Split Season 1981: Fernandomania, the Bronx Zoo, and the Strike that Saved Baseball

by Jeff Katz

The never-before-told story of the momentous season torn in half by the bitter players strike. Sourcing incredible and extensive interviews with almost all of the major participants in the strike, Split 1981 returns us to the on- and off-field drama of an unforgettable baseball year.

1981 was a watershed moment in American sports, when players turned an oligarchy of owners into a game where they had a real voice. Midway through the season, a game-changing strike ripped baseball apart, the first time a season had ever been stopped in the middle because of a strike. Marvin Miller and the MLB Players Association squared off against Baseball Commissioner Bowie Kuhn and the owners in a fight to protect players rights to free agency and defend America's pastime.

Though a time bomb was ticking as the 1981 season began, the game rose to impressive---and now legendary---heights. Pete Rose chased Stan Musial's National League hit record and rookie Fernando Valenzuela was creating a sensation as the best pitcher in the majors when the stadiums went dark and the players went on strike.

For the first time in modern history, there were first- and second-half champions; the two teams with the overall best records in the National League were not awarded play-off berths. When the season resumed after an absence of 712 games, Rose's resumption of his pursuit, the resurgence of Reggie Jackson, the rise of the Montreal Expos, and a Nolan Ryan no-hitter became notable events. The Dodgers bested their longtime rivals in a Yankees-Dodgers World Series, the last classic matchup of those storied opponents.

Genres: Baseball, Sports, Nonfiction, History, Politics, Labor, Ebooks

337 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 19, 2015

Reviews

[Steve · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. I graduated high school in 1981 (you do the Math, it depresses me, haha). I was a HUGE baseball fan back then. The strike really, really, really disappointed me. And then my favorite team, the Cincinnati Reds, got screwed. But I still came back and watched baseball (and still do, even after the 1994 strike). I had never read a book on this season; one that I still find fascinating. If there wasn't a split season there could have been four sensational pennant races. Anyway...Mr. Katz has a lot of detail about the strike in this book. A lot. Actually, too much. I glazed over it at times, confused by the writing (and editing) even though I know how it turned out. The actual parts about the season were good, but the strike details bogged down the book. I'll save you some time if you don't want to read it:

1. The Cincinnati Reds got screwed by the idiotic decision to have a split season (mainly to make sure New York and Los Angeles got a playoff berth in my opinion).
2. Bowie Kuhn was eventually elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, which is a joke.
3. Marvin Miller has yet to be elected, which is a bigger joke.

[Nathaniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

The research in this book regarding the 1981 strike is tremendous. It's well done, it's told well, and it's entertaining. The Fernando Valenzuela story is also well told, and is well tied into the Dodgers winning the World Series. There is a lot of space given to the Yankees, and it's done well. I think there are better books about the Yankees of that season, and the "Bronx Zoo" stuff is well over done. Especially when the entire Zoo is boiled down to George Steinbrenner was an overbearing bully, Reggie Jackson was egomanacial (except that one time), Gene Michael was a stat guy well before it was fashionable, and Dave Winfield didn't hit.

The book is completely weirdly organized, especially when it comes to being about the baseball season. The baseball only section are jumbled mess, and how stories are told seem completely haphazard. Katz is good writer, but its not like it was beautiful transitions from subject to subject, and it be a shame if you lost that writing. If you contrast the baseball section with the nicely organized epilogue, one wonders what might have been.

Among the other interesting stories is the team focus, Katz can find stories to tell in Oakland - former Yankee manager, and Steinbrenner foil Billy Martin is there; Montreal- star pitcher Steve Rogers was a crucial member of the players negogiating with the owners; Philadelphia - Pete Rose's pursuit of the NL career hit leader Stan Musial and Bob Boone was another crucial player in the strike negogiations; sort of in Houston - Nolan Ryan was magnificent late but less in Milwaukee and even less in Kansas City.

