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Dynastic, Bombastic, Fantastic: Reggie, Rollie, Catfish, and Charlie Finley's Swingin' A's
“An exciting and engrossing book. . . . will engage fans of Charlie O. Finley and the Oakland Athletics, along with anyone captivated by baseball history.” —Library Journal, starred review The Oakland A’s of the early 1970 Never before had an entire organization so collectively traumatized baseball’s establishment with its outlandish behavior and business decisions. The high drama that played out on the field—five straight division titles and three straight championships—was exceeded only by the drama in the clubhouse and front office.Under the visionary leadership of owner Charles O. Finley, the team assembled such luminary figures as Reggie Jackson, Catfish Hunter, Rollie Fingers, and Vida Blue, and with garish uniforms and revolutionary facial hair, knocked baseball into the modern age. Finley’s need for control—he was his own general manager and dictated everything from the ballpark organist’s playlist to the menu for the media lounge—made him ill-suited for the advent of free agency. Within two years, his dynasty was lost.A history of one of the game’s most unforgettable teams, Dynastic, Bombastic, Fantastic is a paean to the sport’s most turbulent, magical team, during one of major league baseball’s most turbulent, magical times.“Masterfully recounts a thrilling period in Oakland A’s history.” —Billy Beane, executive vice president of baseball operations, Oakland A’s“Not to be believed, and yet 100 percent true.” —Steve Fainaru, senior writer for ESPN and author of League of Denial “A must-read for any fan of the sport.” —Chris Ballard, Sports Illustrated senior writer and author of One Shot at Forever“Carefully researched and often hilarious.” —San Francisco Chronicle“A chance to relive a period of outlandish moments in America’s pastime.” —Publishers Weekly
413 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2017
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November 5, 2017
Baseball season has come to a close, and with over one hundred days until pitchers and catchers report for spring training, any baseball fan will admit to experiencing withdrawal symptoms. The last two world series champions have all the making of becoming modern dynasties, each with a full complement of young players who could man their positions for the next ten years or more. With these champions set to have an impact on the baseball landscape over the coming decade, the baseball book group selected as for November a choice about a dynasty in years past, Dynastic, Bombastic, Fantastic: Reggie, Rollie, Catfish, and Charlie Finley’s Swingin’ A’s by Jason Turbow. In a step back to the early 1970s, Jason Turbow takes his readers to a time when a young, brash team of infighters ruled the baseball world.
Charles Oscar Finley was an accomplished Indiana farmer turned business and salesman. Using his won't take no for an answer attitude, he quickly rose in ranks in the sales community and decided to start his own insurance company. While his attitude earned him a small fortune, Finley did not have the one thing he desired- a baseball team. On two occasions he submitted bids to buy the Kansas City A's and on two occasions he was rejected by the baseball establishment, primarily because he would not relocate to Kansas City from Indiana despite promises to do so. Finally, in 1964 he got the opening he dreamed of when the owner of the A's suddenly passed away. With no other bidders available, baseball has no choice but to sell the team to Finley. Instantaneously, he made his impact felt around the baseball world by implementing promotions such as half price night, farmer days complete with goats, hens, and pigs, and introducing a mule named Charles O as the new team mascot. While these promotions did not translate into winning years or increased attendance, Finley had placed himself on the baseball map.
The year 1965 brought baseball its first high school draft, and Finley and his team of scouts selected the first of players who would play a prominent role in the championship years. Players such as Sal Bando, Catfish Hunter, and Rollie Fingers as well as superstar in the making Reggie Jackson and Gene Tenace all either started in the minors or Kansas City, developing their championship caliber. Then, in 1968 Finley moved the A's to Oakland, citing that attendance in Kansas City could not support a major league team. While other owners did not like the idea of Finley moving his team on a whim, he strong armed enough of his colleagues to get what he wanted, and brought his team to the Bay Area. Attendance at the Oakland Coliseum never reached one million fans in a single year, but Finley had successfully moved his team to the location that he desired.
