THE FAN BASE THEY HAD FOR MANY YEARS.(THE ATTENDANCE STILL STRUGLES EVEN WITH A GOOD TEAM) BUT EVENTUALLY THE TEAM HAS GOTTEN BETTER BUT LACKS CONSISTENCY. IF YOU ARE A TRIBE FAN, THIS IS A GREAT READ. IT IS ALSO A GOOD AND INTERESTING READ FOR ALL BASEBALL FANS WHO SEE HOW TO CREATE A CONTENDER ON A LOW TO MEDIUM BUDGET.

Dealing is great

Dealing is another fabulous book by Cleveland's owne Terry Pluto. His books always hit the mark and here he pulls no punches on the Dolan/Shapiro era of the history of the Cleveland Indians.

a peek inside the front office --

This new century's baseball team has different players than those in the good old days: Moneyball Fantasy Reality Business Agents Cable Free Agency Arbitration Revenue Sharing and of course, that good ol' reliable utility player Hindsight You can shuffle your lineup any way you want to, but at the end of the day, the deck is still stacked against the owner(s). Cleveland fans feel so deprived as none of their professional sports teams have won a championship for so many years, most people can't remember the last time it happened! And they're not the only ones. In the last few years, the rules have changed--drastically. It's hardly fair to blame the new owners (the Dolan family) for not being the previous one--Dick Jacobs. After all, Jacobs did just what he'd done all his lifetime--bought low, sold high. Sold extra-high, actually. That doesn't mean that Jacobs should be blamed for having bought the baseball team in the first place--or selling it twelve years later. Had he not bought it when he did in 1987, the Cleveland Indians might well be some other city's team. Even so, it took the Jacobs family several years to get to the high-flying mid-90s, when the playoffs were the standard by which all other accomplishments were measured. Back then, the Browns were a bunch of nobodies, and so were the Cavs. Things are vastly different now--at least for the Cavs. Terry Pluto uses his extensive knowledge and the openness of the Dolan family, along with Mark Shapiro, to explain the last few years of baseball in Cleveland. Actually, Paul Dolan, president of the team, should almost qualify for co-author status, he appears so often and so openly, explaining the actions of himself and his family. The Dolans appear to be out-going, straight-forward owners, explaining matters to the fans. (Sometimes they explain too much, to be sure.) Reading this book, you'll feel like part of the team in this plain-speaking look at the inner workings of a Major League baseball team's front office, and how the entire team--front office and the one on the field--combine to make things happen. Perhaps the Dolans biggest mistake was that, although they had been shrewd businessmen for many years, they approached the purchase of the team as fans rather than owners. For no other reason, perhaps, you have to like these guys. They play with their hearts--with tons of dollars thrown in for good measure. Seems to me they should be given a bit more time to make good on their intentions. After all, the world--and Northeast Ohio--changed drastically in the four years since they overpaid for the team. There was the aftermath of 9/11, which will continue for a good many more years. The economic scene in Cleveland has gone through major changes in the last four years. Loss of jobs equates to many less dollars available for this not-so-inexpensive-anymore entertainment. Baseball, itself, has experienced the same sort of trauma, with new, long-term very pric