Baseball Book Review - Dynastic, Bombastic, Fantastic

I just finished Dynastic, Bombastic, Fantastic - Reggie, Rollie, Catfish, and Charlie Finley's Swingin' A's by Jason Turbow over the weekend.  It was a great read.

This book is a history of the 1970 Oakland A's, going through their ascendance, then their pinnacle years of 1972-1974 where they won 3 straight titles and finally their descent.  The book is just under 350 pages.  It took me a while to read, longer than may book of similar length but as I reflect on why I think it was due to the huge number of amazing stories in the book.  I found myself wanting it to last longer.

The book has a couple of chapters about the the move of the A's from KC to Oakland in 1968 and the owner, the legendary Charlie Finley.  The meat of the book goes through the 3-year championship run in good detail, sharing the events of the regular season, LCS and World Series for each of the 3 years (stating it was quite eventful is an understatement).  Finally there are a couple chapters at the end summarizing the quick dismantling of the championship team and the owner.  Finally there is a page for each of the Cast of Characters highlighted in the book including a little about their post mid-70s careers and some life after baseball.

I was born in 1971 so while I was alive during the peak years, I was much too young to be aware of what was going on in the baseball world.  The first World Series I remember vividly was the We Are Family Pirates in 1979.  However family legend claims I attended either one of the playoff or World Series games of the A's with my dad when I was a young kid.  I don't remember and have no evidence to support the fact.  This team has always interested and intrigued me and I found in reading this book that I knew very little about the team, the times, the Owner, or the players.  I have read dozens if not hundreds of baseball themed books in my life and this era was a blind spot until I read the book.

If you have been following me a while, you may know that 2 of my player collections are from this team, Reggie Jackson and Vida Blue.  While my Reggie memories are more of the Yankee/Angels version, knowing he started on the A's was a draw. Vida, on the other hand became a favorite, for his time on the Giants teams of my youth in the late 70s and early 80s.

I don't want to give a ton away for those that want to read it.  I don't know of many books I can recommend more.  I believe any baseball fan would love the stories about the team and all the drama. You get a first hand look at how teams operated so differently prior to free agency and what the move into the free agent era.  The depth and details of all the stories is amazing considering these events are over 40 years in the past.  It feels more like a book that was written within a year or two of the events.

I came away with a much better understanding of several things: 1) Charlie Finley was nuts, a genius and a jerk, 2) Vida Blue is not someone I should have looked up to as a kid, 3) some of the guys on the team were really great players during the period despite what history might tell us (Sal Bando, Joe Rudi, Ken Holtzman, Bert Campaneris, Mike Epstein, Gene Tenace), 4) Reggie was a fragile guy, and 5) Rollie deserves his HOF status.

Reading about something characterized in the book as one of the greatest World Series catches of all time made me You Tube it and seek out an autograph of the guy who made the catch.  I was pleasantly surprised to find this card commemorating that catch.

I really hope some of you read it and share your thoughts.  I thought it was an amazing read.