Teams Books

The author breaks new ground in his exploration of creativity as a transformative agent. In this book creativity becomes a transformative agent in the workplace, the office, and the studio and the author skillfully demonstrates how this transformative agent is the result of "creating with others." In contrast to the notion that imagination and creativity occur in isolation, McNiff brings to light the concept that through creating together, we naturally gain energies and inspiration from those with whom we collaborate and commune.

This book's appeal comes from the numerous examples that the author provides and weaves throughout the text. While those with an artistic bent may want to keep this book in their studios, those who work in business, the laboratory, or an educational institution will want to keep it on their desk, benches, or in their briefcases. The ideas in this book recharged my imagination and reinspired the creative source within, particularly in running my own business as well as daily life.

I found this book a delightful read. It's filled with practical ideas and reflections about creativity, collaboration, and leadership. It's also an eminently browsable book - one can focus on a given chapter and come away with insights that speak directly to a current project. I think one of the book's strengths is McNiff's way of allowing many of the people in it, including himself, to speak directly to the reader. Another distinctive aspect is McNiff's creative sensibility - he sees creativity as the substance of everyday living rather than an "add-on" or enhancement to our lives. Hence the importance of collaboration, which enables us to generate creative energy in a number of personal contexts. Eventually, these contexts feed one another and produce a gestalt effect in which the individual becomes a powerful creative engine in his or her own right rather than simply a creative practitioner in a specific field. This is an eminently practical book for business people, artists, therapists, and just about anyone who recognizes the universal benefits of committing themselves to creative work and who might be looking for practical advice on working creatively with others.

Shaun McNiff has given his readers another pearl in what is becoming a long strand of outstanding contributions to the world. This new book is an intriguing and thoughful and application of his ideas that have evolved in over 30 years of work with groups struggling to ignite their creativity. This book explores new territory as he applies his experience and unique perspectives to creative life in the workplace. His passion for unleashing the power of creative thinking and authentic being in the workplace, and in all of life, is potentially a significant contribution to organizations in need of revitalization and individuals in search of meaning in their lives. In many ways I find McNiff's creative practices, as presented in this book, to be alligned with David Whyte's poetic call for rediscovery of soul in the work place in The Heart Aroused.
Creating With Others may challenge some managers and organizational leaders who seek more traditional and shallow leadership initiatives. A key concept that McNiff proposes is that "to imagine is to let go." He intertwines the phenomena of focus and release of control as a method of tapping into one's innate creativity.
This book is unique in its approach to communal life, and yet is solidly anchored in literary sources from psychology to art. He evidences a deep understanding of human collaboration and creative exercise and applies these in practical exercises for being in creative community with others. I hope many individuals, communities and organizations will be enriched by exploring McNiff's approach to creation in the workplace.

McNiff has written a thoughful and practical work that not only shows direction for implementing creative thinking and being in life and the workplace, but also goes to the source of why art is so powerful a tool for change and healing. When learning occurs at its' quintessential best; when healing occurs at its' deepest level, one thing is certain - there is a connection being made between self, other and environment/community. McNiff has understood this connection and written in depth on this matter in many of his other writings. In this new volume, he takes this rich and novel understanding about connection and applies it into practical approaches for being in 'connection with others'! When one adds 'active imagination' to our daily encounters, it is here that the author boldly steps into an arena which brings a knowledge base of past and present experiences into focus and charts out new vision for 'life, art and the workplace.' This book dares to go where not many artists and scholors have dared to go before!

Read this when it came out and re-read it recently, excellent book, hopefully the put it back into circulation. No other book goes in depth as this one does for those famous Cubs of 69.

Talley recently passed away but he was a writer for the paper and was by this team everyday of the season. Great Book but very hard to find these days!

Read this when it came out and re-read it recently, excellent book, hopefully the put it back into circulation. No other book goes in depth as this one does for those famous Cubs of 69.

Talley recently passed away but he was a writer for the paper and was by this team everyday of the season. Great Book but very hard to find these days!

I read this book a while ago. I didn't realize it was out of print. It's a shame really.

This book focuses on the 1969 baseball season of the Chicago Cubs. What's common knowledge to many baseball fans is that in 1969 the NY Mets came from last place in the NL East division to win the World Series. What's less well known (to non-Cubs fans) is that the Cubs led the NL East division from the start of the season until mid-September when the Mets beat them out. A lot of books have been written about the Miracle Mets of '69 but this book is about the team that lost out - the Cubs. It's also a look back at yet another painful chapter in Cubs' history.