There virtually no mention of Kansas City in the second half until the As sweep them in the Divisonal Series. Milwaukee, who would have won the division, if not for the weird split-season set up, gets more mention, but they're incidential to Katz's narrative.

None of this is unusual cause writers have to make decisions and shape their focus, and that would be acceptable except for the ridiculous amount of space that is devoted to the All Star Game and Cooperstown (I found out later Katz is from Cooperstown, which explains it.) If the All-Star Game was some well played masterpiece, or something historically notable happened, I'd be fine, and understand. It's importance, first game back for the players after the strike, is unquestioned, but it was kind of a disaster of a game. That's disappointing because one could have told interesting stories in Montreal, Milwaukee and Kansas City. Montreal, especially.

It's a weird dichotomy in this book, Katz writes for baseball fans -there is minimal biographical information in the book, and there is even less baseball history in the book. How good was Andre Dawson in 1981, this book doesn't tell you. Steve Rogers, one of the focal points? Nope. If you don't know, this book isn't going to help you. Hard feelings about Thurman Munson gets between Craig Nettles and Reggie Jackson. And who is he, again? Not a sentence. There's this star-player aspect to the book. Fernando! Reggie! Rose! Ryan! It's a book for baseball fans, but baseball fans who only know who the best players are by who makes the All-Star teams.

Also just to mention, I read a Kindle edition (yeah I know its says hardcover) and the formatting by, I assume, Thomas Dunne Books was unforgiving. A joy of e-books is you can screw around with font size, and line spacing and margins. Some days I like small type, some days, I need like second line on a eye test big. This book brooked no nonsense with line spacing, and at certain font size (8 point I think) it couldn't format it, so it decided to format about every five screens, leaving me with four blank screens. I'm not sure if that was the publishers first experience formatting for an e-book and were unfamiliar the formatting option Kindle gives readers, or if they were just being hard-asses, but it was disappointing.

(I didn't read this in a day, like I've lied to GR. I don't note the days I start books. I put this down for months on end. I can't even guess how long it took me.)

[Harold Kasselman · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was very disappointed in this book, especially the first 60%. If you are doing a masters thesis on labor relations, this will be helpful. But if you want a satisfying read, this is not for you. The history of the failed negotiations between the players' union as represented by Marvin Miller and the owners council led by Ray Grebey is painfully depicted in minute detail page after page including where and what people ate for meals. The complex points of negotiation regarding compensation for free agents were not made understandable for most readers. In any event, there was more than enough going on in 1981 to make for an enjoyable book( the rise of Fernando Valenzuela, Tim Raines, and Dave Winfield) to make an interesting story. The labor negotiations could have been done in a chapter or two.
I was turned off by the author's extreme bias and characterization of the major actors as either villains(Bowie Kuhn, Ray Grebey, and two thirds of the owners as opposed to the good and righteous guys in the form of Marvin Miller and the player reps like Bob Boone, Doug DeCinces, and Steve Rogers. In addition the author gratuitously made disparaging political remarks about Ronald Reagan that were immaterial but displayed Katz' bias. By 1981 the players had made great strides so the issues weren't black and white. While I agree with the players' position on free agency compensation at that time-since the owners refused to open their books to prove financial insolvency-I don't see it as open and shut as the author. Nonetheless, the chapters about the second season and the playoffs were enjoyable. The unique and flawed playoff format is something that Reds fans are probably still annoyed about to this day.
What saved the book for me was the heart warming story about Travis John, the two year old son of pitcher Tommy John, and other stories like Reggie Jackson(Graig Nettles and George Steinbrenner), Billy Martin and his pitching rotation. All in all, it's a mixed bag but enough to give it 3 stars.

