Teams Books

I love this book. Stories of the team back in the day when they truly played as one unit and captured the hearts of the city that supported them. I grew up in Baltimore and now live on the west coast, and you have no idea how great it was to grow up with the Orioles (and the Colts), in the 60's, 70's, and 80's, until you view it from another city and a different time. The O's represented all that was good about baseball and the story of the personality of the team is well told.

I really enjoyed reading Mr. Patterson's book. Being a young Oriole's fan, it shared with me the glory of the past days in Baltimore as well as the downfalls. The one thing that bothered me about the book was the pictures. The majority of them were autographed and that took away from their point in my opinion. Also, the captions on the pictures usually told about things that would happen a few pages ahead. This would tell you prematurly about what was going to happen.

This is one of those books you will pull from the shelf again and again. Forward by the ultimate third baseman, Brooks Robinson. Ted Patterson is not only a fan but covered the team, and knows just what O's fans want to know. Great photos of the players, the parks, and the action, as well as memorabilia the author has collected over the years!

The memories of watching Orioles games on TV and in old Memorial Stadium came back to life as I read this book. Those long time Orioles fans can re-live great games of the past as they spend a moment, trying to forget that our old friend on 33rd Street will be torn down next year. Rich in history and documentation. Camden Yards is a great place, but you should never forget where you came from. Thank you, Memorial Stadium. I will miss you...

This book gave me ideas that I never thought of... Well written and spaced out. A great tool!

This is a great all in one coaches guide. It teaches you how to TEACH the game of baseball...drills, guidelines, how to set up practices, and even goes into pitching more than the common all in one books do. lots of diagrams to support the text...very highly rated.

This is an excellent book for anyone interested in becoming a great coach. The book arrived in great condition and in the time frame advertised.

The book was purchased to assist with the management and development of little league ballplayers. This publication is geared for an older audience. However, the information and instructional tips are pure baseball and, as such, can assist anyone with better understanding how to approach teaching the game of baseball. It is an easy read, yet comprehensive. I would recommend adding it to your baseball instruction library.

I have used this book as a text book in many Change Agent classes I have taught and have found it to be a very pragmatic and useful guide. It is a shame that it is out of print now. In fact, the last class I tought, I had to go scrounging around the office to find copies on bookshelves to use. I wish they would republish it.

The list of consequences "when bad things happen to good projects" or What-NOT-To-Do is worth the price of the book. I wish I had read this book before starting my 6+ years as a consultant helping organizations to improve. This book presents most of the lessons that I've learned during those years and gives quite a few additional ideas on organization change.

Don't let the garish cover art distract you. This is a solidly good book, which I regularly recommend to my clients. Of course, I can't vouch for the Price Waterhouse consulting group's ability to get clients to change successfully or whether they even follow their own advice. I just know that I do apply the best ideas in this book (plus some of my own) in my consulting practice.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Easy to read and it truly made sense. We are just beginning an effort to change our organization and this book has helped us plot our course. I am encouraged that this book will help us achieve positive change for our company and employees.

If you're trying to figure out why a project isn't going well, this book just may solve your problem. It takes you through the basics of change mangement, and makes you aware of just what you're dealing with. Good, practical advice that made me wear out a highlighter. When I showed it to other IS people on our Oracle software implementation project, they said "that's us"!!! We didn't realize we were in the middle of a change project - now we can try to take a step back and regroup.

THIS BOOK ABOUT FRANK MAHOVLICH IS WELL WORTH READING. THE BIG M WAS ONE OF THE BEST AND CLASSIEST PLAYERS OF ALL TIME. HIS GRACE AND POWER ON THE ICE WERE A THINK TO BEHOLD. HIS SON TED, DOES A GREAT JOB TELLING HIS STORY AND HITS ON ALL 8 CYLINDERS. I ESPECIALLY ENJOYED THE PARTS CONCERNING PUNCH IMLACH AND HIS DICTATOR WAYS AND THE VARIOUS OTHER COACHES AND PLAYERS THAT THE BIG M PLAYED FOR AND AGAINST. A GREAT READ FOR ALL HOCKEY FANS.

This book has been very enjoyable. Ted Mahovlich has done an excellent job in telling us the interesting story about his father. He showed us the Punch Imlach lacked class and Frank Mahovlich had a lot of class and finally enjoyed his career when he joined the best organization in sports at the time the Montreal Canadiens. I would recommend this to any hockey fan or sports fan in general

Frank Mahovlich was one of THE great players in the history of hockey. This books gives a thoughtful and intelligent insight into the mind of the quiet giant who won four Stanley Cups with the Leafs and two more with the Canadiens.