The book goes chapter by chapter covering the members of the team individually. Examples of chapters are: Leo Durocher, Ken Holzmann, Ernie Banks, Don Young, Kenn Hundley, Ron Santo and others.

The book covers the entire careers of the team members including where they came from before playing for the Cubs in the 1969 season and what happened to them after the season ended so disastrously.

Most Cubs fans will probably enjoy this book as the author was able to interview quite a few members of the team and gather their reflections on that season. Non-Cubs fans will enjoy this book because it will remind them that no matter how bad their team is, it probably isn't as bad as the Cubs.

Although I am a die-hard White Sox fan (not to mention, a one-time Cub fan growing up), I was aware of the Bruins' misfortunes. But amazingly, I didn't know anything about the Cubs infamous 1969 season until high school when I made a visit to the library in Phoenix, AZ and in the sports section I discovered "The Cubs of '69" by Chicago writer Rick Talley (sadly, he's already dead). I couldn't believe that they were in first place on Opening Day and then they buckled to the up-and-coming Mets. Does baseball fans realize that hadn't they held on to their lead in the NL East the '69 Cubs would had been the first team to spend first place in the entire regular season since the 1927 Yankess? (That's right; argued to be one of the greatest teams in baseball history) I liked the part when Talley writes,"They had a pennant won and they blew it" and it then I said to myself,'Even worse: They also blew a World Series' since the Mets ran the table and beat the Orioles. But let's get to the players, shall we? This team was lined up with players like Ernie Banks (why was "Mr. Cub" batting fifth for most of the year?), Billy Williams, Ron Santo, Glenn Beckert, Don Kessinger, Randy Huntley, Jim Hickman, and the pitching staff of Ferguson Jenkins, Bill Hands, Dick Selma, and Ken Holtzman. My Dad told me several years ago that he went to two games that year and as if the sun, moon, and stars were allined, they were the two games that defined the year: Opening Day at Wrigley against the Philles when pitch-hitter Willie Smith hit a game-winning homer over the right-field wall with the Cubs trailing by one in extra innings and the other was Holtzman pitching a no-hitter (with no strikeouts!) against the Braves in August (Hank Aaron was the last batter). Talley aruges two reasons why they collapsed in the last month: One was that they played in the July and August heat at home every day; another reason why no lights at Wrigley really hurted them and the other reason was the most important: They had a hothead manager with Leo Durocher; who may have been sports' original bad boy long before Bobby Knight and John MacEnroe showed up. He makes the point that Durocher refused to sit his players down the stretch and it got to the point that he created a monster of himself when it was revealed that he may of betted against his own team (long before Pete Rose was accused of it) during the critical September series with the Mets. As you may know, the Cubs blew a 3-1 lead to the up-and-coming Marlins (does this sound familar?) in the NLCS last month. When that happened, I cryed because I felt so bad for Banks, Williams, Santo, Huntley, and all the other Cubs because I wanted the burden to be off their shoulders and it didn't. Dad then told me simply, "Don't worry Eric. I've been waiting for the Cubs to get into the World Series ever since that 1969 season." For all those baseball fans who think the sport is fragile like life, must pick up "The Cubs of '69." They'll realize that everything must come into place and as what Ernie Banks once said, "Don't fear. This is the year."

William Hartel's affectionate tribute to the "Friendly Confines" of Wrigley Field is a must for any baseball fan, and especially if you've ever been fortunate to watch a game there. Though there are numerous historical photos outlining the history of the old park built in 1914, the bulk of the pictures were taken from dawn to dusk on the same day - June 18, 1993. Loaded with quotes and stories from everyone from Bill Veeck to Ernie Banks and long-time National League Umpire Doug Harvey, this book makes its case that Wrigley is not only the best place on earth to play and watch baseball, but one of the most memorable places to visit for fans of all ages. I read this book on a cold January evening yet when I closed my eyes, I could feel the sun on my face, smell the hot dogs, and hear Ernie Banks saying, "Let's play two!"

.

Holy Cow!

Maybe THIS year!

