"Evaluating Baseball Managers: A Comprehensive History and Performance Analysis, 1876-2008 is going to be as big as it sounds. Author, history instructor and Hardball Times veteran Chris Jaffe sent me sample, pre-final draft pages that focused on some Dodgers managers of the past century or more, and that alone totaled more than 17,000 words.
So consider this not a review of the book, which will be published next year, but a teaser.
For reasons I probably don't have to explain here, I gravitated immediately to the sections on Walter Alston and Tommy Lasorda, both of which are full of interesting information – both statistical and anecdotal. The big test for me these days on anything related to the Dodgers is whether I learn something and whether I'm entertained in the process, and Jaffe succeeds in both. Here's something I didn't know about Alston. . . . "
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