[Mark Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

1981 was a difficult year for baseball, as a strike by the players wiped out almost two months of the season. As someone who was born in 1981, it’s always annoyed me that because most teams played around 107 games that year, the stats from my birth year look so paltry. Mike Schmidt led the majors in RBIs with 91—no pitcher won more than 14 games. As a kid flipping through my baseball cards, I would compare players’ stats from 1981 to what they did in other years and inevitably I’d end up disappointed. No one had their best season in 1981. I suppose the silver lining is that the strike was settled in time for the postseason, so there was actually a World Series the year I was born.

Jeff Katz’s 2015 book Split Season: 1981—Fernandomania, the Bronx Zoo, and the Strike that Saved Baseball examines the year in question in great detail. Katz does a fine job recapping the highlights and lowlights of the season. A limitation of the book is that the details of the strike are very complicated and not that interesting. And that’s coming from a baseball fan, so I can’t imagine that many people who aren’t hardcore baseball fans would read this book. Basically, the key issue was that the owners wanted compensation for teams who lost players who signed as free agents with other teams. The players’ union saw that as an attempt to fundamentally weaken the free agent system. The strike was ultimately settled with the owners winning a small concession from the players as a complicated compensation system was adopted.

When the strike was settled and the 1981 season continued, the dubious decision was made to split the season in two halves: before the strike and after the strike. The teams who were leading their divisions when the strike began were guaranteed a playoff spot, and they would play the winner of the second half of the season. Not surprisingly, with nothing to play for, none of the first half winners also won the second half. This harebrained scheme also ensured that the two teams in the National League with the best records, the St. Louis Cardinals and the Cincinnati Reds, didn’t make the playoffs, because they didn’t win either half of the season.

Katz is insightful when writing about the four players who were deeply involved in the ongoing negotiations between the players and the owners: catcher Bob Boone, pitcher Steve Rogers, third baseman Doug DeCinces, and shortstop Mark Belanger. Katz interviewed Rogers and DeCinces for his book, and he paints interesting portraits of these four athletes.

Mark Belanger in particular comes off as a really interesting person. As a baseball player, Belanger is famous for being perhaps the ne plus ultra of a “good field, no hit” shortstop. Belanger played in more than 2,000 games over 18 years, and ended up with a batting average of just .228. However, Belanger won 8 Gold Gloves for fielding excellence, and sabermetric stats paint a picture of him as one of the finest defensive shortstops ever. Baseball-Reference ranks Belanger second all-time in defensive WAR, just ahead of his longtime infield mate, third baseman Brooks Robinson. In a statistic called Total Zone Runs, which I’m not smart enough to attempt to explain, Belanger ranks as the second best defensive shortstop since 1953, behind Ozzie Smith.

Belanger’s playing career ended after the 1982 season, and after he retired he worked for the players’ union. He died from lung cancer in 1998, at the age of 54. In the 2001 edition of The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract, James writes of Belanger’s time working for the union: “He had three books on his desk: a baseball encyclopedia, Marvin Miller’s autobiography, and Don Baylor, by Don Baylor.” (p.624) I don’t know how Bill James knew this, but it’s a fun fact. The first two books make sense to me, but Don Baylor’s autobiography? It seems like a very random choice. However, Belanger and Baylor were teammates on the Orioles from 1970 to 1975, so maybe Belanger enjoyed revisiting his own glory days with the Orioles. I read Don Baylor’s autobiography when I was a little kid and I remember enjoying it, although I couldn’t tell you anything specific about it. It’s never been one of the top three books on my desk.

Katz presents the strike as something of a black and white struggle. It’s very clear he’s on the player’s side, rather than the owners. There’s nothing really wrong with that, but for Katz there cannot be a greedy player or a sympathetic owner, which robs the book of complexity.

Katz’s book would have improved with stronger editing. Some examples of awkward phrasing and sloppy writing are the following:

“{Bowie} Kuhn came from an immigrant background. Alice Waring Roberts’s family arrived in 1634, sailing from England to Maryland.” (p.23) Well, yes, we’re all immigrants, unless you’re Native American, but did Alice Waring Roberts’s arrival 292 years before Bowie Kuhn’s birth really have much of an impact on how he saw himself?