As I write this review, da Cabs have just won their first post-season series since 1908. There is euphoria in Wrigleyville! What a gorgeous anthology book to celebrate - in essays of words and pictures - da Cubs and dere Friendly Confines! Dere's a foreword by George F. Will and mouth-watering pictures of peanuts, popcorn, and hotdogs. (Hey! Where's some Cracker Jacks? ;-) The frontispiece and back (is that called a backispeice?) are appropriately covered in ivy.

Here's the Dust Jacket Lead Off by Ernie Banks: Ballplayers come and go, but Wrigley Field endures. As long as Cub fans take their kids out to the Friendly Confines and show them where baseball should be played, the chain will be unbroken.

Believe!

Reviewed by TundraVision, Once a Cub fan, always a Cub Fan

A GREAT GIFT FOR ANY BASEBALL FAN. A GREAT TOUR OF ONE OF THE BEST STADIUMS EVER. I LOVE THIS BOOK. EXCELLENT READING. WRIGLEY BROUGHT TO LIFE IN A BOOK. GREAT BUY.

i am a sox's fan but this book makes me love the chicago cubs magnificent building. It brings you behind the sceens and shows little secrets about the park. Great book.

To write a book with the kind of action, conflict, dialogue and flow found in Death Wind is obviously a rare ability. You barely know that the clock is ticking as you keep reading, keep reading and keep reading until you end up with the kind of finish that makes you wish the next Force Recon book was on the shelves right now. Smith clearly knows a lot about the military, but he knows even more about how to tell a story. Great reading, great writing, great book.

DEATH WIND was a great find thanks to Amazon.com once again!
After this novel, I will be gathering up all of Mr. Smith's other works in FORCE RECON series as well as his other horror-type genre novels.
Being a former marine, I was intrigued and very pleased to see this series. It was more than I bargained for and was a very pleasant surprise.

This book was an exceptionaly good book. I rated it five but would go higher. As with other books I have read this one was hard for me to put down. I lost many an hour of sleep with this book. James put you right there with the patrol,from beginning to end.

Roadrunner 6 Out

I really like this book. This book was better then his first book. Tons of action. I like the plot and the location. Hope his next one is great too. Can't wait to his next one comes out.

The husband-and wife team of Kimball and Mareen Duncan Fisher have collaborated to produce a well-documented, stimulating and useful book on what they call the "distributed mind", or knowledge workers who are geographically and/or organizationally dispersed. The Fishers have been involved in business process redesign for many years, and they have poured their comprehensive lessons learned into this 277-page volume.

One of their most important contributions that they deliver early in the book is to demystify the term "knowledge worker" by explaining that very few knowledge workers do only knowledge work and very few physical laborers do only physical work. This is a liberating insight, because it expands the potential applicability of their later discussions on how knowledge work is important in factories as well as R & D labs.

The Fishers use the term "the learning lattice" to describe an approach to redesigning knowledge work that explains how teams can be organized to take advantage of both units composed of functional experts (skill development teams) and cross-functional teams (business teams), optimizing the knowledge, perspectives and contributions of all concerned. Some organizations call these newly emerging learning lattices "centers of excellence".

Both of the Fishers started their careers in the art world, it is not surprising to see that they have some intriguing comments about harnessing creativity in organizations. They argue that creativity is a social activity, not a guru-centered process that requires isolation. Citing a 1993 survey done ! by the Center for the Study of Work Teams at the University of North Texas, research showed that knowledge workers prefer collaborative team environments, where there is an opportunity to share ideas and solutions.

How about leadership of knowledge workers? The Fishers suggest that this is not an easy task and that the leader's role is handled best through a boundary manager role. They identify seven key attributes for the "distributed leader", including articulating a vision for the organization, managing by principles rather than policies, and effectively coaching and communicating. They provide specific recommendations for ways to "infuse energy and wellness" into organizations through better understanding of roles and responsibilities, effectively managing--rather than suppressing--conflict, and orienting and developing knowledge worker teams.

The Distributed Mind is a great new tool for those who are interested in building community in organizations.