Turbow paints a picture of Finley as a ruthless, self-centered owner who did not care a lick for his players. He ran through managers like they were water and made Yankees' iron fisted owner George Steinbrenner look like a saint. Finally, in 1971, when the core of the dynastic team was intact, Finley selected Dick Williams to run the A's. Williams and Finley never saw eye to eye, and, by running his team in the manner that he desired, Williams immediately gained the respect of his players, who had been berated by Finley for years. Trading for pitcher Ken Holtzman following the 1971 season to augment a thin staff, the A's were finally starting to resemble a team that would have championship potential.
The team bonded due to a shared dislike of Finley. He undervalued his players and paid them well below the league average. This included players like Jackson who won the league MVP award and Hunter, the ace of the pitching staff who finished in the top five vote getters for the Cy Young award for five years in a row. Even though the players detested their owner, the diverse personalities on the team lead to infighting, injuries, and a swagger that made them go. Jackson, Bando, second baseman Dick Green, and Tenace all thought of themselves as team leaders. So did pitchers Vida Blue, Hunter, and Blue Moon Odom. The team bonded over bridge games, the Munich Olympic massacre, and whenever Finley mistreated a player. Fighting in the locker room happened at least twice a season, but it made the team go, and players admitting that they would not be the A's at their best if they did not fight and add fuel to their fire.
While the A's national league opponents in the world series thought of them as lucky, it was the Oakland team with three staff aces and a dominant closer in Fingers who walked away with three straight championships. Finley assumed that the team would stay intact for a decade, but after mistreating and undervaluing his stars, the top ten players were either traded or became free agents following the 1975 season. By 1977 the A's finished in last place and would not contend for the championship for another decade when they were under new ownership and had a new crop of star players. Yet, despite Finley's personality, the A's teams of the early 1970s played with such swagger and bravado that they managed to win multiple championships in spite of his shortcomings.
Whether the last two world series champions evolve into modern dynasties remains to be seen. Both appear to be made of championship mettle and should be fun to watch for the years to come. Perhaps one will be a throwback to the early 1970s A's teams that rivaled the Big Red Machine for title of best team of the decade. Jason Turbow's book was well researched and fun to read about a team full of internal strife at a time when the nation also experienced turmoil. With baseball withdrawal now in full swing, it was a welcome respite to read about the dynastic and bombastic Oakland A's.
4+ stars
Charles Oscar Finley was an accomplished Indiana farmer turned business and salesman. Using his won't take no for an answer attitude, he quickly rose in ranks in the sales community and decided to start his own insurance company. While his attitude earned him a small fortune, Finley did not have the one thing he desired- a baseball team. On two occasions he submitted bids to buy the Kansas City A's and on two occasions he was rejected by the baseball establishment, primarily because he would not relocate to Kansas City from Indiana despite promises to do so. Finally, in 1964 he got the opening he dreamed of when the owner of the A's suddenly passed away. With no other bidders available, baseball has no choice but to sell the team to Finley. Instantaneously, he made his impact felt around the baseball world by implementing promotions such as half price night, farmer days complete with goats, hens, and pigs, and introducing a mule named Charles O as the new team mascot. While these promotions did not translate into winning years or increased attendance, Finley had placed himself on the baseball map.
The year 1965 brought baseball its first high school draft, and Finley and his team of scouts selected the first of players who would play a prominent role in the championship years. Players such as Sal Bando, Catfish Hunter, and Rollie Fingers as well as superstar in the making Reggie Jackson and Gene Tenace all either started in the minors or Kansas City, developing their championship caliber. Then, in 1968 Finley moved the A's to Oakland, citing that attendance in Kansas City could not support a major league team. While other owners did not like the idea of Finley moving his team on a whim, he strong armed enough of his colleagues to get what he wanted, and brought his team to the Bay Area. Attendance at the Oakland Coliseum never reached one million fans in a single year, but Finley had successfully moved his team to the location that he desired.
Turbow paints a picture of Finley as a ruthless, self-centered owner who did not care a lick for his players. He ran through managers like they were water and made Yankees' iron fisted owner George Steinbrenner look like a saint. Finally, in 1971, when the core of the dynastic team was intact, Finley selected Dick Williams to run the A's. Williams and Finley never saw eye to eye, and, by running his team in the manner that he desired, Williams immediately gained the respect of his players, who had been berated by Finley for years. Trading for pitcher Ken Holtzman following the 1971 season to augment a thin staff, the A's were finally starting to resemble a team that would have championship potential.
