Book Review: Dealing

"Dealing" is a good read for Tribe fans, but probably not as interesting for the regular baseball fan.  Covering the post-Jacobs rebuilding era, it describes how the mighty mid 90's teams fell as a result of economic changes, new ownership, and just a loss of novelty.

Its unusual to read a "historical" book thats so current (it takes you up to the Marte trade).  More time has to pass to see if Shapiro's vision is a solid one.
The book works a lot better if the Indians were having the successful year we anticipated.

Dick Jacobs is shown to be a shrewd business-god who took advantage of the Dolans' anxiousness to own a franchise. The Dolans obviously took off more than they could chew, but I give them credit for being genuine Tribe fans. Jacobs apparently owned the Indians as a moneymaker and knew exactly when to get in and out.  I also give the Dolans props for being anti-Steinbrenners and letting Shapiro do his thing.  A lot of teams seem to have no plan about how to escape their losing ways.

John Hart gets somewhat rapped for his win-now manuevering, but when the Indians were a top team and the money was rolling in, I can't say I blame him.

Pluto repeats some points to pad out the book. I would've liked to get some more juice on topics like Milton Bradley's antics, Eddie Murray's firing, or Charlie Manual's abrupt dismissal.

For a baseball book, it was disappointing to see no photos inside. And an index is never a bad thing either. Overall, though, not bad.