"This is the age of knowledge work. It is the age of the smart worker. The operations that learn the secret of tapping into this knowledge will always outperform those that do not. Those that master the 'collective intelligence' of knowledge work teams will be the architects of the future...As individuals, knowledge workers are smart people. But their individual effectiveness is amplified when they are also part of a smart organization. As an effective knowledge team, they can often create a sort of synergy where the outcome of the whole is greater than the sum of its individual parts. These smart teams appear as though all team members are of a common mind that shares information and ideas seamlessly across the membership-a distributed mind...This book is about knowledge work teams. Knowledge work requires a special set of skills related to an area of expertise, such as those of an engineer, a salesperson, a consultant, a manager, or a health-care professional. But it requires much more than technical competence to be successful as a knowledge worker" (from the Introduction).

In this context, Kimball Fisher and Mareen Duncan Fisher:

* define knowledge work by comparing five characteristics that differ for physical and knowledge work as follows:

- Job Characteristics: (1). Core task, (2). Critical skills, (3). Work process, (4). Work outcome, (5). Knowledge used.

- Job Characteristics of Physical Work: (1). Doing, (2). Physical, (3). Usually linear, (4). Product, (5). Applied.

- Job Characteristics of Knowledge Work: (1). Thinking, (2). Mental, (3). Usually nonlinear, (4). Information, (5). Created.

* argue that "the nature of work is changing from mostly linear to mostly nonlinear and from requiring mainly physical skills to requiring mainly mental acuity. Jobs now usually produce more information than product and require more improvisation than rote, automatic application of process. While this trend is dramatic in a few cases, for most of us the change has been a slow, steady evolution of our jobs", and illustrate this trend.

* show how teams and team-based operations differ from groups and non-team-based operations, and illustrate how these teams differ from the traditional organizations by comparing hierarchical organizations with team-based organizations as follows:

- Hierarchical Organization: hierarchical order, local optimum, maximum specification, functional defect control, specialized skill, vertical information flow, work ethic value, and conservative improvement.

- Team-Based Organization: information order, global optimum, minimum critical specification, source defect control, multiskilled, source information flow, work life value, and continuous improvement.

* illustrate the differences between physical and knowledge work teams by comparing typical physical work teams with knowledge work teams.

- Typical Physical Work Teams: physical labor, multiple generalists, inside single organization, fairly stable membership, and repetitive responsibilities.

- Typical Knowledge Work Teams: mental labor, multiple specialists, across multiple organizations, shifting membership, and single-purpose responsibilities.

* explore the process of knowledge work design, and illustrate the characteristics of evolving organizational form-learning lattice organization.

* discuss the metaphors and practices needed to create successful knowledge teams.

* argue that "environmental shifts and changes in organizational capabilities have created opportunities and need for virtual knowledge teams in contemporary organizations. To effectively create, utilize, and support VKT's, we must focus more attention on the VKT challenges", and then discuss the challenges of making VKTs effective.

* discuss fostering innovation and creativity as a critical challenge for knowledge work.

* discuss what is becoming a critical attribute of effective knowledge work teams: the ability to transfer knowledge effectively without causing information overload.

* discuss the role of leaders in knowledge teams, and argue that "in knowledge work teams, team leadership is critical. Although this formal leadership is often shared or rotated, we believe it must be done properly for the team to be effective".

* discuss a number of practical tips to prevent illness in teams, including providing team training, integrating new team members, setting goals and measuring results, understanding group decision-making processes, managing team conflict, building team communication skills, giving and receiving feedback, defining team members' roles and responsibilities, developing operating guidelines, and creating a team charter.

* explore how technology aids knowledge work, and argue that "technologies must be appropriately integrated into the organization if they are to benefit knowledge teams. Three particular problems to avoid are technology misuse, expecting more from technology than it can reasonably deliver, and serving technology instead of having technology serve the team".

* discuss future trends in knowledge work by illustrating six key work trends for the new millennium: (1). automation of physical work, (2). elimination of traditional jobs and work structures, (3). empowered knowledge workers, (4). knowledge work teams predominant, (5). workplace flexibility, (6). more virtual knowledge teams.

Strongly recommended.

The T-word, team, has been badly devaluated during the last few years. People talk about teams without really understanding, what they actually are about. No wonder some people react with cynicism when their CEO returns from a training seminary with the word Team on his lips.

There is a solid case for this book that addresses teams, especially knowledge work teams from a practical no-nonsense perspective. This book makes good reading not only for knowledge work team builders but also for the people that actually make up the teams. The language and structure is exceptionally readable and the issues are easy to grasp. Someone might even say that Fishers use too many cases to justify their points. Fishers start with discussing knowledge work, then teams and finally knowledge work teams and finally building a working organisation made of knowledge work teams.