Katz describes Ted Simmons’ status as a “ten and five” man, meaning that he had been in the majors for ten years, and spent the last five years with the same team. As the St. Louis Cardinals wanted to trade Simmons to the Milwaukee Brewers, Katz writes that Simmons “had control of the situation.” (p.39) What Katz doesn’t tell us is that as a “ten and five” man, Simmons had the right to veto any attempt by the Cardinals to trade him. To understand the control Simmons had in that situation, you need to know that fact, which Katz doesn’t provide.

There are other passages that are much sharper, such as Katz writing that Cliff Johnson “looked like a giant walrus in cleats.” (p.59) Katz also does well chronicling the larger-than-life personalities of Billy Martin and George Steinbrenner: “Like Steinbrenner, Martin was unaware of irony.” (p.80) So true!

Unfortunately, Split Season: 1981 commits what I consider to be a fundamental error for a non-fiction book: there are no footnotes or endnotes. There’s a bibliography, but there’s no way to tell where quoted material comes from. I really don’t understand why major publishers allow non-fiction books to be published without footnotes or endnotes. I know, the majority of people don’t care, but the omission severely limits the usefulness of a book as a historical document.

[Ted Schultz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great stories from 1981

This book brought back a lot of memories from the split season of 1981. There were some very good details in the stories that I never knew. I didn’t care as much about the contract negotiations parts of the book. I read through those pretty quickly just so I could get to the stories when the teams were actually playing baseball.

[Tom Gase · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good read on the 1981 baseball season, one that saw two half's and two winners for each half of the season due to the strike. I liked the parts of this book where it talks about the teams and games being played, especially the last third of the book that talks about the playoffs and the Dodgers winning against the Yankees in the World Series. I really didn't enjoy the middle half of the book that talks about the labor talks, but I do admit it's well researched by author Jeff Katz and vital to the book. I just thought it went on too long. Condense it in half maybe. That being said, I did enjoy 2/3 of this book a lot. I recommend to anyone who is a baseball fan and especially ones that watched a lot on the 1980s. Also, on a side note, this book is written by the Mayor of Cooperstown? That's cool. Can I get a job at the Hall of Fame? LOL. Good stuff, looking to read more by this author in the future.

[Kek · Rating 4 out of 5]

No better motivation to move through a book quick than the author is on a podcast you listen to and you don't want spoilers! Great Memorial Day weekend going through this one, Jeff breaks down the ins and outs of the '81 strike from both the owners' and players' side. Then deftly moves to the ridiculous split season format they all agreed to that year. Excellent read!

[RICK "SHAQ" GOLDSTEIN · Rating 3 out of 5]

RICK “SHAQ” GOLDSTEIN SAYS: “A SPLIT STORY… BETWEEN BOREDOM IN THE NEGOTIATING ROOM… AND EXCITEMENT… OUT ON THE FIELD”
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“It was the worst of times… it was the best of times,

That’s the way many old-school baseball fans like myself will feel while reading this book about the turbulent baseball “strike-year” of 1981. A season that started with a monster contract for Yankee Dave Winfield… along with a story… that if it was written for Hollywood… would not… could not… have been believed… but it truly proved for the umpteenth time… that truth… is stranger than fiction!!!

It was **FERNANDOMANIA**… and it captured the entire nation… when a youngster by the name of Fernando Valenzuela… out of the smallest… and poorest part of Mexico… became more than an unbeatable pitcher... leading the Los Angeles Dodgers to the World Championship... he also became… a dream too unbelievable… to possibly come true… even in the world capital of fairytales… Hollywood, California, U.S.A.! Fernando tied all-time shutout records… he inconceivably won *BOTH THE ROOKIE OF THE YEAR AWARD-AND-THE CY YOUNG AWARD-SIGNIFYING THE BEST PITCHER IN THE LEAGUE FOR THE YEAR!*. More than that he pitched complete games with large pitch counts… he never wavered… even when facing what looked like certain defeat... even in the biggest of games… in the World Series. And if you want to add a cherry on top… of a giant cake of dreams… he actually looked up to the heavens themselves… in the middle of each pitch!

