Teams Books

This book was very inspiring. What Brett went through with his painkillers made me more of a fan of him. When he quit his battle with drinking, I thought only a warrior could do that. Hats off to Brett Favre. Bill Gutman told it as it was.

This is a great book if you are a true Brett Favre fan. This is a great book on how Favre became such a great quarterback. He started off a nothing in the NFL, but when you keep trying and work hard you can see what happens. It also shows how Favre overcame the problem he had with over taking pain killers. I thought it was great to see how well he recovered from the incident and the way he handled it with the media and his fans. This is just an overall great to read for all the fans out there.

This book is fantastic. If you are looking for a book to read about a hero in the NFL, this is the book to read. Brett lays everything out for the reader. He talks about his upbringing, college and the NFL, and how it lead him to his painful addiction to pain killers. He is a true "hero"... I would recomend this book to anyone, if all athletes were this honest, the fans would be more forgiving. You can't help but root for him at the end of the book... I have given 10 of these books away for presents, and I am not even a packer fan..I am now a Brett Favre fan...

Business is conducted across all types of boundaries through collaborative strategies and arrangements. These collaborative enterprises can be extremely complex. This book explores what these collaborations look like, the challenges they face, and how to make them work. Based on analysis of three case studies, the authors present an action framework to guide executives in building such collaborations. The challenge is to manage complexity so that it enhances and energizes the collaboration instead of destroying it. Success hinges upon the people and the nature and quality of their interrelationships and interactions, the key to which is structure: well-defined roles, expectations, responsibilities, decision-making processes, and the like. Structure offers a zone of stability within which complex collaborations can develop and successfully function. Three-quarters of the book presents and analyzes the cases, offing many insights. The action framework is formally presented in the last two chapters.

There are plenty of general management advise titles on the market today, but a few stand out from the crowd as specific guides for working establishments - and Don Mankin and Susan G. Cohen's Business Without Boundaries: An Action Framework For Collaborating Across Time, Distance, Organization, And Culture is one of them. With more and more business being conducted virtually, mechanisms for collaborative success in virtual e-business and corporate environments becomes all the more important: that's where Business Without Boundaries comes in, helping managers with real-world examples and principles for successful virtual collaboration. An excellent, action-packed advice guide.

Let's begin with the assumption that many (if not most but certainly not all) limits are self-imposed. Then let us assume that it is in any organization's best interests to eliminate all limits to effective communication, cooperation, and collaboration. If you accept these two assumptions, then you will share my high regard for this volume in which Mankin and Cohen offer a cohesive, comprehensive, and cost-effective four-phase "action framework" to achieve "collaboration [as well as communication and cooperation] across time, distance, organization, and culture." To their credit, they concentrate almost entirely on explaining HOW to apply basic principles, citing benchmark examples which include the John Deere Construction & Forestry Technology Program, Radica Games Group, and Solectron Corporation.

Obviously, all organizations have boundaries and many of them are essential to achieving success. For example, non-negotiable values to which everyone involved is held accountable. Without appropriate behavior, there would be chaos. Also, there are limits on available resources which means that priorities must be set and then served. No organization can afford to be everything to everyone associated with it. Boundaries are inevitable. That said, Mankin and Cohen assert -- and I wholly agree -- that there is an interdependence of structure and relationships which can enable any organization (regardless of size or nature) to collaborate effectively, and do so "across time, distance, organization, and culture." The core concept of this book is a metaprinciple which is explained in Chapter One. With exquisite care, Mankin and Cohen use an especially apt metaphor -- jazz -- to illustrate how the metaprinciple provides the "theme" and the action framework (please see pages 5-8 and Chapters Seven and Eight) provides the "score." Extending the metaphor, Mankin and Cohen urge their reader to use the theme to improvise on the framework and create collaboration within her or his own organization and such efforts will "transcend all boundaries to produce deeply fulfilling performances."

Not all of those who read this book will be willing and able to make and then sustain the commitment required. It may be helpful to recall Henry Ford's assertion that, whether you think you can or think you can't, you're right.

