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Dealing: The Cleveland Indians' New Ballgame: How a Small-Market Team Reinvented Itself as a Major League Contender | 
 enlarge | Author: Terry Pluto
Publisher: Gray & Co., Publishers
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
Buy New: $10.17
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Avg. Customer Rating:  6 reviews
Sales Rank: 416132
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 222
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 8.5 x 5.6 x 0.6
ISBN: 1598510495
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.357640977132
EAN: 9781598510492
ASIN: 1598510495
Publication Date: April 18, 2008
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Go behind closed doors in the Cleveland Indians' front office as award-winning sportswriter Terry Pluto analyzes the team's controversial recent moves to scrap a roster of popular stars and rebuild a new kind of contender.
Granted unprecedented access to the team's top management and financial data, Pluto delivers an up-close account of how decisions were made to radically reshape the franchise.
Indians fans grew accustomed to winning in the mid-1990s. They had an owner with deep pockets, a brand-new ballpark, and a team of high-priced all stars who delivered a division championship nearly every year.
But that glorious ride ended with a jolt of reality after savvy owner Richard Jacobs sold the franchise at the top of the market in 2000. New owners Larry and Paul Dolan and new general manager Mark Shapiro faced a challenge: an aging team, a mounting payroll, and a shrinking budget. First they made mistakes. Then they made bold changes. Stars such as Manny Ramirez, Roberto Alomar, and Jim Thome were gone, replaced with roster of unproven youngsters and veteran rehab projects. Fans were alarmed and dismayed. Then, in 2002, Shapiro boldly predicted that the Indians would return to contend for the playoffs after just three years of rebuilding. Critics scoffed.
Yet at the end of the 2005 season, the Indians were indeed back in contention, one tantalizing game away from a return to the playoffs. The core of an exciting young team was beginning to take shape, and Shapiro was voted American League Executive of the Year as his team won an impressive 93 games despite a payroll ranked in baseball's bottom five.
How was it done? In his familiar clear writing style, Pluto carefully explains the many risky moves made by management and tells which ones have paid off, which ones haven't, and why.
This rare behind-the-scenes look at a modern front office will intrigue fantasy leaguers and fans fascinated by baseball dealmaking. It will be an eye-opener for Indians fans who may still be wondering, What happened to my team?
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1 more reviews...
 TERRY PLUTO DOES IT AGAIN January 4, 2009
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 May 20, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
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.
 good insight April 2, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
a great look at how mark shapiro learned on the job and, with a pittance of a budget as compared to the likes of the red sox and the yankees, has created a truly competitive team for years to come.
The thinking behind the scenes. January 18, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Terry Pluto has a wealth of inside information about the professional sports scene in the Cleveland area. In this book he shows us what goes on in the front office and what goes into some of the decisions about players. If your are even a casual follower of the Indians, or MLB in general, you will be interested in reading this book. You'll get a whole new look at why a team has some of the players it does, and why it doesn't have some of the players it or you may have wanted.
A very, interesting read.
a peek inside the front office -- July 17, 2006
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
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 pricey free-agent contracts. (Also, it's not only the Indians who sometimes have to pay another team to take a player they can't support any longer.) Then, too, the very novelty of the shiny new Jacobs Field began to wear off a bit. And don't forget the players. It takes much more time for a player to reach his prime than it does for him to pass on by it. Aging athletes can't always keep up, and it's a wise manager who realizes that fact, while still working around it. Not to mention, it's all too easy to ruin a player who's too young to handle the constant every day stress of competitive sports.
Pluto goes into great detail about how--knowing they weren't baseball strategists--the Dolans wisely found a solid core of young, knowledgeable men with varying skills and put them in charge of the team. General Manager Mark Shapiro (MLB's Executive of the Year for 2005); his assistants: Chris Antonetti, (the wizard of the computer); Neal Huntington, director of player development; scounting director John Mirabelli, and minor league director John Farrell. Between them, they selected Eric Wedge as manager of the team. (Locals complain about Wedge, but his peers have chosen him as one of the coaches for the 2006 All-Star game!) There's a lot to be said for putting someone in charge and letting them have the actual means and power to do their best without fear of the axe falling. That's not to say they can take forever, but it takes time to find the best young prospects and nurture them to major league capability.
Next time you want to complain about the penny-pinching Dolans, stop and think about this for a moment. In 2000, they purchased the Indians for 320 million dollars. The entire team, the front office, the farm teams, the whole magilla. Then, (from page175) "Along with having the three highest payrolls in team history (2000-2002), the Dolans also paid $40 million during all of their ownership in revenue sharing, mostly because of the success of the Jacobs era." Today, even though they've cut back some, they've also greatly increased the scounting program in an effort to re-build the team.
Cleveland is a small market, with three major-league teams. (New York City has more teams, of course, but even with all the dollars spent there, NY teams don't win every game, all the time.) Even though the New York Yankees spend 200 million dollars PER YEAR on their team payroll! Anyone here have that kind of money to spend? Didn't think so. Folks here want the Dolans to sell. Not so easily done. No one says the Dolans want to sell, but just suppose they did. Who'd buy? Until that happens, maybe we ought to cut them some slack, and give the Dolans a chance to finish what they started.
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