The team bonded due to a shared dislike of Finley. He undervalued his players and paid them well below the league average. This included players like Jackson who won the league MVP award and Hunter, the ace of the pitching staff who finished in the top five vote getters for the Cy Young award for five years in a row. Even though the players detested their owner, the diverse personalities on the team lead to infighting, injuries, and a swagger that made them go. Jackson, Bando, second baseman Dick Green, and Tenace all thought of themselves as team leaders. So did pitchers Vida Blue, Hunter, and Blue Moon Odom. The team bonded over bridge games, the Munich Olympic massacre, and whenever Finley mistreated a player. Fighting in the locker room happened at least twice a season, but it made the team go, and players admitting that they would not be the A's at their best if they did not fight and add fuel to their fire.
While the A's national league opponents in the world series thought of them as lucky, it was the Oakland team with three staff aces and a dominant closer in Fingers who walked away with three straight championships. Finley assumed that the team would stay intact for a decade, but after mistreating and undervaluing his stars, the top ten players were either traded or became free agents following the 1975 season. By 1977 the A's finished in last place and would not contend for the championship for another decade when they were under new ownership and had a new crop of star players. Yet, despite Finley's personality, the A's teams of the early 1970s played with such swagger and bravado that they managed to win multiple championships in spite of his shortcomings.
Whether the last two world series champions evolve into modern dynasties remains to be seen. Both appear to be made of championship mettle and should be fun to watch for the years to come. Perhaps one will be a throwback to the early 1970s A's teams that rivaled the Big Red Machine for title of best team of the decade. Jason Turbow's book was well researched and fun to read about a team full of internal strife at a time when the nation also experienced turmoil. With baseball withdrawal now in full swing, it was a welcome respite to read about the dynastic and bombastic Oakland A's.
4+ stars
April 23, 2023
1970s baseball was epic! Colorful teams and legendary players abounded. The game was in flux — the rising importance of the relief pitcher and base stealers, and the introduction of the DH in the American League changed the game on the field, while the growing power of the Players Union, strikes, arbitration, and the looming end of the reserve clause were transforming the game’s fundamental structure off of it. And no single team more dominated or better represented this mercurial era than Charlie Finley’s Swinging A’s.
Dynastic, Bombastic, Fantastic chronicles the entire period of Charlie O. Finley’s ownership of the A’s, from his purchase of the team in 1961 to his unloading it in 1980. But its focus is concentrated on their dynastic years in the 1970s. From 1971 through 1975 the A’s had a brilliant run of five Divisional titles and three straight World Series Championships. During those years, the Swinging A’s also led baseball’s cultural transformation, with loud, colorful uniforms, contentious and public team brawls, and scandalous long locks and facial hair.
Jason Turbow dives deep into just what made this team tick. He presents biographies of many of the players, not just stars like Reggie Jackson, Jim Hunter, Vida Blue, and Campy Campaneris, but solid team players like Dick Green, and odd role players like Herb Washington. Most importantly, he thoroughly examines eccentric, bombastic owner Charlie Finley. Finley drives the story of the A’s — innovative and brilliant as he was contentious and narcissistic. He was both the indispensable architect of the team, and the force that eventually destroyed it, and Dynastic, Bombastic, Fantastic is as much his story as it is the story of his legendary team.
Dynastic, Bombastic, Fantastic chronicles the entire period of Charlie O. Finley’s ownership of the A’s, from his purchase of the team in 1961 to his unloading it in 1980. But its focus is concentrated on their dynastic years in the 1970s. From 1971 through 1975 the A’s had a brilliant run of five Divisional titles and three straight World Series Championships. During those years, the Swinging A’s also led baseball’s cultural transformation, with loud, colorful uniforms, contentious and public team brawls, and scandalous long locks and facial hair.
