Connie Mack: The Turbulent and Triumphant Years, 1915-1931

Connie Mack #2

by Norman L. Macht

The Philadelphia Athletics dominated the first fourteen years of the American League, winning six pennants through 1914 under the leadership of their founder and manager, Connie Mack. But beginning in 1915, where volume 2 in Norman L. Macht’s biography picks up the story, Mack’s teams fell from pennant winners to last place and, in an unprecedented reversal of fortunes, stayed there for seven years. World War I robbed baseball of young players, and Mack’s rebuilding efforts using green youngsters of limited ability made his teams the objects of public ridicule.


At the age of fifty-nine and in the face of widespread skepticism and seemingly insurmountable odds, Connie Mack reasserted his genius, remade the A’s, and rose again to the top, even surpassing his earlier success. Baseball biographer and historian Macht recreates what may be the most remarkable chapter in this larger-than-life story. He shows us the man and his time and the game of baseball in all its nitty-gritty glory of the 1920s, and how Connie Mack built the 1929–1931 champions of Foxx, Simmons, Cochrane, Grove, Earnshaw, Miller, Haas, Bishop, Dykes—a team many consider baseball’s greatest ever.

Genres: Baseball, Sports, Biography

720 pages, Hardcover

Published April 1, 2012

About the author

Norman Macht is a freelance baseball historian who has authored numerous books and innumerable articles in publications such as Baseball Digest, The Sporting News, National Sports Daily, Sports Heritage, USA Today Baseball Weekly, The San Francisco Examiner and The National Pastime (plus other SABR publications).

Reviews

[Daniel Evensen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Norman Macht's three part biography of the life of Connie Mack is a must-buy for any serious student of American baseball history. He goes into a level of detail and historicity that goes beyond the wildest dreams of even the most astute baseball historians. Mack's life and times come alive in these volumes in a way that rivals the best of biography in general.

In this volume in particular, Macht's finesse and skill is clear for all to see. Macht doesn't just provide the reader with a readable, clear history of the longest serving manager and owner in American baseball history. Macht also provides a full and deep history of a crucial transitory time in American history, from the nervous days of the onset of World War I in 1915 through to the early and frustrating years of the Great Depression in 1931. Macht takes us through what society was like, making sure to pause from time to time to appreciate non-baseball events that are clearly of general interest.

Even Macht's baseball writing is broad enough to please all interested parties. Macht provides here the best explanation of the fall of Ban Johnson and the rise of Kenesaw Mountain Landis that I've ever read. Many of the historians that write about the 1919 World Series and the ensuing scandal would be wise to start with Macht's work on the subject, as it is much clearer and much more accurate than any other retelling.

Note that Macht does not fill his work with citations. There are no endnotes to speak of. This certainly will drive amateur historians up the wall. Macht does provide more than enough textual evidence of his sources, however. This is a history book that was intended to be read, and not to be laid out on the dissecting table.

Occasionally Macht goes into more detail than is necessary, which clogs up the narrative from time to time. The reader learns about some really odd pieces of trivia, such as whether the Athletics' bat boy accompanied the team to spring training in certain years. Macht also has a tendency to spoil the ending before the story comes along. When Al Simmons, Jimmy Foxx, and Lefty Grove start playing for the Athletics, Macht makes sure that the reader knows right away that these players will one day be highly revered members of the Hall of Fame. It's no secret to those who follow the history of the sport; however, this could detract from the book's readability for any possible non-fanatic readers.

Macht's one other weakness is that this book is more a hagiography than a serious biography of Mack. In particular, Macht flies through the famous dismantling of the champion 1914 Athletics as if it weren't a problem. The reader is told time and time again through page after page that Mack had no choice, that the Federal League was going to buy up all the players anyway, that he couldn't tell the future, and that he deserves no blame for turning a perennial first-place club into one of the worst teams in baseball history overnight. One does wonder if Mack was really such a great judge of young talent, considering that it took him nearly a decade to discover that buying established minor league stars was generally more fruitful than giving a bunch of high school students a chance to skip straight to the big show. Macht unfortunately seems too eager to give Mack a pass without really considering the evidence and the reader's natural conclusion.

All that aside, though, this book is a must-read.

[David Hallstrom · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first book in the series was a solid four stars. This may be closer to 3-3/4.

The last of Mr. Mack's AL pennant came in 1931, a season that is barely mentioned with details only for the World Series loss. The final 10-12 pages or so are dedicated to people named after connie Mark or how Mr. Mack touched the lives of others. As these are constant themes throughout the first 1,400+ pages of this series, it was gratuitous at best.

A richly told tale. I am looking forward to starting in on the third and final book.