If you share my high regard for this book , please check out Arthur Rubinfeld and Collins Hemingway's Built for Growth: Expanding Your Business Around the Corner or Across the Globe, W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne's Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant, Constantinos C. Markides' Fast Second: How Smart Companies Bypass Radical Innovation to Enter and Dominate New Markets, and Seeing What's Next: Using Theories of Innovation to Predict Industry Change co-authored by Clayton M. Christensen, Erik A. Roth, and Scott D. Anthony.

You will not be disappointed with Professor Challenger and his exploits. I have been a long time Doyle fan with his White Company and, of course, Sherlock Holmes cannon. I must admit I had never read Challenger before this edition. It is most enjoyable and will further entertain all of Dr. Doyle's admirers.

Professor George Edward Challenger is the lesser known creation of Sherlock Holmes' creator, Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930). Unlike the cool and calculating Homes, Challenger is irascible, domineering and extremely outspoken. In short, he is a lot of fun to read. However, unlike Holmes, Professor Challenger never caught on and as such only five Challenger stories were ever written. This book combines all five of the Professor Challenger stories together in one book:

The Lost World - originally published in 1912 - 5 stars - This is the greatest, and the best known of the Professor Challenger stories. Professor Challenger has heard of a plateau in South America where dinosaurs still roam, and he loses no time in setting up an expedition to this strange place. However, when the expedition finds itself marooned on the plateau, the team faces many dangers and adventures.

The Poison Belt - 1913 - 5 stars - Professor Challenger has learned that the Earth is moving towards a poisonous section of space, and has figured out a way that he can save a few members of the human race - the last people left on Earth!

The Land of Mist - 1926 - 1 star - The worst of the Professor Challenger stories, this one is really just a polemic, written to convince the reader of the wonder (or whatever) of Spiritualism. This story might have been what killed the series.

The Disintegration Machine - 1927 - 5 stars - A Latvian scientist has created a machine that can disintegrate matter, and reintegrate it again...or not. This is something that Professor Challenger must see for himself if he is to fully understand its ramifications.

When The World Screamed - 1928 - 5 stars - Professor Challenger is digging a well or mine of some sort in southern England, but what is he up to? It seems that the eccentric professor has a new theory - that the Earth is really a living creature!

Although more than a little dated, scientifically, I found these stories to be well written and quite exciting. (Well, four of the five that is.) They reflects a world that is now gone, but is quite interesting to read about. If you like adventure stories, then you will like this one. Read this book, and learn about A.C. Doyle's other hero!

A fun volume collecting all the Conan Doyle Professor Challenger adventures. As usual, Leonaur editions are of very high physical quality.
These stories, actually a novel and several novelettes, suggest that if the author had not become famous for his creation of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, he might be regarded as a forefather of fantasy and science fiction, a la Rider Haggard and Edgar Rice Burroughs.
Not to be missed.

good materials, very good sizing and fitting, the colours are strongs and doesnt fade whit many laundryes

I'm very please with my shirt i already order 10 more, i highly recomend this shirt

JUST GOT THE TWO COTTON RAGLAN SLEEVE BASEBALL SHIRTS.THE QUALITY IS UNBELIEVABLE FOR THE PRICE.. MY HUSBAND LOVED THEM AND I WILL ORDER MORE FOR THE GRANDKIDS.. FAST SHIPPING TOO!!!!

This is a great book and has wonderful facts on the Chicago Bears I would reccommend to all Bears fans.

I had a great time reading this book. It has many photographs throughout the Bears' history, which made the reading more enjoyable. The story is thorough but not dull and boring. The chapters are parceled out in such a fashion that it keeps your interest, and enables you to put the book down and pick right back up again later. This book would be a delight for any Bears fans, young or old.

Roy Taylor does a fine job telling one of the most compelling sports stories of all time. The photos/captions combined with the text give a true and complete depiction of what the Bears have meant to the fans since their 1920 inception. This well-written book is a must-have for any Bears fan.

