Playing for a Winner: How Baseball Teams' Success Raises Players' Reputations

by Brandon Isleib

Overview

"He never felt like a Hall of Famer." "You can't argue with championships." "If he was so good, why were his teams so bad?"

On talk shows and in sports bars, statements like these are often made about both underrated and overrated players. It's generally accepted that being in a bigger market or on a winning team can cause a player to be overrated, while the opposite can leave them underrated. Examining pennant races to show how much attention a team receives and which teams are getting the most attention provides a context to this familiar commentary. This book studies the effects of the sports media spotlight (and its absence) on the fortunes of teams in pennant races and Hall of Fame inductees. Along the way, the author brings to light accomplished players most non-fans have probably never heard of.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781476665382
Publisher:	McFarland & Company, Incorporated Publishers
Publication date:	01/10/2017
Pages:	392
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.90(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Brandon Isleib is the Seattle code reviser. He has written about baseball for The Hardball Times (now part of FanGraphs) and Baseball Prospectus. He lives in Everett, Washington.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Foreword by Craig Calcaterra
Preface
Introduction
— Part I —
Momentum, Statistics and Numbers
 1. Bird, Plane or Dynasty?
 2. The Math of Perception
 3. Momentum, Spotlight and SpWAR
 4. SpWAR and the Hall of Fame
 5. The Most Famous Players
 6. Baseball in the Dark: The Best Players Outside the Spotlight
— Part II —
Momentum, Seasons and Narratives
 7. The Early Narrative, 1871–1900
 8. A Permanent Rival Emerges, 1901–1917
 9. A Call to Arms and an Arms Race, 1918–1934
10. The ­Post-Ruth Era, 1935–1951
11. The Yankees and Dodgers, 1952–1968
12. Divisions of Labor, 1969–1981
13. A ­Post-Strike World, 1982–1993
14. Playing Your Wild Cards Right, 1994–2002
15. No Change but Steroids, 2003–2011
16. The Last (?) Changes, 2012–2015
17. Modern Playoffs: Better for Fans, Worse for Everyone Else
Chapter Notes
Index

Editorial Reviews

does something no other baseball book that I am aware of has ever done: it seeks to quantify the way in which media coverage impacts a player’s fame and, in turn, his Hall of Fame chances. I’m recommending it because it’s a fascinating new way to look at players’ legacies...a fresh and rewarding look at baseball history which sheds light onto some of the historical conundrums we still argue about today”—NBC Sports.

From the Publisher