Jason Turbow dives deep into just what made this team tick. He presents biographies of many of the players, not just stars like Reggie Jackson, Jim Hunter, Vida Blue, and Campy Campaneris, but solid team players like Dick Green, and odd role players like Herb Washington. Most importantly, he thoroughly examines eccentric, bombastic owner Charlie Finley. Finley drives the story of the A’s — innovative and brilliant as he was contentious and narcissistic. He was both the indispensable architect of the team, and the force that eventually destroyed it, and Dynastic, Bombastic, Fantastic is as much his story as it is the story of his legendary team.
September 9, 2025
Turbow’s book on the 1981 Dodgers was fantastic so I decided to check this out
Turbow will tell you that the early 1970s Oakland As are forgotten. In some ways, I don’t think that is true. But that may be that three World Series wins in a row didn’t look like the rare feat that it is five decades later. Also owner Charlie O Finley has such a personality he will never quite be forgotten.
Still, he’s got a point. This group should probably be as feted as much as the late 70s Yankees. I am a baseball diehard but I doubt the team is highly recognizable outside my ilk.
Finley is too colorful to fade away. His ideas revolutionized the game, except when they were too crazy. Designated Hitters. Designated Runners. Orange baseballs. Mule mascots. Gold and Green uniforms. Payouts for players who grew mustaches. World Series games held at night. A mechanical rabbit that took new baseballs to the home plate umpire. Offering money to Vida Blue to change his first name to True.
Finley would hire track star Herb Washington who would play 105 games as a pinch runner- never batting or fielding. Taking up a roster spot and making loads of money for doing one thing, he was often the subject of jealousy from the other players.
This book is about Finley as much as it is about this incredible team. It almost has to be.
Non baseball fans best know the As as the team in Moneyball. A team that had success only because they had to get creative with their small budget. As I write this, the As are playing in Sacramento- having left Oakland but not yet finalizing a move to Las Vegas.
Finley seems to be the root of the problem. He moved the team from Kansas City on a seeming whim to the Bay Area which already had the San Francisco Giants. But like so much about Finley, his promotion habits in Oakland seem like the stuff of Hollywood comedies.
He doesn’t advertise. He doesn’t make nice with the local press. All the ‘Marketing 101’ kind of things people would normally do,he seemed to ignore. Finally, when his team was the best in the world, they still couldn’t fill the stands. It’s as if you don’t water the roots, the tree won’t grow.
Like so much about Finley, it’s not all bad. For one, he scouts such incredible talent to assemble this amazing team on the cheap. But he does so much by himself. Trivia buffs know MC Hammer was the team’s batboy but he also as an inexperienced teenager, became one of Finley’s top staff members. A kid running a Major League Baseball team is the stuff of Hollywood comedies but it was true.
Eccentric millionaires hit different now, but Finley still stands out as being outstandingly and comically cheap. Unfortunately for him, his time coordinated with the rise of free agency. Finley simply didn’t pay his players. It was a recipe for disaster. Finley actually came up with some creative ways for the owners to get over on underpaying players. They are schemes that likely would have been adopted,but he wasn’t really liked by his peers either
The As at their best are still something out of Hollywood. There are always internal fights. Surely owner/manager, owner/player and player/manager tensions don’t help- but weirdly it seems like when they are fighting, they are winning. A most unlikely sight is that after winning two championships in a row, manager Dick Williams decides to leave the team. (This follows the weird story of Mike Andrews who was forced by Finley to forge an affidavit to say he was injured- that’s an aside you should look up).
The good players choose not to say. That should not be a surprise. Finley is intent on dumping salary. Even forcing the commissioner of baseball to invoke “the best interest of baseball” clause when Finley seems to be willing to give away players for cash.
The A’s successful run could only last so long. In hindsight- the careers that follow shows the team could easily have been an ongoing dynasty. Reggie Jackson and Catfish Hunter end up going to the Yankees and their back to back 77/78 World Series wins. Rollie Fingers would win an MVP in 1981 and a pennant with the Brewers in 1982. Younger As players like Phil Garner, Don Baylor and Claudell Washington would surely have continued to keep the team competitive had they not been shipped off
The epilogue fills in the lives of the players after the Oakland As. Finley’s life post-baseball is a downward spiral. He had caused to many problems and could not out run them.