The baseball strike that halted the National Pastime for 49 days… as described in excruciatingly… bone numbing detail herein… is the polar opposite of the “rush” created with split season pennant races… playoffs… and World Series. As much hatred… disgust… and… loss of some of the childhood innocence of our once great game… that still lives within true baseball fans that lived through that era… reading about the negotiations… Ad Nauseam… is like fingernails on a blackboard… unless… I suppose you’re a legal groupie. The representatives on both sides… especially the one key figure… who was actually supposed to be in the middle… Commissioner Bowie Kuhn… is especially painted as a bigger clown than Bozo.

When the story… mercifully… gets back to the second half of the season… the story moves back and forth… like a ping pong ball on speed… and a baseball enthusiast is breathing once again on the edge of their seat… as compared to begging for a cyanide pill… to ease the pain of the monotonous labor negotiations.

There are some great and touching moments that hit you out of the blue… such as when Tommy John’s infant son… falls out of a window… and almost dies after being in a coma… and when pitcher Rich Gale working as a bartender at a Kansas City hotel during the strike… and the human toll… as a walkway/catwalk collapses during a busy event… makes the reader and the participants… forget all about baseball… before… during… or… after… the strike… and simply… appreciate… the absolute frailty… of our human experience.

One baseball moment that was pure gold to an “old-school-baseball-fanatic” like myself was the following story regarding Sandy Koufax who had retired in 1966… pitching batting practice to the Dodgers before the 3rd game of the 1981 World Series against the Yankees… with the Dodgers down 2 games to none:

“On the mound was Koufax, 45, who had returned to the organization in 1979 as a roving pitching instructor. Koufax, the pitcher of his era, the symbol of Los Angeles Dodgers’ success, had retired at age 30 to preserve his damaged arm into his old age. Garvey, Baker, and Cey stepped in to face the still lean left-hander. Looking as if he’d never left his home on the mound. He threw 11 pitches, all swings, all misses. Fastballs entered the batting cage; none came out until Guerrero got up and took one deep into the stands. Garvey stepped back in and flipped his wrist, requesting a curve. Koufax obliged with A KNEE TREMBLER THAT DROPPED FROM 12 TO 6. AGAIN, GARVEY, BAKER, AND CEY MISSED OR, IF LUCKY FOULED OFF 13 MORE PITCHES. Embarrassed looks were exchanged. The Dodgers hitters, less than an hour from taking the field, were becoming demoralized in a series in which they were already down 2-0.”

“A Dodgers coach ran out to the hill and said something to Koufax, who nodded his head, realizing that what he’d been doing wouldn’t do. He walked off the mound and a new BP pitcher grooved pitches in an attempt to rebuild a shattered lineup.”

[Budd Bailey · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author of the book "Split Season: 1981," has another job. Jeff Katz, it seems, was the mayor of Cooperstown, N.Y., at the time of publication. If that doesn't put a smile on your face for a moment, you're in the wrong place.

Hizzoner already has one book to his credit, the story of the Kansas City Athletics in the days when they traded the stars to the New York Yankees for basically the Yankees' leftover scraps from the dinner table. The former day trader has raised the stakes here by taking on the story of an entire calendar year, and he covers it nicely.

For those older than, say, 45, the 1981 season was unique. It was the first "mid-course correction" from the path of free agency that the sport entered after the 1976 season with the Peter Seitz decision and the ensuing collective agreement between players and owners. The players saw their salaries go up in the years after free agency, while the owners and their representatives complained about increased costs.