Told alongside the biographical narrative of The Big M is the author's experience of going on the road with his father, in the touring team of NHL past masters. Not only does this expose the reader to some beautiful anecdotes about other former stars of the game, but also captures the bond between father and son in a most moving way.

Ted Mahovlich is a very accomplished writer, telling his father's story with compassion, respect and honesty in a fine style that makes the book hard to put down. A must for any fan of hockey and/or good writing.

This book is great, not your normal biography. Ted Mahovlich captures a seldom read about side of his father Frank, along with the exploits of his spectacular career. The author spent considerable time traveling and playing with the old-timer greats while interviewing them as wells as capturing moments the common fan is not privey to. If you are a hockey fan -- this books for you. (Yes I know I live in Texas, but I moved here)

This is for sure THE BOOK to open your mind and start developping yourself on the subject in a fun and intuitive way. I did order another book previouos to this one and have been doing an extensive research in the web on reviews on the subject as my customers (I am an organizational development consultant) are more and more asking for support on the subject of virtual and remote teams. Other books and approaches are ok, they provide you structure but most are still in the discovery process and using the already known patterns. They identify virtual teams as a matter of technology and not a matter of major change in how we approach work and human connections in this century. Ken Thompson goes beyond and takes you to look at best practices, there where you would not expect them. Virtual and remote teams is the top of the iceberg of the major change that we need to make in our current conception of teams and work

In an era where the forces of convergence are blurring and challenging the paradigms between businesses, customers, suppliers and industry ecosystems and where technology is leading non-linear change in the processes and dominant fabrics of society, there is a need for a holistic approach for anticipating and managing these external catalysts whilst concurrently fostering interaction, co-evolution and "emergence" between these agents operating in any given organizational, cultural, societal and/or economic system.

Ken Thompson in Bioteams delineates the extraction of the biological processes and principals underpinning nature's evolution to its application in human and organizational contexts through extrapolation and real life case studies. A very significant portion of the book is dedicated to expanding on the bioteam action `zones', rules and techniques, exemplifying the traits of collective leadership and transparency, with Thompson aligning the directive for the methodology to disrupt existing organizational DNA by designing, enabling and integrating the tenets of `living systems' theory (known as autopoiesis in the biological vernacular).

The inclusion of a dynamic bioteam evaluation scorecard together with associated techniques for team design and mobilization and the detailed case studies gives rise to the conclusion that if correctly embraced, bioteaming initiatives are strategic innovations that lead to the emergence of complex behavior using simple concepts of self-organisation. A must read for anyone serious about taking evolution seriously!!

(perhaps even three reads)

Web 2.0 (wikis, blogs, social networking, SMS, chat,et al) give us a whole new world of connectivity. But in addition to dealing with the daily drudge of email, Web 2.0 also can overwhelm us with noise. Thompson breaks new ground by turning to nature and the field of biomimicry to both tame and harness the new world of connectivity in getting work done by building agile high performance teams. I like to think of it as Collaboration 2.0. Thompson gives us the "human protocols" needed for effective communication using the new media. I totally agree with Dr. Patrick Cannon's comment about the book, "Don't just read it, use it."

The biggest challenge businesses today face is unlearning what was successful in the industrial age and learning how to prosper in the network era.


Ken Thompson has written an important book, a guidebook to help companies move from vestiges of the industrial age to the efficiencies of the network era.

Companies are not machines; they are living organisms. Yesterday's organizational teams are giving way to organic, self-organizing bioteams. Drawing on lessons from biology, ecology, and the natural world, Thompson provides wise counsel for setting up and nurturing bioteams. Here's the bottom line:

"After 3.8 billion years of research and development, failures are fossils, and what surrounds us is the secret to survival. Like the viceroy butterfly imitating the monarch, we humans are imitating the best and brightest organisms in our habitat. We are learning, for instance, how to grow food like a prairie, build ceramics like an abalone, create color like a peacock, self-medicate like a chimp, compute like a cell, and run a business like a hickory forest."

Thompson believes that today's managements misunderstand the dynamic and living nature of the team as an entity over and above its membership.

Speaking as an editor in the newspaper industry who has recently entered the world of management myself, this book is gold. If ever there was a book that is a must read, it's Blitz the Ladder. This book gives an honest and simple approach to finding whatever it is you seek from your career. From learning how to work with your co-workers to getting the best out of your self, this book gives valuable advice to everyone from entry-level to upper management. Rhoad's approach to success in a sometimes unforgiving world needs to be in any college grad's library or briefcase. The author provides statistics and case studies to illustrate his valuable points. This book is worth the purchase.

