New Book is out about the 1929-31 Philadelphia Athletics

[jerseygary]

Has anyone read the book yet? I bought it from Amazon.com. It was a pretty inexpensive book and to tell you the truth, you get what you pay for. Now I understand that it is self-published so I can overlook all the spelling and grammar mistakes (heck, when I publish my first book despite 20 years in the design business I still let numerous mistakes slip through!). My big disappointment with the book was there was no description of what the players were like as a team- did they like one another, what did the players think of Grove and his tantrums, did Joe Boley and Al Simmons talk Polish and relate to one another because of their shared background, etc, etc. For me it was just a retelling of the 3 seasons they were great but with no depth to it. I didn't feel like I got to know any of the players better than from what I read casually already. I really was hoping the book would reveal how the team interacted on and off the field as I am always interested in the little things like chemistry that gives a team that edge.

That said, what the book does do is make available a much needed simple guide to what might be one of the top 3 teams in MLB history. Perhaps I was hoping for the impossible here. Siince there are no other books on this team from what I can find, maybe this is the much needed spark that will be the basis for further in-depth looks at this semi-forgotten team. I think I will have to buy separate bios on Simmons, Cochrane and Foxx to see if those books give any hint as to what the dynamics were on those 29-31 A's teams.

I'm really interested to see what anyone else thought about the book, and if there are any recommendations for other books on the 29-31 A's.