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Juicing the Game : Drugs, Power, and the Fight for the Soul of Major League Baseball | 
 enlarge | Author: Howard Bryant
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $6.59
You Save: $18.36 (74%)
New (9) Used (17) Collectible (1) from $4.25
Avg. Customer Rating:  18 reviews
Sales Rank: 895448
Format: Bargain Price
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 432
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.6
ASIN: B000GUJHFI
Publication Date: July 7, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Book Description
From the respected sports journalist and author of Shut Out comes a groundbreaking history of steroid use in major league baseball
Despite enjoying an era of unprecedented prosperity and on-field accomplishments, Major League Baseball is in crisis as its greatest players find themselves defending their achievements instead of celebrating them. The reason: steroids and other performance- enhancing drugs. Singled out by the president and Congress, threatened with punitive legislation by Senator John McCain, and under siege as part of the growing BALCO investigation, baseball is desperately trying to get its own house in order after years of willful ignorance that have brought into question the sport's very integrity. In Juicing the Game, award-winning journalist Howard Bryant raises the most important question the league faces today: In its desperation to recover from the crippling 1994 strike, did baseball ignore warning signals that might have prevented the biggest scandal since the Chicago White Sox threw the 1919 World Series? Combining hard-hitting investigative journalism with a compelling narrative filled with entertaining anecdotes, as well as interviews with baseball heavyweights such as Jason Giambi, Commissioner Bud Selig, union head Donald Fehr, and Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson, among many others, Juicing the Game promises to be the bombshell book of the season.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 13 more reviews...
 Boring, Poorly written, dis-jointed July 10, 2006
1 out of 8 found this review helpful
After a brief email correspondence with Bryant, it's easy to see why this was such a boring, poorly written book. I'm glad I was given the book and didn't actually waste any money on it.
The book jumps from one newspaper article to another, and never really tells me, an avid baseball fan anything I didn't already suspect about players taking steroids and other performance enhancers.
I mean really, it's been going on for ages in all sports.
Bryant's obsessive fascination with race and racism really comes through when he spends an entire chapter on Barry and Bobby Bonds and race relations between writers and players.
His never really backs up any of his racial assertions with any more then anecdotes and opinions. He blames Bobby's alcoholism on the way he was treated by the baseball world and blames Barry's problems on everyone but Barry.
He claims that white writers make life troublesome for difficult black players but treat difficult white players with kit gloves. Tell that one to Steve Carlton, Howard.
Please do yourself a favor and don't waste even five bucks on a used copy of this.
Your time would be wasted to even get a copy from the library. Mine went in my recycle bin.
 A GREAT Baseball Book! July 3, 2006
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I've read a lot of baseball books over the years, and this ranks as one of the best. While it covers the whole steroids mess in illuminating detail, you also get a review of baseball history unlike anything else out there. How this author did not win some kind of writing award is beyond me. If you enjoy reading baseball history sprinkled with interesting details about individual ball players, get this book.
The most important baseball book since Ball Four June 24, 2006
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Howard Bryant has done the baseball world a giant service with his meticulous research and top-notch writing. In careful detail, explaining all sides AND including contextual background for how and why the events unfolded, he lays out the complex history of the past 20 years of baseball. He makes it clear that demonizing Bonds, McGwire, Palmeiro et al cannot be done reasonably without also indicting the management, labor leadership, and even the press.
In a way, we're all to blame for the Steroid Era. It's as much a sociological discussion as it is a book about baseball, pharmacology, management and the fight for power. It's also a serious page-turner, and should be required reading for anyone who cares about the game of baseball and the health of the next generation of players.
It's a superb book, and peels back the layers of the onion in a way that nobody had the courage to do before. If you're a baseball fan, READ this book.
The definitive story of baseball's "renaissance" June 23, 2006
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This book is about more than just steriods and what they can do to a person's body. It's about the entire story of Major League Baseball from 1994-2004. Bryant tells about how out of control umpires were, and how Sandy Alderson was only too happy to accept their resignations in Richie Phillips' botched attempt to start a new umpires union. Also, the new ballparks that were seemingly designed for more offense and the shrinking strike zone are discussed.
This book also reveals how little the media cared about what was happening. Most reporters just looked the other way during this era, not wanting to believe what they saw wasn't real. Tony LaRussa is revealed to be perhaps the biggest hypocrite of this era when he rips Jose Canseco after Canseco's book is released and vehemently defends Mark McGwire. LaRussa says Canseco used to brag about his steriod use during his days as Oakland manager. Bryant brings up a quote from LaRussa in 1988 defending Canseco after Canseco was accused of taking steriods.
Bryant interviews numerous people for this book, and the multitude of sources makes for a very good read. I took off a star for an error saying that a fan caught a Derek Jeter hit ball while hanging over the outfield wall and the play was called a home run in Game Two of the 1996 ALCS (it was actually Game One) and for a poorly edited epilogue. Despite those things, this is an easy recommendation.
A baseball revival fully explained! May 20, 2006
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I generally shy away from most sports books. But Howard Bryant has done a masterful job explaining just what has happened to our beloved national pastime. His analysis encompasses not only the rise of steroids and other 'performance enhancers' but answers the questions...why? how? when???! His coverage of labor negotiations, the umpires strike fiasco, the birth of Long Ball adoration, and scathing portrayals of the commissioner and club owners does the best job I have read in making sense of the past decade in baseball. It is a 'must read' for most american sports fans and definitely any baseball nuts!
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