This book is wonderful at helping you figure out how to get to your brass ring. For those who have followed other advice, such as get a degree, work hard and accomplish great things, but still don't get the opportunities to really grow in their career, Todd Rhoad provides you the insight into using resources you may never have thought of using; that is, other people.

The biggest thing readers should know about this book is that it teaches you a method for becoming more successful in your career. You'll learn how to draw out a map to your goals and what resources you need to get there. This approach doesn't leave you alone to solve all the problems and challenges you may face because you have a team of supporters right there to help you.

After going through the book, I recognized a few things that may be holding me back such as I'm always doing what I think is right. The team approach would provide other perspectives that would provide a bigger picture and a more accurate call for action. I highly recommend this book!

This book is so relevant to so many business situations today. This team technique could save victims of a layoff, downsizing or buyouts. The strategy map not only helps those who are pondering what to do in their career but how to do it as well. The author is obviously a maniacal researcher from all the resources he used, which explains why this common-sense guide works so well.

Impressed with the sound research and coordination of ideas to suggest a novel approach to career management. Todd Rhoad's team based approach builds upon the principle of getting more done with others than individually. He demonstrates how an effective group or team can help accomplish career goals as opposed to the responsibility of one indiviudal. It's a great system to enhance career and personal mobility - an excellent program to achieve your goals!

This is a great book for anyone looking to recapture the excitement of the Super Bowl Season. It is more of a picture book but also includes a short review of each game in the season - a definate must add to any Colts Collection.

Bought this for one of the kids for Christmas, they were very happy with it.

This is a wonderful keepsake, and at a very affordable price. The pictures of the team were great, and they've thrown in a picture or two of Colts' fans. Certainly our Super Bowl victory was a long-time coming, and this is a great way to remember and relive it. Would make a nice gift, as well. Mine also came in superb condition.

I am very happy with this purchase. It came in excellent condition, as promised.

Great book that brought back a lot of memories of faded Brooklyn Glory. Osborne captures the details of a summer in the minors leagues from the fresh cut grass of a new season to the hope of Major League stardom.

Warning: This book has a tendency to make the reader into a die hard Cyclones fan.

Great book. Loved the historical aspects, and the personal stories of the player and local kid. A great gift for father's day, espcially for anyone with Brooklyn roots or a love of baseball.

With Ben Osborne's newest book, The Brooklyn Cyclones, Hardball Dreams and the New Coney Island, baseball is displayed, honored, and celebrated in such a way that my "jones" for a bleacher seat, a dog and a draft has spiraled out of control. This tale of baseball's return to Brooklyn is much more than just an account of the 2001 season of the Mets' Single-A Brooklyn Cyclones. It is a socially in-depth look into baseballs' influence on not only a community (in this place, the Coney Island neighborhood of Brooklyn), and the city of New York at large, but also on two specific individuals. The two featured in this beautifully crafted piece of work are contrasts in background and involvement with the club. The first featured character is catching prospect, Brett Kay. A native Californian, who had never stepped foot in the Big Apple prior, Kay brings a natural energy to the club, as well as a strong bat and solid defensive play behind the plate. As a single-A prospect, Kay like many others in his position, the Cyclones are the first step in his pursuit of his dream of one day playing in the bigs.
The second individual featured is 13-year old Coney Island resident, Anthony Otero Jr. A big fan of the game of baseball, Otero is the leader of a group of Coney teenagers, who in stark contrast to the borough's basketball history, enjoy using the blacktops for hardball instead of roundball. Living just 15 blocks from the site of KeySpan Park (the cyclone's beautiful boardwalk-side stadium), Osborne chronicles Otero's interest in the team, alongside his own aspirations of one day playing pro ball. Possibly the most intriguing portions of the book, are the historical sections which detail Brooklyn's rich baseball tradition with the Dodgers, the economic rise and fall of Coney Island, and finally ex-mayor, Rudy Guilani's attempt to use the genesis of the team as a cornerstone of his "legacy" as mayor.

In the end, this slice of Americana is truly an enjoyable read. A tale which intertwines many different faces of the American sports fan, from the prospect, to the fierce political leader, to the local kid from the projects. How these individuals affect and are ultimately affected by the team is the true story line. A couple years later, Kay puts it perfectly in the book's final thought, "that season in Brooklyn was something that I'll never experience again."

Ben Osborne's second book is a solid journalistic foray that delves into the political, regional, and economic contexts surrounding the return of professional baseball to the borough of Brooklyn 44 years after the Dodgers took off for California. The first season of the minor league Cyclones, an afiliate of the New York Mets, who play in the New York-Penn League, is recounted in detail through the eyes of Anthony Otero, a kid from the projects and Coney Island native who dreams of playing for the Yankees but had never been to a professional game before the Cyclones came to town and Brett Kay, a Californian catching prospect drafted by the Mets and farmed out to the Class A Cyclones to begin his big league career.