[Luke Koran · Rating 5 out of 5]

Much like his first volume, baseball historian Norman L. Macht puts forward a trove of research into one of the sports greatest managers in “Connie Mack: The Turbulent and Triumphant Years, 1915-1931.” The sheer size of these three books on Mr. Mack, with this one weighing in at 650 pages, is astounding. (How many sport idols get the 2,000 page treatment in a single biography? … None that I’ve seen, so far.) Not to mention that Macht’s research is exhaustive - I definitely feel like every aspect of Connie Mack’s life and career is covered, with some bonus material featuring the other aspects in the world of baseball. I look forward to reading the third volume, which should provide a fitting closing chapter to Mack’s 65 years in baseball.

[Arthur Pierce · Rating 5 out of 5]

Norman Macht's books on Connie Mac (I have read the first two of three) represent a major accomplishment in baseball research. Not only does he thoroughly understand his subject, he understands the eras in which he lived as well, and is admiable in the manner he conveys period atmosphere to the reader.

[Bradthad Codgeroger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Years of awful baseball teams and then years of the greatest team ever. And Connie keeps riding the rails...

[Colin Post · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another volume in Macht’s magisterial biography of Connie Mack. This volume covers a time of immense change for both the A’s and baseball, going from the deadball era to the game that Ruth built. Macht tells the compelling story of how Mack constructed his second all-time great team while adapting to the radical changes in the game. Macht spares no detail, but like the first volume, the book is readable and engaging, full of lots of anecdotes that build up to an overarching thesis on how Mack set the bar for baseball managers.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

Due to its sheer size (648 pages, not including index, appendix, etc.), I was skeptical I'd have time to fit this in. I was also guessing it might be too academic to hold my interest. I started in on it while in the middle of a couple of other books and even though I didn't really have the time, I kept coming back to it, because it was so interesting. It felt kind of like a guilty pleasure, reading this gigantic Connie Mack bio when I had other obligations. Eventually it took over as my No. 1 book and I stuck with it until I finished. That it took me so long had more to do with everything else I had going on than the pace of the book.

This is actually the second of a three-part biography. I have not read the first one, though it's hardly a prerequisite to enjoying this one. This kicks off in 1915, just after Mack's A's had ruled the American League. Macht details the dismantling of that championship club, but as he explains, the commonly held perception that Mack suddenly went cheap is way off base. There were a number of reason veteran players left or were shipped out of town. But all the while Mack was convinced he could build another winner. He loved to scout young players and discover the next big thing, but he turned up a lot of duds. Then the war came along and made the search even tougher.

The book concludes with the A's back on top, with a roster full of stars like Lefty Grove, Mickey Cochrane, Al Simmons, and Jimmie Foxx. Any notion of Mack's cheapness is dispelled by the money he shelled out to acquire these players (and a number of others who didn't pan out as well).

The detail is incredible, but what makes the book great is that it's never boring. That's very difficult to accomplish when recounting this many seasons over so many pages. Macht never falls into a formulaic pattern in telling each season's story, something that happens all too frequently in baseball biographies.

I knew very little about Mack before this, and just about everything I thought I knew about him wasn't accurate. Now I'd like to clear some time to read the first book (which came out in 2007). And I'll be waiting when the final installment comes out, whenever that is.

[Charles M.]

Connie Mack was one of the all-time most beloved of all baseball people; and this book---the second of a three-part biography tells why...Here, the author covers the period of 1915 to 1931, when Mack sold off his World Championship A's from the early 20th Century (which included Hall of Famers, Albert "Chief" Bender, Eddie Plank, Eddie Collins and Frank "Homerun" Baker). This led to 10+ years of downright rotten A's teams, including 7 straight in the cellar and among some of the worst win-loss records ever in MLB history. However, Macht tells with countless second-to-none baseball anecdotes how Mack re-built the A's into a powerhouse from the mid-1920s into the 1930s, of which some historians believe to have been better than the legendary bronx Bombers of that era. The PPhiladelphia A's won the World Series in 1929 and 1930 and nearly an unprecedented 3d straight in 1931, falling two runs short to the St. Louis Cardinals in the decisive 7th game. This book is truly a must for any baseball enthusiast and puts Mack right back in everybody's perspective as one of the earliest masterminds and innovators of Major League Baseball.

[Lee Ballanfant · Rating 5 out of 5]

An entertaining 2nd volume by Macht on Connie Mack. Macht is particularly adept at describing how baseball was run at the time with many amusing anecdotes while also debunking some long held myths,

I recommend both volumes highly.

[Edwin Ortiz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Magnificent volume 2

This is part 2 of the three volume set by Norman Macht. Both books are incredibly researched and quite enlightening. If you love old time baseball history these are must reads .

[Thomas Nahigian]

Great book on a real gentleman.