I can't help but wonder whether I would have grown so fond of historic baseball had I not moved to St. Louis some years ago. Between that and reading Tom Hetrick's books on 19th century baseball, I have come to appreciate the fascinating history of America's game where the Missouri meets the Mississippi. And like his "Misfits!" chronicling the Cleveland Spiders, "Chris Von der Ahe and the St. Louis Browns" is meticulously researched, a fascinating story of one of baseball's most flamboyant owners ever and his colorful charges, and yet somehow a very human, very cautionary tale. I've commented before on Tom Hetrick's knack for turning an historic baseball phrase. Von der Ahe, after releasing a weak catcher in 1891, says, "He could not catch a string of sausages, nor hit a dead elephant with a club." The book is loaded with them. From the triumphant years where the Browns were world champions to the years when they stunk up the cellar, Hetrick's narrative unfolds quickly, competently, and with great entertainment. I could not stop turning the pages. Congratulations to Tom Hetrick on another fine outing!

This is a fine book telling the story of the first genuine "character" to own a major league baseball team. Chris Von der Ahe owned a beer garden and boardinghouse in St. Louis near the Grand Avenue baseball park where teams played their games. He realized that his bar always picked up before and after baseball games, and he decided to merge is primary business with a secondary one, baseball. He soon owned the American Association's St. Louis Browns. Mustachioed, Roman nosed, and speaking with the Dutch accent that betrayed his birth in an obscure Germanic province in 1851, Von der Ahe became the prototypical spotlight grabbing major league baseball team owner. He referred to himself, in his thick accent as "der poss bresident," and the fans loved it. He spent freely, indulged his players, and built the Browns into a baseball dynasty in the 1880s. Von der Ahe loved the celebrity his ownership brought him, for now he was not just a prosperous businessman but both a prosperous businessman and a public figure. It was an unbeatable combination, perhaps the real attraction for baseball ownership up to the present, and something repeated many times by many different owners since. In a city rich in baseball history, no one has been more significant in shaping the game in early St. Louis than Chris Von der Ahe.

Von der Ahe adored publicity for his baseball exploits, even going out of his way to garner it. He made every detail of running the team as a media event. For instance, immediately after each game the departing fans could watch Von der Ahe, flanked by armed guards, trundle a wheelbarrow containing bags with the day's receipts from the team's office to the bank. When the team's new press agent, Harry B. Martin, tried to persuade Von der Ahe that the fans should really hear more about the players in the daily newspapers, the Dutchman responded, "Martin, you was a good press agent but [predecessor George] Munson was the best press agent. Now you make the mistake of thinking that the people wish to read about them ball players. Martin they don't. What the American people like to read is about me."

Von der Ahe's Browns were an excellent team and dominated the American Association throughout the 1880s. Indeed, the Browns ran away with the pennant in 1885 and it won the championship each year between 1885 and 1888 under the leadership of manager-first baseman Charles Comiskey, later the owner of the American League's Chicago White Sox. When he first came to St. Louis from the Dubuque Rabbits minor league team, Von der Ahe paid Comiskey a measly $90 a month. Comiskey worked wonders with the team then demanded, and received, top pay of $5,000 per year. But Von der Ahe thought this a small price to pay for Comiskey's services since the team made him some $75,000 a year during its glory years.

The St. Louis franchise did not fare well in the 1890s, in part due to poor management by Von der Ahe. It was not entirely his fault, however. The combination of poor investing and economic depression as a result of the Panic of 1893 sent his resources into a downward spiral. This led to his drinking excessively and that, coupled with a succession of mistresses that infuriated his wife, prompted her to sue for divorce. By 1898 Von der Ahe was a hollow shell of what he had been a decade earlier. The final blow, and the other owners enjoyed levying it because of the animosity they had for both Von der Ahe's lifestyle and showmanship, happened when the league forced him to sell the club to more stable owners.