From the potitical manuevering of Rudy Giuliani to the construction of the incredible Keyspan Park at Coney Island to the season long sellout crowds Ben Osborne crafts a riviting story and fascinating read that encompasses both historical and cultural perspectives while exploring the media circus that followed the Cyclones in their inaugual season. The book is about more then just baseball. It's about the inner city struggle, big city politics, and hardball dreams. An accurate portrayal and intriguing analysis of the realities facing Brooklyn and Coney Island today.

One of the best baseball books I ever read and I've read lots. I am looking forward to Rudy's next book.

Beind an avid baseball fan all my life, it gives me great pleasure reading Rudy's book on the Dodgers. It brings one back to the time when baseball was a game played by players--not by millionaires. He captures the essence of the day with very fine detail, almost to the point where one can smell the roasted peanuts and hear the Sym-phony band playing. What's more interesting are the beginnings of the safety standards we commonly see today, ie., batting helmets, padded walls, and we all take for granted. It's sad that players had to get hurt or lose their careers for these changes to get made-thanks to the Dodgers. It's a must read. I must give Rudy 10 stars *********

This has got to be the best baseball book i have ever read...and I'm not even a baseball fan!! The author is precise and meticulous with great writing skills. For all baseball fans (and even those who aren't, the historical facts are fascinating) this is a definate must read.

All baseball fans will love this book. It provides wonderful history and insight to the way baseball was played when the sport was more down to earth and before players made millions per year. I learned so much and was fascinated how these characters changed the course of baseball. If you like baseball, this is a must read.

Great chronicle of the 49ers' dynasty of the 80s. I have an original hard copy available. E-mail me if you want to bid on it.

This is a great book by Bill Walsh on how he sculpted the 49ers in the 80's and why ultimately since then,he's so emulated today by other coaches. There really wasn't a so called "west coast offense"...it was simply the Bill Walsh offense plain and simple.
Apparently,no one wanted to call it that but we all know where that offense was derived from. This book shows you how inteligent and articulate the man was and why he's recognized as one of the best ever. Here's some handy advice in regards to this book,if you don't understand football that well,there's no point in reading this because you probably won't know what he's talking about.

Coach Walsh walks you through year-by-year his perspective on the 49ers magnificent decade. He also discusses his experiences with the Bengals and Chargers as an assistant as well as Stanford's leader. There is an appendix with some famous plays.

Being a fan of American pro football in general and the Niners in particular, I decided to give Bill Walsh's 'Building a Champion' a read. With the help of bay area sports scribe Glenn D!ckey, Walsh's famous calm and analytical style is faithfully translated to the written page. Throughout the course of this paperback, Walsh discusses his career of coaching in the NFL, from his initial assisting gig with the Raiders to his developing what would become known as the West Coast Offense as the QBs coach of the Bengals and Chargers in the 70s.

Then there's his biggest challenge and achievement- the turnaround of the San Francisco 49ers from league doormats to the team to beat in the 80s. From season to season, Walsh discusses the many highs and lows of coaching the Niners. He also goes into his philosophy and methods that helped keep the team successful over the years he coached them, and helped to maintain their success for several years following his departure. Sadly, many of his thoughts on how to improve and maintain a championship-form team would likely be considered outdated today, what with the added difficulties of less restricted free agency and the
salary cap, which he covers this in his follow-up, 'Finding The Winning Edge'.

Walsh also goes over the many trials and tribulations that he endured, such as learning the effects of drug abuse on players (lowlighted by a disastrous tryout by the infamous 'Hollywood' Henderson), and his coming close to quitting following the team's horrific showing in the strike-shortened 1982 season. I found his memories of dealing with the media somewhat absorbing, the high point- or low point, rather- being a confrontation with legendary Monday Night Football commentator Howard Cosell. Then there's the aspect of coaching that no sideline leader enjoys: the cutting of a beloved past-his-prime veteran. Walsh admits that this, out of all his duties, is the one he dreaded the most when he was running the show.

The last few pages are a small index of some of the most famous plays in 49er lore. Included is 'Brown Left Slot- Sprint Right Option' (Dwight Clark's Catch against Dallas), 'Red Right Tight- F Left- 20 HB Curl- X Up' (Montana's TD pass to Taylor to win Super Bowl XXIII), and a few other notable offensive formations.

Whether you're a Niner fan or a football follower in general, this is definitely one for your must-read list!

'Late