The players were ready to strike in 1980 over a proposal to introduce compensation into the system, something that would have restricted movement from team to team. The two sides agreed on everything but compensation in talks about a collective bargaining agreement in the summer of that year, and agreed to study the matter together for a while. Sadly, the two sides remained entrenched in those decisions, with little actual bargain taking place for months.

By 1981, a walkout seemed likely, and the players used a tactic that hadn't been unveiled before - the midseason strike. That way, the players already had some paychecks in the bank, and the owners were looking at missing games in the summer when crowds were bigger. The Summer Game took much of that summer off. There were the usual legal moves that comes with the territory, as well as a variety of combinations of negotiators as everyone searched for a solution. Finally, the two sides came up with a settlement - a compensation plan that was so bad and ineffective for reducing costs that the owners dropped it the first chance they had.

Katz does his best work here on the strike, having talked to many of the principals involved and doing good research. The settlement really did mean that free agency was here to stay, and thus the story has some historical impact. It's valuable to have the tale all in one place. One warning for what it's worth: Katz is decidedly on the side of the players, as owners' negotiator Ray Grebey and commissioner Bowie Kuhn get pounded here. They probably deserve it. It's difficult for anyone to be on the owners' side in this one, especially because they had been so arrogant in the past and didn't handle the new relationship with the players well. Still, the author's point of view does come across loud and clear, which is worth noting if you prefer your history to be a little more even-handed.

The rest of the coverage of the year features the unusual season, split into two parts. The story has a little trouble generating much momentum, in part because the season never did have much momentum. Fernando Valenzuela really got off to a remarkable start with the Dodgers; it's easy to wonder what might have happened to him had the season been played in its entirety.

However, Katz's tale gets back on track with the postseason, which features fewer moving parts and no distractions. The Yankees contributed with their usual hijinks of the era; the stories of disharmony mixed with victory remain as astonishing now as they were then. We even got a good World Series between two very high-profile teams.

Most of the value of "Split Season" will come from the strike coverage, but those looking for a quick lesson in the season itself will find this satisfying.

And, by the way - the former prime minister of Canada wrote a very good hockey history book a while back. Maybe sports books have become a launching pad for political hopes.

[Kev Willoughby · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good pick to read during the current summer of no-baseball, as the 2020 season has a lot in common with the 1981 season: no live games on TV, news outlets trying to be creative in writing stories to keep fans interested in lieu of games, and plenty of strife between the owners and the players.

The best parts of this book were the storylines of the players and the teams both before and after the strike of 1981: The Red Sox dismantling their team in the previous off-season, Fernandomania in Los Angeles, the rise of Winfield and the fall of Reggie in New York, Pete Rose (then of the Phillies) chasing the NL career hits record of Stan Musial, the young Expos playing at a championship caliber with Dawson, Raines, and Carter leading the way, Nolan Ryan throwing a record-breaking fifth career no-hitter, Cal Ripken, Jr. on the verge of his major league debut, Manager Billy Martin and five stud pitchers bringing glory back to Oakland, the hapless Cubs sold by Wrigley to the Tribune Company, Reinsdorf buying the White Sox, the Brewers' fans boycotting the team's first ever playoff appearance, and the best team in baseball (Cincinnati Reds) not even making the playoffs.

I wish there had been more of these storylines (they were very, very good) and less about the labor-management strife. Although the story of 1981 cannot be told without it, this book really gets into the weeds and is much more information than most fans will enjoy, especially in written form. Too many arguments, finger-pointing, misinformation, and endless quotes and transcripts of seemingly every heated meeting.

I'm not sure I would even want to watch a documentary of everything that happened behind the scenes between the owners and the players in 1981. The book is also pro-player and anti-owners and makes no attempt to present a balanced view. Even the dedication in the beginning of the book is to the players, although it is interesting to consider that no one collects baseball cards of owners! The bottom line is that most fans are turned off by discord between owners and players, regardless of who is actually more at fault than the other party, and this book is heavily tilted towards exhaustive accounts of the discord. The actual baseball though, before and after the strike, was very good and is worth the read. I think the book does a great job of capturing the frustration of the season as a whole, from start to finish.

