Baseball's Dynasties and the Players Who Built Them

Jonathan Weeks

Baseball has had its fair share of one-and-out champions, but few clubs have dominated the sport for any great length of time. Given the level of competition and the expansive length of the season, it is a remarkable accomplishment for a team to make multiple World Series appearances in a short timespan. From the Baltimore Orioles of the 1800s who would go to any length to win—including physically accosting opponents—to the 1934 Cardinals known as the “Gashouse Gang” for their rough tactics and determination, and on to George Steinbrenner’s dominant Yankees of the late twentieth century, baseball’s greatest teams somehow found a way to win year after year.

Spanning three centuries of the game, Baseball’s Dynasties and the Players Who Built Them examines twenty-two of baseball’s most iconic teams. Each chapter not only chronicles the club’s era of supremacy, but also provides an in-depth look at the players who helped make their teams great. Nearly two hundred player profiles are included, featuring such well-known stars as Joe DiMaggio, Jackie Robinson, Sandy Koufax, and Pete Rose, as well as players who were perhaps overshadowed by their teammates but were nonetheless vital to their team’s reign, such as Pepper Martin, Allie Reynolds, and George Foster.

With a concluding chapter that profiles the clubs that were on the cusp of greatness, Baseball’s Dynasties and the Players Who Built Them is a fascinating survey of what makes some teams dominate year after year while others get only a small taste of glory before falling to the wayside. Written in a lively style with amusing anecdotes and colorful quotes, this comprehensive book will be of interest to all fans and historians of baseball.

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Pages: 408 • Trim: 6½ x 9¼

978-1-4422-6156-3 • Hardback • July 2016 • $56.00 • (£43.00)

978-1-4422-6157-0 • eBook • July 2016 • $53.00 • (£41.00)

Subjects: Sports & Recreation / Baseball / History, Sports & Recreation / Baseball / Biography

Baseball's Dynasties and the Players Who Built Them

Hardback

eBook

Summary

Baseball has had its fair share of one-and-out champions, but few clubs have dominated the sport for any great length of time. Given the level of competition and the expansive length of the season, it is a remarkable accomplishment for a team to make multiple World Series appearances in a short timespan. From the Baltimore Orioles of the 1800s who would go to any length to win—including physically accosting opponents—to the 1934 Cardinals known as the “Gashouse Gang” for their rough tactics and determination, and on to George Steinbrenner’s dominant Yankees of the late twentieth century, baseball’s greatest teams somehow found a way to win year after year.

Spanning three centuries of the game, Baseball’s Dynasties and the Players Who Built Them examines twenty-two of baseball’s most iconic teams. Each chapter not only chronicles the club’s era of supremacy, but also provides an in-depth look at the players who helped make their teams great. Nearly two hundred player profiles are included, featuring such well-known stars as Joe DiMaggio, Jackie Robinson, Sandy Koufax, and Pete Rose, as well as players who were perhaps overshadowed by their teammates but were nonetheless vital to their team’s reign, such as Pepper Martin, Allie Reynolds, and George Foster.

With a concluding chapter that profiles the clubs that were on the cusp of greatness, Baseball’s Dynasties and the Players Who Built Them is a fascinating survey of what makes some teams dominate year after year while others get only a small taste of glory before falling to the wayside. Written in a lively style with amusing anecdotes and colorful quotes, this comprehensive book will be of interest to all fans and historians of baseball.

Details

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Pages: 408 • Trim: 6½ x 9¼

978-1-4422-6156-3 • Hardback • July 2016 • $56.00 • (£43.00)

978-1-4422-6157-0 • eBook • July 2016 • $53.00 • (£41.00)

Subjects: Sports & Recreation / Baseball / History, Sports & Recreation / Baseball / Biography

Author

Jonathan Weeks is a lifelong baseball enthusiast and member of the Society for American Baseball Research. He is the author of Cellar Dwellers: The Worst Teams in Baseball History (Scarecrow, 2012), Baseball’s Most Notorious Personalities: A Gallery of Rogues (Scarecrow, 2013), and Mudville Madness: Fabulous Feats, Belligerent Behavior, and Erratic Episodes on the Diamond (Taylor Trade, 2014).

Table of Contents

Introduction
Chapter 1: Baltimore Orioles: 1894–1897
Chapter 2: Pittsburgh Pirates: 1901–1903
Chapter 3 Chicago Cubs: 1906–1910
Chapter 4 Philadelphia Athletics: 1910–1914
Chapter 5 Boston Red Sox: 1915–1918
Chapter 6: New York Giants: 1921–1924
Chapter 7: New York Yankees: 1926–1928
Chapter 8: Philadelphia Athletics: 1929–1931
Chapter 9: St. Louis Cardinals: 1930–1934
Chapter 10: New York Yankees: 1936–1939
Chapter 11: New York Yankees: 1949–1953
Chapter 12: Brooklyn Dodgers: 1952–1956
Chapter 13: Los Angeles Dodgers: 1963–1966
Chapter 14: St. Louis Cardinals: 1964–1968
Chapter 15: Baltimore Orioles: 1966–1971
Chapter 16: Oakland Athletics: 1972–1974
Chapter 17: Cincinnati Reds: 1972–1976
Chapter 18: New York Yankees: 1976–1978
Chapter 19: Oakland Athletics: 1988–1990
Chapter 20: Toronto Blue Jays: 1991–1993
Chapter 21: Atlanta Braves: 1991–1996
Chapter 22: New York Yankees: 1996–2000
Chapter 23: Honorable Mentions
Bibliography
Index
About the Author

Reviews

Weeks quickly engages the reader by taking a controversial stand, redefining what is considered a baseball dynasty and calling the 1996–2000 Yankee squads the 'last bona fide dynasty.' This makes for spirited debate, particularly since his criteria exclude the 2010–2014 San Francisco Giants teams that won three World Series championships in a five-year span but include the Atlanta Braves teams of the early to mid-1990s (his guidelines include 'the presence of several Hall of Fame–caliber players' and 'a relatively stable lineup during the period of dominance'). After this initial confusion and some overdrawn player bios, Weeks gets to the crux of a comprehensive book that’s laid out so well it suits the novice fan as well as the diehard who still reads box scores. Weeks nicely encapsulates lots of data in practical prose, capturing the swashbuckling mood of baseball’s early years with clever phrases ('ill-fated Roanoke Magicians who disappeared from the Virginia league'). Weeks avoids the peril of catering strictly to trivia fans, but his book can still serve as a quick reference, filled with a long list of notable players rarely mentioned outside their local team lore.
— Publishers Weekly

In Baseball’s Dynasties and the Players Who Built Them, Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) member, author, and baseball enthusiast Jonathan Weeks provides a detailed yet approachable look at some of the most successful teams in Major League Baseball’s (MLB) history.... Baseball’s Dynasties and the Players Who Built Them is well researched, packed with interesting stories, and written in highly accessible prose.
— Journal of Sport History

The history of the major leagues is writ largely by its greatest teams, and Jon Weeks is a tour guide with a time machine.
— Rob Neyer, author of Rob Neyer’s Big Book of Baseball Legends

An enjoyable and entertaining insight into baseball’s greatest dynasties. Jonathan Weeks’ easy-to-read study of the teams, from the boardroom to the ballfield, is a fascinating look at the game and its many colorful characters.
— Gary Bedingfield, founder and editor, Baseball in Wartime