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Book Review - Terry Pluto's Dealing
We here at CRS are sometimes accused of not reading much other than the newspaper sports section, Cleveland
sports blogs, and ESPN.com. And while that's not entirely untrue (it's mostly true, actually) we do enjoy a good book
as well, especially when it's about one of our fantastically-fortunate Cleveland sports teams like the Indians.
An author of many other sports titles, Terry Pluto's new book, Dealing, covers (what else) the rebuilding of a Cleveland sports franchise, which in this case happens to be the Indians
but could really be any of our teams. The new offering comes on the heels of Pluto's last major book,
False Start, in which he covers the Browns in their somewhat less successful attempt to rebuild a new franchise after returning
to the league in 1999. I guess what this all means is we can expect to read his next book sometime in 2008 when
he will detail how the Cavs rebuilt their own franchise, which frankly should be a pretty quick read:
Chapter 1: LeBron is Drafted
(The End)
To be honest, I had been a little disappointed in False Start as I felt it primarily just regurgitated information that had already been revealed in former interviews and
news articles from any of the local newspapers. The only exceptions to this were somewhat candid interviews with Chris
Palmer and to a lesser extent Carmen Policy (who probably gave the interview while sipping the latest Napa Cabernet purchased
with Al Lerner's money). Both men acknowledged mistakes that had not really been discussed publicly, although the
Browns have been so bad it's not like their ineptitude was really a well-kept secret. Other than those few revealing
interviews, the book was pretty bland stuff in our opinion.
Dealing goes a little deeper than False Start, as Pluto details how various trades actually went down, including a close-up view of the Milton Bradley deals (both
coming and going) and the machinations behind the Jim Thome & Manny Ramirez negotiations (where in the latter Jeff
Moorad comes away looking about as vain as Paris Hilton). During several parts of the book you can almost hear Larry
Dolan hyperventilating as staffers try to explain to him that you can't play consistently competitive baseball when your
payroll looks like that of the Kansas City Royals.
Anyways, we feel Dealing is definitely worth shelling out the $25 for.
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