[Jason M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

1981 was the season I first became aware of baseball, mostly because of its absence during the strike and my father's conversations with neighbors about the lack of Phil Rizzuto on TV. The Yankees made the World Series that year (spoiler alert) and I have vivid memories of my father's frustrations with Bob Lemon's managing choices (like Barry Foote making the last out of a Game 5 loss) as the Yanks fell to the hated (in our house) L.A. Dodgers. It took me a little too long to get to this book, but it's a good overview of the season both on and off the field, with splashes of Dan Epstein-style wry humor regarding certain events.

Some of the material has been covered elsewhere, such as in "Blue Monday" or in Erik Sherman's later book about Fernandomania, so I found myself skimming through a lot of the game summaries, particularly concerning the Dodgers' playoff games.

The real value in the book, about half the content, concerns the infamous owner-induced players' strike which wiped 50 days' worth of games off the schedule, and which triggered the split-season format and a (financially unsuccessful) third round of playoffs -- the new normal since 1995, but in 1981 a sad outlier which resulted in serious anomalies in the league standings. Author Katz has a wonderfully acidic view of the owners' factions, actions, and inaction, with particular scorn heaped upon the loathsome commissioner Bowie Kuhn. The players' side -- union executive director Marvin Miller, and the key player reps -- comes across much better, as they attempt to prevent the owners' from gutting the then-fairly new institution of free agency.

For those of us who came of age in baseball fandom in the early '80s, this book is an essential text. For younger fans who weren't around yet in 1981, this is a good overview of how baseball used to be, and, sadly, how it will never be again.

[Zach Koenig · Rating 4 out of 5]

In large part due to being born in 1985, I have a bit of a blind spot for 1980s baseball history. The 60s and 70s are still largely considered “classic eras” of baseball, but I feel as if the 80s had to be lived through in order to truly appreciate. “Split Season: 1981” really helped me fill in those gaps, especially as they pertained to the first few years of the decade.

For a basic overview, this book is pretty much split (much like its title and subject matter) into two interweaving narratives. On one hand, author Jeff Katz details the ’81 season that played out on the field. On the other, he delves into the history behind the labor strike that wiped out a sizeable portion of the middle of the season.

Regarding the “on the field” material, Katz is as good of a baseball writer as I’ve read. His description of the Steinbrenner Yankees, Lasorda Dodgers, the odd split-playoff format (necessitate by the long strike) and all the other relevant points of that season are gripping to read.

The “strike stuff” was also quite enlightening. It can get a bit dry and hard to follow without a law degree in-hand, but Katz does a remarkable job of summing it all up in the end. I really feel like I understand that conflict much better now than I did coming into the book, and I think that’s the overall goal.

All in all, “Split Season” was a solid baseball history tome. I can’t quite give it the full 5-stars for purely subjective reasons (labor/union scholars might be able to), but this was an interesting read that filled in a lot of gaps for me in terms of that era of the national pastime.

[Daniel Suhajda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the baseball part of the book but about half the book was about the negotiations between the players union vs the owners. I learned a lot about what prompted the strike. Free Agency was causing skyrocketing contracts because the owners couldn’t help themselves. So they tried to penalize teams that signed free agents by making them have to give up someone on their roster. They were only able to protect a certain number of players. Ironically the owners bought strike insurance but they were the only ones that could cause the strike. Talk about a conflict of interest! In real life, the Mets left Tom terrific unprotected around 1983 so the White Sox were able to nab him when the Mets signed on of theirs. (Lamp I think). Seaver was pissed and the Sox were thrilled because they could never have gotten Seaver for Lamp straight up. Unfortunately there was too much minutiae regarding the back and forth in the negotiations. Who really cares. Make a book just about that if you like! Like most people, I usually feel bitter towards the players who are striking since we know how much they are making and our salaries pale by comparison. But I think that is because we never hear how much the owners make. In the book they talk about how the players union wanted the owners to open their books since the owners claimed free agency was causing them financial ruin. But the owners never would. I think we know why. Plus if given the choice between who gets mor money, your favorite player or some owner whose name you may not even know, I think most would chose the guy they root for or watch.