This was a really enjoyable book with colorful characters and I am not sure that classic team has been covered in this much detail so it would definitely be worthwhile to the baseball fan interested in them.
Turbow will tell you that the early 1970s Oakland As are forgotten. In some ways, I don’t think that is true. But that may be that three World Series wins in a row didn’t look like the rare feat that it is five decades later. Also owner Charlie O Finley has such a personality he will never quite be forgotten.
Still, he’s got a point. This group should probably be as feted as much as the late 70s Yankees. I am a baseball diehard but I doubt the team is highly recognizable outside my ilk.
Finley is too colorful to fade away. His ideas revolutionized the game, except when they were too crazy. Designated Hitters. Designated Runners. Orange baseballs. Mule mascots. Gold and Green uniforms. Payouts for players who grew mustaches. World Series games held at night. A mechanical rabbit that took new baseballs to the home plate umpire. Offering money to Vida Blue to change his first name to True.
Finley would hire track star Herb Washington who would play 105 games as a pinch runner- never batting or fielding. Taking up a roster spot and making loads of money for doing one thing, he was often the subject of jealousy from the other players.
This book is about Finley as much as it is about this incredible team. It almost has to be.
Non baseball fans best know the As as the team in Moneyball. A team that had success only because they had to get creative with their small budget. As I write this, the As are playing in Sacramento- having left Oakland but not yet finalizing a move to Las Vegas.
Finley seems to be the root of the problem. He moved the team from Kansas City on a seeming whim to the Bay Area which already had the San Francisco Giants. But like so much about Finley, his promotion habits in Oakland seem like the stuff of Hollywood comedies.
He doesn’t advertise. He doesn’t make nice with the local press. All the ‘Marketing 101’ kind of things people would normally do,he seemed to ignore. Finally, when his team was the best in the world, they still couldn’t fill the stands. It’s as if you don’t water the roots, the tree won’t grow.
Like so much about Finley, it’s not all bad. For one, he scouts such incredible talent to assemble this amazing team on the cheap. But he does so much by himself. Trivia buffs know MC Hammer was the team’s batboy but he also as an inexperienced teenager, became one of Finley’s top staff members. A kid running a Major League Baseball team is the stuff of Hollywood comedies but it was true.
Eccentric millionaires hit different now, but Finley still stands out as being outstandingly and comically cheap. Unfortunately for him, his time coordinated with the rise of free agency. Finley simply didn’t pay his players. It was a recipe for disaster. Finley actually came up with some creative ways for the owners to get over on underpaying players. They are schemes that likely would have been adopted,but he wasn’t really liked by his peers either
The As at their best are still something out of Hollywood. There are always internal fights. Surely owner/manager, owner/player and player/manager tensions don’t help- but weirdly it seems like when they are fighting, they are winning. A most unlikely sight is that after winning two championships in a row, manager Dick Williams decides to leave the team. (This follows the weird story of Mike Andrews who was forced by Finley to forge an affidavit to say he was injured- that’s an aside you should look up).
The good players choose not to say. That should not be a surprise. Finley is intent on dumping salary. Even forcing the commissioner of baseball to invoke “the best interest of baseball” clause when Finley seems to be willing to give away players for cash.
The A’s successful run could only last so long. In hindsight- the careers that follow shows the team could easily have been an ongoing dynasty. Reggie Jackson and Catfish Hunter end up going to the Yankees and their back to back 77/78 World Series wins. Rollie Fingers would win an MVP in 1981 and a pennant with the Brewers in 1982. Younger As players like Phil Garner, Don Baylor and Claudell Washington would surely have continued to keep the team competitive had they not been shipped off
The epilogue fills in the lives of the players after the Oakland As. Finley’s life post-baseball is a downward spiral. He had caused to many problems and could not out run them.
This was a really enjoyable book with colorful characters and I am not sure that classic team has been covered in this much detail so it would definitely be worthwhile to the baseball fan interested in them.