"Chris Von der Ahe and the St. Louis Browns" is an excellent baseball biography of a significant figure in the development of nineteenth century baseball. Enjoy!

Major League baseball has had its share of controversial owners. But after reading "Chris Von der Ahe and the St. Louis Browns," I never thought I could meet a gent who could build a ballclub to prominence like Ted Turner, then break the team up quicker than Wayne Huzienga did with the Marlins. Von der Ahe also possessed the innovative streak of Charles O. Finley (what other owner, besides Chris, had a ball park with both a horse-race track and a "Shoot-the-Chutes" ride?), could fire a manager quicker than you can say "Steinbrenner," and may have known even less about the game than Marge Schott.

Tom Hetrick's biography vividly takes us to the wild and wooly days of late-19th century baseball, when 10 home runs could get you the home run crown, pitchers never heard the term "pitch count," and umpires had good days if they could go the entire game without getting pummeled. This is the milieu for German immigrant Von der Ahe, as we follow his rags (a modest grocer and back-of-the-store saloon keeper) to riches (real estate magnate and self-proclaimed "Boss President" of the 4-time American Association champion St. Louis Browns franchise) to flaming rags (scandal, prison, bankruptcy and his Browns' ownership wrested away from him) story.

Hetrick presents meticulous research on the largely obscure Von der Ahe. As a lover of baseball history, I liked his outstanding treatment into the history of the American Association, the league that, for ten years (1882-1891), challenged the established National League and ushered in the precursor of today's World Series. But this book is not just for "seamheads." Hetrick presents a rich portrait of St. Louis in its golden era. He also breathes life into the bombastic and often-outrageous Von der Ahe -- fractured English and all. I laughed out loud as Von der Ahe tells his team's press agent, Harry B. Martin, "Now you magke der mistake of drinkin [thinking] dat der beable [people] vish to read about dem bum ball players. Mardin, vot der American beable like to readt is aboudt me, Chris Von der Ahe." To this reader, "Der Poss Bresident" seems to have enough hot air to inflate a Zeppelin.

As biographies go, Tom's book is a home run. A lively and fast read, it is a great account of the game as it was played in the 19th century as well as a portrait of a common immigrant who became a great success -- only to allow that success to eventually destroy him. And don't forget, the next time you're at the ballpark with a cold beer, make a toast to Chris Von der Ahe - the man who put beer and baseball together.

This is the most complete and best written Clevelaqnd Browns book ever! A+!

This book contains some information that you'd be hard-pressed to find elsewhere such as radio-flagship history and assistant coaching rosters. The short quipps about players, teams, and games brought back memories that I didn't even know I had! It was a very fun and easy read for me because of the index-type format of the book. I don't often get to read for long periods of time, but this format allowed me to read two or three entries at a time and not lose a thought.

Organized in encyclopedia format with entries for each letter of the alphabet, Cleveland Browns A To Z by Cleveland Brown expert Roger Gorden is an original and remarkably informative reference resource offering just about everything there is to know about this celebrated American football team. Enhanced with appendices listing numerous additional statistics and tables, Cleveland Browns A To Z in clearly in the" must-have" category and a perfect giftbook for the legions of dedicated Cleveland Browns fans.

I WAS VERY EXCITED TO RECIEVE THIS BOOK AND EVEN MORE AS I BEGAN TO READ IT! THANK YOU

It is remarkable how much information Frank Henkel crams into 128 pages. From the Cleveland Browns' beginnings in the mid-1940s, to the title teams of their first decade, to the club's "slump" in the late-1950s and early '60s, to Cleveland's last pro sports championship in 1964, to the near-misses of the late-'60s, to the Bad News Browns of the mid-70s, to the Kardiac Kids, to the Kosar era, to The Move, to the "return" of the Browns in 1999, to the troubled times of today, Henkel takes the reader on a unique path through the history of one of the most celebrated franchises in the NFL. Besides bringing to the reader the obvious highlights and lowlights of nearly 60 years of Browns football, Henkel also writes of players and happenings about which many fans may have forgotten. The author goes into great detail in the play-by-play of some very memorable games. He also adds spice by offering the reader an array of trivia tidbits throughout the book. If you are a fan of Cleveland Browns history, you will love Cleveland Browns History. It's that simple.