Fishers do not limit their perspective to teams and organisations but discuss also their influences to societies and individuals. Teams do not work in a vacuum but change the way people work and think and live their lives.

The one thing that I disagree with is they way Fishers create an artificial (in my opinion) distinction between physical work and knowledge work, and the consequent physical work teams and knowledge work teams. Fishers stress the point that even knowledge workers do physical work and physical workers do knowledge work, but within their definition of knowledge work!

This is a book on Knowledge Workers, and on business management, actually. It does discuss industrial age and post-industrial age workers, but it's not so much about industry, industrial workers, and modern factory automation.

The sense I came away with is that the aim of the authors was on making work teams more effective. However, for me, the book gets back to a more fundamental issue, the possibility of effectively eliminating levels of management in any organization. This is done not just by eliminating some staff, and giving the remaining staff communications. On a superficial level, automation of information access and communications for today's knowledge workers is required. However, on a more fundamental level, this is done by the assumption of a greater degree of the responsibilities by Knowledge Workers.

The book does get to the nub of flat (empowerment) versus hierarchical (delegation) management styles, which has come about with downsizing and the advent of empowered workers. It discusses how to manage processes and people with fewer managers, by enabling them to gather and use information and make decisions. Most importantly, it prioritizes: responsibility, empowerment, the management of processes, the management of people, management styles, downsizing, and information sharing. They all go together, but some of these are ends, and others are only means to an end. Further, some of these means to an end are prerequisites and others are only facilitators.

Whether tasks are delegated one-at-a-time to individuals (hierarchical), or projects and processes are turned over to a work-team (flat), in both cases communications is required. However, the differences today, are that Knowledge Workers in empowered organizations: are on multiple teams, not having just one job to do; must communicate with all team members, not just with supervisor and immediate coworkers; are responsible for the entire job, not just for one aspect of it.

Without proper orientation by management, Knowledge Workers in empowered work teams can remain focused on technical skill development or on information sharing, as ends unto themselves, or on doing their narrow tasks. What could be missing is a focus on the success of the process or project, and on the achievement on the goals of the organization. In the absence of middle managers, whose job it was to not only manage workers, departments, and processes, but also to focus on the goals of the larger organization, empowered Knowledge Workers must assume a large share of these responsibilities.

Team members must understand firstly, that responsibilities have been thrust upon them, and secondly, how to carry out these responsibilities as a self-directed work team. Today, we're not just providing communications systems to workers. We are holding people responsible, and therefore we're providing them with communications systems.

As a consultant that works with distributors on inventory management I can highly recommend this book.
bob@smarterdistribution.com

Our company sells a software product in Minneapolis, that is on Gordon's list of recommended softwares. I have been implementing his principals in distribution companies since the mid 1980's. His pricipals work! Customer service increases as inventory levels become more accurate and therefore sales increase. Inventory levels may drop as you get rid of excess inventory.

His book explains these principals in a clear and easy to understand manner. If you are in distribution, you need to look at this!

Gordon Graham brings his quick wit, and common sense approach to distribution inventory. His book gives the reader a wide variety of approach methods, formulas, procedures, and thought process for use in distribution inventory. Even the most experienced inventory manager would be irresponsible by ignoring this work. With Graham's casual matter of fact manner, and obvious self confidence in inventory practices that have proven themselves time and again the reader is quickly exposed to at least one method of approach to serving the customer, and the bottom line with equal respect and care.

Our company sells a software product in Minneapolis, that is on Gordon's list of recommended softwares. I have been implementing his principals in distribution companies since the mid 1980's. His pricipals work! Customer service increases as inventory levels become more accurate and therefore sales increase. Inventory levels may drop as you get rid of excess inventory.

His book explains these principals in a clear and easy to understand manner. If you are in distribution, you need to look at this!

What an informative and fun book to read! The author presents great quotes, mental skills, and winning strategies by the best minds in baseball for achieving excellence in sports, business, and the game of life.

This book is a must have for coaches and players alike. I own and run Centerfield Baseball Academy and this book is like having the best coaches in the country in my place 24-7!. If you are a coach it is amazing to have such an organized blue print for success at your fingertips. As a player who got to the professional leval I could have been twice the player and teammate had I read Dugout Wisdom. A young player who reads this book will get tips to exponentially improve his game and, what's more important, he will relate to his coach and team in a way he never has before. This is worth every penny. ...