October 31, 2017
This is one of the best baseball books I have ever read. It's about one of the most underappreciated teams in baseball history, and the owner whose management style somehow brought out the best in his players. History has recorded those 70's years as perhaps the most turbulent years any team has ever undergone. The A's were a team that was better than its individual parts. They argued, belittled one another, needled, and on occasions physically fought one another. There was no team leader, although Sal Bando had been a captain. In their own way, they were all team leaders keeping one another accountable for their play on the field. Charlie O. Finley built the team, and his narcissism created the glue that held those individual players together so that their common enemy was not always their opponents, but rather their own "Owner". For five years, despite poor pay, poor field conditions, poor travel accommodations, and a penny pinching pathologically controlling owner, those A's won three World Championships in a row and five division championships. But Finley's indifference and bald faced lies to the players as well as free agency led to a free fall in the standings that could only be cured with new ownership. Finley was innovative but his need for power and his ownership style of micromanaging everything about the team eventually alienated everyone. When he died only two of his former employees attended his funeral. Jason Turbow captures all of those years in this terrific book that confirms the stories you have heard about the battling A's. Finley so incensed his team that they twice threatened to boycott a world series game(Mike Andrews affair) and to strike(sale of Joe Rudi et.al.) during the season. The seasons are well illustrated and the nature of the players and owner are artfully depicted. This is a wonderful look back into time before Andy Messersmith and Dave McNally changed the game by winning their free agency; a time when an owner could manipulate, control, and paradoxically become a rallying cry for his players to achieve greatness.
September 17, 2022
I don't watch baseball as much as I used to. (I think it cuts into my reading time too much.) But I still enjoy reading about baseball and the ins and outs of the game. The game has a fascinating history and has a lot in common with military or political campaigns.
Baseball in the 1960s and 1970s must've been a wild ride! I really feel sorry for baseball players pre-unions and free agents and arbitration. Baseball owners could be an evil and mendacious lot. The things that happened were hilarious and tragic. Much like the game!
Baseball in the 1960s and 1970s must've been a wild ride! I really feel sorry for baseball players pre-unions and free agents and arbitration. Baseball owners could be an evil and mendacious lot. The things that happened were hilarious and tragic. Much like the game!
June 24, 2025
This book recounts the rise and fall of the 1970s Oakland A’s, who won five consecutive division titles (1971-1975) and three straight World Series championships (1972-1974). It analyzes the chaotic era of Charlie O. Finley. He was an eccentric owner who liked to call the shots and caused a lot of friction in the clubhouse. It features players such as Sal Bando, Vida Blue, Bert Campaneris, Mike Epstein, Rollie Fingers, Ken Holtzman, Catfish Hunter, Reggie Jackson, Blue Moon Odom, and others, drawing on interviews and news reports. It relates the internal dysfunction faced by this colorful cast of characters.
I enjoyed the depiction of the tension between oversized egos and team performance, but there was a lot of fighting and feuding. It seems like a “dish the dirt” type of book, which is not my preference in sports reading. I picked it up as part of a challenge to read something about my nearest sports franchise. In my case, it is currently the “Sacramento” Athletics, formerly the Oakland A’s, soon to be relocated to Las Vegas. I am a San Francisco Giants fan, and A’s fans may enjoy it more than I did.
I enjoyed the depiction of the tension between oversized egos and team performance, but there was a lot of fighting and feuding. It seems like a “dish the dirt” type of book, which is not my preference in sports reading. I picked it up as part of a challenge to read something about my nearest sports franchise. In my case, it is currently the “Sacramento” Athletics, formerly the Oakland A’s, soon to be relocated to Las Vegas. I am a San Francisco Giants fan, and A’s fans may enjoy it more than I did.
September 10, 2017
Jason Turbow is masterful in covering one of the most under reported eras of baseball. Despite very balanced analysis, owner Charlie O. Finley comes out the destructive egomaniac who could have maintained a 4 or 5 year World Series swing, but seemingly got bored with success and so petulantly demolished the masterpiece. He had the $$ to sign top players when free agency raised its head after the'74 series, and he could have sold the team more or less intact once he could not afford to support a winner. Greed, however was/is a two-way street. The players’ attitude, once they knew of each other’s' salaries, went Richter. It was/is no longer an honor to play for a winner but an honor to have the higher salary, even if that means playing for a mediocre club or basement dweller.