A very well written book. There is an amazing amount of information packed into 128 pages. The book is broken down in chronological order, starting in the early days of the All-American Football Leauge, through all the NFL and AFC championships, the hard years of the 1980's and 90's, the move out of Cleveland and the triumphant return in 1999. The book starts with Cleveland's utter domination of the AAFC and their move to the NFL. It covers Paul Brown's accomplishments and his eventual firing by Art Modell, the "Kardiac Kids" of 1979 - 1984, and the careers of Lyle Alzado and Bernie Kosar. The book draws to a close with the old Browns moving to Balitimore, the fans fight in Congress to keep the team in Cleveland, and the eventual rebirth of the new Cleveland Browns and their future, including the recent hiring of Romeo Crennel as the team's new head coach. Plus, there are countless black-and-white pictures and rich captions of Cleveland Browns history. The cool thing about b&w pictures is that it makes everything equally historical, from 2004 to 1946.

Overall, I throughly enjoyed this book about one of the most historic sports teams in history. I look forward to Mr. Henkel's next book. Perhaps he can work his magic over the Dallas Cowboys history.

The wealth of expertise from author/editor Russell Schneider is demonstrated in this hefty volume of facts and history of the Cleveland Indians.

Schneider was a long-time Indians beat reporter/columnist for The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer and ended his newspaper career several years ago as a sports columnist for a small weekly chain based in northeast Ohio. He has written a number of books on the team.

This is a definitive exploration of the franchise, with the sketches on each season a major highlight. And since the 2008 team has stumbled to its 10th consecutive loss, the information is readily available on the last time the club reached such futility (for the record, it was 1979, in a season where the club stole more bases than hit home runs).

The encyclopedia will be a welcome addition to the clubhouse of any fan of the team and is certainly a first-round draft pick for those who enjoy exploring the history of "America's Favorite Pastime."

Very informative history of the Cleveland franchise from the late 1800's to the present. Comments and player stats for every season. Bios on all players, front office, ballparks, Hall of Famers, Great Moments and many other features. There really isn't much of note that you could want to know about the team that isn't included. This effort must put the Indians fans in a more knowledgeable position about their team than any other fans

The Cleveland Indians Encyclopedia(2nd Edition) is even better than the first! I don't actually own the book, my mother-in-law, Lillian Zupancic, does. She is not only a die hard fan of The Cleveland Indians but a fan of both the authors as well. Russel Schneider has a co-author who also worked on the 1st edition with him, Mr. Joseph Simenic. He is a prominent baseball researcher and co-founder of the Society of American Baseball Reasearch. He is a long-time Indians fan.

The authors have done a marvelous job on the book. It is complete with beautiful color photos and a color insert of the current home of The Cleveland Indians, Jacob's Field. Facts included are all players from the origins of The Cleveland Indians to present time complete with stats. This is a book that you definitely must own if you are a fan of the Cleveland Indians.

I say this not only because Mr. Simenic is my mother-in-law's brother and my husband's uncle, but because The Cleveland Indians Encyclopedia (both editions) are a valuable asset to any fans' library!

This Easy to Read book is absolutely Fantastic!! Every young mom needs to read this book. It offers practical, easy to implement ideas for your family and home, while encouraging you and making you laugh. This is a must Read!

What an incredible book! It truly inspired me to improve the functioning of my home and gave me the encouragement to do so. This is an absolute must read book.

Brenna's book is incredible! She has given me so many ideas that have helped me to organize my home and my life. Her stories add such a personal touch, and I laughed and cried my way through it all. This is a must-read! Even if you're already an organized person as I was, there are many suggestions in here that can help you to really have an 'All-star Team'.