I bought Jim Murphy's DUGOUT WISDOM because I wanted to learn about managing a winning business team. I don't confess to know a lot about baseball but after reading a few pages of DUGOUT WISDOM, I realized that this is not just a book for baseball coaches and fans. It's a book for anyone wanting to be a champion, wanting to be the best that they can be in all that they do whether it be in sports, business, personal life, anything. DUGOUT WISDOM is very practical.

I recommend DUGOUT WISDOM for anyone who wants to gain wisdom and be motivated, challenged, and inspired!

The amount of quality managers and coaches he interviewed is outstanding, and putting it all together with the ten principles really clarified for me what the top managers do. As a business professional I feel I can transfer much of these principles into my life, because we're all dealing with people, whether it's sports or business. I really liked the chapter on Forming a Covenant, and having a spiritual base, which is really inner strength. I was especially intrigued to find out what Dusty Baker had to say, as I feel he's one of the best at dealing with people and forming a winning team from different personalities. Highly recommended.

My only complaint about this book is the $35.00 price tag for a paperback book. Otherwise I believe the idea of choosing eight owners who shaped the course of baseball is a great idea for a book. I have to admit I have never heard of Helene Britton, a one-time owner of the St. Louis Cardinals. The choices of Walter O'Malley, Bill Veeck, Charlie Finley, and "Gussie" Busch should be very familiar to anyone who has followed the game the past 50 years. Charles Ebbets, who proclaimed, "Baseball is in its infancy.", Clark Griffith, who hated doubleheaders because fans got to see two games for the price of one, and the recently elected member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, Barney Dreyfuss (along with O'Malley) are all worthy choices for this book. I found most of the anecdotes about the individuals in this book have been covered in other books, but the reader is provided with a good summary of their careers. On page 79 the authors state that Eddie "Kid" Foster had such great bat control that Clark Griffith allowed a runner at first to go at will and "was duly credited with introducing a new hit-and-run play to baseball." However, the much respected baseball writer Fred Lieb in his book entitled The Baltimore Orioles credit John McGraw and Willie Keeler with the introduction of the hit-and-run play in the 1890s. You will find that many of the labor problems that plagued baseball in the 1970s were really nothing new dating back to before the turn of the 20th century. We read plenty of books about the men who play the game. Take a seat and see the game from the owners' point of view. I think you will find it to be quite interesting.

I thought this book was written for baseball experts, for those who know bios, stats, names and numbers. Was I wrong! I do enjoy baseball, but I am far from an expert on names, numbers or stats. Actually, the book had a lot of that kind of information, but it is tucked inside such interesting stories that you don't feel like you are being smothered in dry facts and numbers. Every chapter, a story unto itself, gives you a look into the team owners - a little about their personal life, but mostly how they acquired their teams, how they related to their teams, and the relationships with the other team owners. Also, every one of the owners in the book has made some special contribution to the game, and I kept finding myself saying, "Wow! I didn't know that!" I would recommend the book to any baseball fan and to anyone who has an interest in baseball and would just enjoy a good read.

The collaborative effort of Burton and Benita Boxerman, Ebbets To Veeck To Busch: Eight Owners Who Shaped Baseball is a grand survey of eight remarkable individuals whose time, fortunes, and effort invested in the baseball teams they owned helped shape the course of this great American sport throughout the 20th Century. Especially focusing on the contributions that each one made to their respective teams, as well as to the sport as a whole (rather than centering upon their financial or personal lives), Ebbets To Veeck To Busch is a remarkable and highly commended study of influence and the fruits of hard labors at the highest level of athletic team management and baseball club ownership.

I've been a baseball fan for years, and have always enjoyed stories that provided insight into the players, coaches and managers in the game. However, I didn't realize how little I knew about baseball owners until I read this book. I found a wealth of knowledge about eight of the most influential baseball owners, with enough information and anecdotes to give me a feel for their personalities. This is a great book for fans that want a better perspective on the history of the game of baseball.

Jose Canseco. Barry Bonds. Jason Giambi. Human growth hormone. The cream and the clear. Steroids. The saddest part about baseball today is that these are the words we think of. However, the past is not free from scandal, and I'm not just talking about the introduction and proliferation of "greenies."