If Finley thought he was a god, he was; he was Zeus zapping the peons who thrived on his powers but in the end getting hogtied by his own court, except for Charlie there was no hundred handed Briareus to unbind him. The hundred hands (the fans who rarely went to the Coliseum) just wanted to keep their boys on the East Bay instead of the East Coast and could not understand why ownership would not cough up. But glory being ignominiously dashed by Finley’s self-deluded lightening is what makes the A’s 72-74 run so magical, dreamlike actually.
Turbow noted many great plays, but the one that stands out most on print is the relay to throw out Buckner on third ('74 clinching game 5) after Billy North "Bucknered before Buckner Bucknered". It's got Reggie Jackson showing his defensive hustle and Dick Green conducting a frictionless relay. Green allows the backstopping right fielder's throw to pass right through him, as if melding into ether for the split second needed to reroute to third. If Finley was Zeus, Green--routinely setting up position where the ball almost always ended up (well before most of the sabermetric geeks of today were born)--was Zen.
If Finley thought he was a god, he was; he was Zeus zapping the peons who thrived on his powers but in the end getting hogtied by his own court, except for Charlie there was no hundred handed Briareus to unbind him. The hundred hands (the fans who rarely went to the Coliseum) just wanted to keep their boys on the East Bay instead of the East Coast and could not understand why ownership would not cough up. But glory being ignominiously dashed by Finley’s self-deluded lightening is what makes the A’s 72-74 run so magical, dreamlike actually.
Turbow noted many great plays, but the one that stands out most on print is the relay to throw out Buckner on third ('74 clinching game 5) after Billy North "Bucknered before Buckner Bucknered". It's got Reggie Jackson showing his defensive hustle and Dick Green conducting a frictionless relay. Green allows the backstopping right fielder's throw to pass right through him, as if melding into ether for the split second needed to reroute to third. If Finley was Zeus, Green--routinely setting up position where the ball almost always ended up (well before most of the sabermetric geeks of today were born)--was Zen.
March 14, 2017
http://www.themaineedge.com/sports/dy...
Spring is fast approaching, and with it comes the siren song of baseball.
Baseball has always been the American sport most conducive to literary exploration. Whether it’s fiction or nonfiction, no sport makes for a better book than baseball.
Some teams – the Boston Red Sox, the New York Yankees – have had more than their share of ink spilled upon them over the years. But that narrow focus means that some truly fascinating narratives haven’t really been told as thoroughly as perhaps they should have.
Thanks to a new book by author Jason Turbow, one particularly underappreciated team is receiving its due.
“Dynastic, Bombastic, Fantastic: Reggie, Rollie, Catfish, and Charlie Finley’s Swingin’ A’s” recounts the weird saga of the Oakland Athletics teams of the 1970s. Despite the fact that they had one of the most successful stretches in baseball history – three straight World Series titles in 1972, 1973 and 1974 – those A’s squads never really received the accolades their successes warranted.
Reggie Jackson, Rollie Fingers, Catfish Hunter – Hall of Famers all. And all of them came into their own as ballplayers in the garish green and gold of the Oakland A’s. Sal Bando, Gene Tenace, Bert Campaneris, Joe Rudi – phenomenal talents whose exceptional play made them key cogs on championship teams. Vida Blue, Blue Moon Odom, Ken Holtzman – volatile pitchers whose tempers off the mound matched their considerable talents on it.
These were the sprawling, brawling Oakland A’s of the 1970s. Perhaps no team in MLB history carried the sort of off-the-field dysfunction that this one did. Sniping in the press, locker room brawls – they were almost cartoonish in their inability to get along.
Yet even as they were at one another’s throats, one thing united them, the one thing that can almost always bring together even those of the greatest antipathy – a common foe. Even with their incredible stretch at the pinnacle of major league baseball, the Oakland A’s were a team that had just such a common foe - their owner, the eccentric Charles O. Finley.