[mark d haft · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love most baseball books that cover a period when I was a kid(12) and remember all the players. This book is no different. I enjoyed all the baseball content and found it interesting and informative. The author had some good behind the scenes. Especially when it came to the Yankees and how dysfunctional Steinbrenner was. I also liked how he intermingled historical events that were going on during the season. What I didn't really like was the details that he went into about the strike. The strike was certainly a big deal and the players were important (Marvin Miller, Bowie Kuhn, Grebey, ect) but I found that part of the book uninteresting and thought it could have been covered in a more succinct manner. I couldn't wait for the strike to be over so I could get back to the baseball. Overall, I did enjoy the book and would recommend it to baseball fans of that era. I would consider reading it again down the road but would skip the middle part about the strike.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Much like a split season, this is a split book. Katz starts describing the 1981 season, mixes in some backstory about the current labor situation, and then about 1/3 of the way through, the book shifts to full-on strike coverage. The strike ends, the season resumes, and so does the baseball coverage. I think Katz does a better job describing the labor talks than the baseball. Still, the end of the season was exciting, and the baseball is fun.

[The Master · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well-researched recap of the first baseball season I really "followed" as a kid. I had no idea that the split season format happened because of a players strike (I was very young) so I thought that all baseball seasons went like this. Soon learned otherwise. Katz has put together a great look back at a unique year in MLB history.

[Stu Campbell · Rating 5 out of 5]

A well written, well researched history of the 1981 baseball season. Not only do you get the events of the season (and the unique strike induced split season format), but an easy to digest look at the strike, its effects and all the players. Very good baseball book written by a guy who, at the time of writing, was the mayor of Cooperstown.....couldn't have been better

[Chris Dean · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book. Immaculately researched and well presented account of a very difficult subject to explain; the labor issues of the game in 1981. In addition, all cultural aspects of the game in this time are covered and all the major events.

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Breezy read with a lot of stories from the 1981 season that I didn't remember. (Hey, I was 10.) Excellent coverage of the strike and all that surrounded it -- a good refresher as we head into the 2021 CBA negotiations.

[Adamdaigle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bowie Kuhn was really an awful commissioner. And if this author is accurate (and I have no reason to doubt that he is), he was an insufferable person in general -- a perfect match for many owners at that time.

[Dean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Katz does a great job of keeping things in the perspective and context of the times. As someone who was just really getting into baseball at that time, I had my heart broken by that strike. But getting the behind the scenes story was very valuable!

[LG Rice · Rating 2 out of 5]

Kinda disappointed. The on field portions were done well but it felt like the author was VERY biased against the owners & the Commissioner. I don’t doubt their failures but it did not feel like a very objective account of the labor issues.

[John Streit · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting in parts. Enjoyed how the author wove current cultural milestones of the time into what was happening. The minutiae of game by game moments across multiple teams was a little much for me.

[Frank Ogden · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good book on the strike of MLB players, caused a major uproar in basEBALL.

[Craig McGraw · Rating 3 out of 5]

The best part of the book is the section about the strike. A good preface to Jon Pessah’s The Game

[Willj_1984 · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you like labor relations and contract negotiations then have i got a book for you

[Michael Battista · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Strike

As a 14 year old I was just pissed there was no baseball like 1994 and 2020 do you find out how great of a game that it is

[Randy Wojtasiak · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too much about the strike and not enough about the baseball.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Deep drive down into the weeds of the causes of the 1981 players' strike and its resulting split season of baseball.

[Pablo · Rating 5 out of 5]

👍👍