When the 1919 World Series was fixed by eight (arguably seven) members of the Chicago White Sox, the face of baseball changed forever. While it remained America's pastime, an inherent skepticism took hold. This was epitomized by the famous "say it ain't so, Joe" confrontation between "Shoeless" Joe Jackson (the arguably innocent of the eight) and not just any fan, but a child.

Eliot Asinof has done a wonderful job of reminding us that baseball is not a sport newly tainted by strikes and drugs. All the major players are documented. The owner, Charles Comiskey, whose tight pocket book can be partially blamed for the scandal and who tried to cover it up. Baseball's first commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis prosecuted the guilty the best way he knew how and set a precedent that baseball followed into the late '80s with the lifetime ban of Pete Rose (eight years after Eight Men Out was published in 1981). "Shoeless" Joe Jackson, to his deathbed, recanted his confession, calling it something contrived, and professed his innocence. And then there were the gamblers: Joe Sullivan, the contact man; Abe Attell, the man who manipulated the whole thing as a middleman without the money; and Arnold Rothstein, the money behind the debacle. Asinof, despite a lack of modern "forensic" evidence, such as phone taps, followed the information back to the guilty parties. As Asinof relays, this is one of the shames, one of the great failures of the American judicial system following the Black Sox scandal.

What Asinof has accomplished with this story, this true epic, is to remind us that todays era is not that only tainted one in baseball's illustrious history. It reminds us that as long as men have been paid to play a childrens' game they have wanted more and owners have wanted to give them less. In the end, Asinof reminds us that we make it possible for players to make $25 million a year. And we also make it possible for someone like Mark McGwire or Barry Bonds or Jason Giambi to become a "hero." While Asinof does not make me feel guilty, he makes me take pause and wonder how much of baseball's dramatic fall has been a product of the absolute corruption of American culture as opposed to the absolute corruption of a select few individuals.

The year 1919. The city is Chicago. Eight men enter the room of "Sleepy" Bill Burns and conspire to fix the World Series. The money was coming from Arnold Rothstein or "AR" to his friends. Eight men were about to rock the foundations of baseball for greed and the hatred of Charles Comiskey - or was there another story?

Asinoff recounts the months leading to, the days during and the years after the 1919 World Series with amazing detail and clarity. His story is told and as you listen you'll think you are actually there. This audio book is by far much better than the movie.

What you get is 8; count them 8, how ironic, tapes that weave a story of deceit, corruption, and conspiracy on both sides of the law. From Joe Jackson and Eddie Cicotte to Lefty Williams, Chick Ghandl, Buck Weaver, Happy Felsch and Swede Risberg the tragedy is unraveled.

The recording was a true pleasure and the actual use of transcripts, reports and other material adds major credibility to the exposing of baseball worst nightmare. Asinoff is to be commended on this first rate work and baseball needs more men like him. A real standout performance!

This review refers to the audio book version.

A great book that shows what led to this infamous scandel with the 8 White Sox ballplayers. Not only will baseball fans want to read this book but anyone who likes to read. It also makes you wonder if throwing games is still going on today.

The scandal of the 1919 Black Sox is probably the most disilluisioning chapter in the history of baseball. Asinof captured the feeling of America and its reaction to the scandal on and off field. The story is told accurately and with great insight. "Shoeless" Joe was a wonderful player who made bad decisions. He can be both admired and loathed by fans who now know that he wasn't completely innocent as the Sox threw the Worl d Series. It shows how baseball perserviered throught the gambling. Baseball tradition has kept the game alive through many adverse situtations and when gathered together make the history of baseball very rich. A must read for ALL baseball historians and fans.

I have been very impressed with the computer skills my daughter has developed using this workbook. It is well put together and fun to use. It has been a valuable tool in her computer education. I highly recommend this book!!

This workbook has been easy to follow and use for my fifth grader. She has improved her typing speed, is understanding computer vocabulary, and has learned many shortcuts with computer keyboarding. I will continue to use this resource in the upcoming years.

My son uses the fifth grade technology binder and I am thrilled with his progress. It is easy to understand and follow. I highly recommend this series.

I am just thrilled with the workbook my son Myles is using in computer class. It is well organized, easy to follow, and loaded with great techniques and homework assignments! I highly recommend it to all 5th graders who are learning the ins and outs of computer technology.