3 Nights In August: A Book Review

3 Nights in August

October 13, 2009 – Peter Schiller

**Reader beware! This is purely an opinion based post! I am aware that people are going to disagree with part of this, but before you roast me, please read this book and you’ll see where I am coming from.**

After reading the book, “3 Nights in August” by Buzz Bissinger I can convinced that LaRussa is obsessed with his job as a Major League Baseball manager! Mind you, I did not have a high opinion of him before I read this book, but I now have an even lesser opinion of him. Maybe it’s because I’m a family man and couldn’t think of doing to my family what he has put his through. His wife must truly be a saint for staying with him all of these years and for that I do give him credit for. He must be doing something right! But morally speaking, the man is a little too detached for my taste, except possibly toward Pujols whom it is said that he treats almost as if he’s the son he never had (again, just my opinion).

As far as being a baseball man, I probably would admit to agreement with him on about 50% of how he manages, but it’s the way he has influenced the use of the bullpen in today’s game is what I am most irate about. See an earlier post on the Modern Day Use of the Bullpen in Baseball on this site for more details.

Bissinger practically deifies the man as a baseball icon! I do admit that in this day in age, anyone who can keep his job with the same team for as long as he has in St. Louis (10/11 years) has got to be doing something right!

I will give credit to LaRussa for understanding how important it is to understand that a players heart or drive plays into how he performs. That is something the Sabermetricians can not statistically prove (at least not yet). It is also why a player’s mood or off the field problems will never be taken into account by Sabermetrics either. That’s another thing that managers like LaRussa and others (Torre, Francona, etc.) really understand. That’s why some guys can’t play well in big cities like New York or Boston. Their personalities can’t take the constant pressure that the fans and the media in those cities demand and expect from them.

I will be discussing, in two more parts, the book, “3 Nights in August” over the next few days. In one post, I will discuss the emotional highs and lows that this award winning author (who also wrote “Friday Night Lights”) brilliantly takes you through in the life of the Cardinals. In another post, I will write about the discussion, especially in the appendix of “3 Nights in August” concerning the book “Moneyball” (which is found in a link to your right) by Michael Lewis. Stay tuned!

3 Nights in August: Emotionally Good

Throughout this book (again, written by Buzz Bissinger), Buzz takes you on various emotional flashbacks into the past of LaRussa’s career. He goes back to his times with the White Sox in the early to mid 80’s as well as with the A’s and earlier years in St. Louis.

For example, he talks about the after game meetings of the baseball minds in Chicago that went into the wee hours of the morning. Wives (or girlfriends) had to stay in an adjacent room in the bar or club they were in, they simply were not allowed in with the guys!

Another gem is where LaRussa’s wife and one (if not both) of his daughters were sick to the point of needing help for a day or to until they recovered. LaRussa had to choose to between staying on with the club and do his job at what he felt was a crucial part of the season or to be with his family when they needed him! To find out what he decided I will have to point you to the book (no, I am not getting paid to promote the book, get it out of the library if you must – that’s what I did, but I might buy it for later writing in detail).

Then Buzz goes into the history of key players or coaches where he will once again pull the reader into one of these flashbacks. Some of which pull on the heartstrings.

One of those that pulls at the heart of its readers is the section that talks about the player and person of Darryl Kile who passed away mid-season back on June 22, 2002 when he was only 33. He also wrote about how Kile’s death continued to affect Cardinal pitcher and team mate Matt Morris even into the 2003 season which is when “3 Nights in August” takes place.

These flashbacks also touch upon, although briefly, on the topic of steroids when LaRussa managed the A’s during the Bash Brother years of Canseco and McGuire.

3 Nights in August -vs.- Moneyball

In the Buzz Bussinger book, “3 Nights in August”, the author provides his take on the book by Michael Lewis called, “Moneyball”. To give you a little insight, Bussinger worked on his book with current St. Louis Cardinals Manager Tony LaRussa (who previously managed the Oakland A’s and the Chicago White Sox), while Lewis worked with current Oakland Athletics General Manager Billy Beane.

A quick observation lends me to ask the following question, is this better looked upon as LaRussa –vs.- Beane? I don’t think so, but it would have made a juicier story (pun not intended)! Why you may ask? LaRussa left the A’s after the 1995 season to manage the Cardinals starting in 1996 and Beane did not become the GM of the A’s until the 1997 season. So, that ends that debate before it even starts, that is, unless someone out there knows of any ill-will between these two men from when Beane played under LaRussa. If anyone out there knows of such feelings, please comment below & I’ll add it below as an update to this post!

To sum up, Bussinger shows either a lack of trust with Moneyball (a link to this book can be found on the right sidebar of this site) or else he just has a distaste for it. More proof of this can be found in the Epilogue and Postscript where he speaks to this more so than in the book itself. There he goes into the events that followed those three nights in August of 2003, right on up to spring training of 2005.

**If anyone wishes to discuss the book in more detail, please make use of the comments section for this post and I’ll gladly reply.**

My name is Peter Schiller. I am the creator/owner of Baseball Reflections.com. I’m also a contributing writer. To read more of my work at Baseball Reflections just click HERE!