Time to put away the beach books and get back to business. Here’s a sampling of recent additions to the sports business bookshelf.
“License to Deal” by Jerry Crasnick (Rodale, 312 pages, $24.95).
His admirers say baseball agent Matt Sosnick is an idealist, a man of integrity making his way in an often-unethical profession. His detractors consider him a lightweight, little more than a hobbyist. Crasnick depicts both aspects in this readable look at one agent’s dream and what it takes to keep it alive, let alone thriving. Crasnick, a baseball writer since 1988, shadows Sosnick and his partner, Paul Cobbe, into the homes of young players as they try to recruit clients; sweating out draft day as clients’ bonuses shrink the longer they remain unselected; trying and often failing to fend off raids from other agents. There are successes, too, as when Florida Marlins pitcher Dontrelle Willis signs his loyalty and appreciation with tattoo ink.
“Management Wisdom from the New York Yankees’ Dynasty” by Lance A. Berger (Wiley, 248 pages, $24.95).
The Yankees’ unparalleled run of on-field success is not the inevitable result of high payrolls, Berger argues. It’s the result of sound fundamental management principles that any business could profit from. Be a strong owner. Hire the best front-line managers you can (think Joe Torre or Casey Stengel). Make everyone in your organization a talent scout (Yankee scouts discovered Mickey Mantle and Lou Gehrig). Don’t aim for all superstars, but assemble plenty of stars and solid performers around your few superstars. Promote your company’s history and heritage of excellence; that helps in hiring and in sales.
“Coach” by Michael Lewis (Norton, 91 pages, $12.95).
Billy Fitzgerald, a baseball and basketball coach at a private school in New Orleans who is known simply as “Coach Fitz,” has a simple and straightforward curriculum: intensity, discipline, courage, sacrifice, work, duty. It seems dated to many today, but his lessons endured for former players such as Lewis, author of 2003’s “Moneyball,” and Peyton Manning. In an age when parents try to shield children from adversity, Fitz pushes them to overcome. Strictly speaking, this is not a business book — unless your business involves motivating people, developing their talents, getting the most out of them and making them winners.
“First in Thirst” by Darren Rovell (American Management Association, 244 pages, $21.95).
Gatorade enjoys an 80 percent market share of the sports drink sector, which it virtually invented, and is so firmly entrenched on NFL sidelines that it’s an icon of product placement. Rovell, a sports business writer for espn.com, has assembled a fast-paced account of this success story, from the invention of Gatorade for the University of Florida football team through the Pepsi brand’s spat with Coke’s Powerade last year on NASCAR’s victory lane. The focus is on the brand’s triumphs — the Gatorade dunk of winning NFL coaches and Michael Jordan’s endorsement deal — but Rovell does not skip such black eyes as the cyclamate health scare, marketing missteps and a $16 million trademark infringement judgment against it.
“A Place on the Team” by Welch Suggs (Princeton University Press, 283 pages, $27.95).
More than 30 years after it became law, Title IX remains controversial and misunderstood. Suggs serves up a thorough and balanced account of the law that reshaped women’s athletics. This exhaustively researched book traces the history of the sports gender equity movement, told through the milestone court cases and bureaucratic reports and memos, and its successes and failures. Suggs, a former staff writer for SportsBusiness Journal, recently left The Chronicle of Higher Education to become associate director of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics.
Dewey Knudson is a former copy chief of SportsBusiness Journal.