Finley was despised by just about everyone in baseball. His fellow owners hated him. His players loathed him. He simply refused to play by any rules other than the ones he arbitrarily decided on for himself. And while his maverick nature didn’t earn him any friends, it also led – both directly and indirectly – to some of the biggest seismic shifts in the game’s long history.
From the massive rise of the decade’s early years to the cratering of its ending, “Dynastic, Bombastic, Fantastic” paints a picture of perhaps the most undercelebrated great team of the modern era. This was the team that – thanks to the almost comical combination of tight-fistedness and stubbornness of their owner – essentially opened the door for what would become free agency.
Major league baseball in the 1970s was something different, a violent collision of the establishment and the counterculture. The A’s existed in that nexus, packed with iconoclasts and led by a man who was against any type of authority that was not his own. This was the team that gave us the handlebar mustache of Rollie Fingers and the nonsense aquatic nickname of the pitcher who was born Jim Hunter.
Turbow captures the deep weirdness of the era as it was refracted through the prism of baseball. He brings to life the antagonism that existed between players and recreates the utter disdain they (and everybody, really) had for Charles Finley. In truth, the A’s had no right becoming a dynasty, but the stars aligned in a very specific way. The combination of talent and time led to the kind of success enjoyed by a scant few teams in MLB history, yet just as quickly, the A’s plummeted into the second division and an irrelevant oblivion as Finley steered his rapidly sinking ship into iceberg after iceberg before finally abandoning it at the bottom of the American League sea.
“Dynastic, Bombastic, Fantastic” tells the story of a team that truly was all of those things. And while those spates of A’s excellence might never be appreciated in the same way that other similar stretches are, thanks to Jason Turbow, fans of baseball history have the opportunity to dig deeper into one of the most bizarre – and fun – teams in the storied saga of the national pastime.
Spring is fast approaching, and with it comes the siren song of baseball.
Baseball has always been the American sport most conducive to literary exploration. Whether it’s fiction or nonfiction, no sport makes for a better book than baseball.
Some teams – the Boston Red Sox, the New York Yankees – have had more than their share of ink spilled upon them over the years. But that narrow focus means that some truly fascinating narratives haven’t really been told as thoroughly as perhaps they should have.
Thanks to a new book by author Jason Turbow, one particularly underappreciated team is receiving its due.
“Dynastic, Bombastic, Fantastic: Reggie, Rollie, Catfish, and Charlie Finley’s Swingin’ A’s” recounts the weird saga of the Oakland Athletics teams of the 1970s. Despite the fact that they had one of the most successful stretches in baseball history – three straight World Series titles in 1972, 1973 and 1974 – those A’s squads never really received the accolades their successes warranted.
Reggie Jackson, Rollie Fingers, Catfish Hunter – Hall of Famers all. And all of them came into their own as ballplayers in the garish green and gold of the Oakland A’s. Sal Bando, Gene Tenace, Bert Campaneris, Joe Rudi – phenomenal talents whose exceptional play made them key cogs on championship teams. Vida Blue, Blue Moon Odom, Ken Holtzman – volatile pitchers whose tempers off the mound matched their considerable talents on it.
These were the sprawling, brawling Oakland A’s of the 1970s. Perhaps no team in MLB history carried the sort of off-the-field dysfunction that this one did. Sniping in the press, locker room brawls – they were almost cartoonish in their inability to get along.
Yet even as they were at one another’s throats, one thing united them, the one thing that can almost always bring together even those of the greatest antipathy – a common foe. Even with their incredible stretch at the pinnacle of major league baseball, the Oakland A’s were a team that had just such a common foe - their owner, the eccentric Charles O. Finley.
Finley was despised by just about everyone in baseball. His fellow owners hated him. His players loathed him. He simply refused to play by any rules other than the ones he arbitrarily decided on for himself. And while his maverick nature didn’t earn him any friends, it also led – both directly and indirectly – to some of the biggest seismic shifts in the game’s long history.
From the massive rise of the decade’s early years to the cratering of its ending, “Dynastic, Bombastic, Fantastic” paints a picture of perhaps the most undercelebrated great team of the modern era. This was the team that – thanks to the almost comical combination of tight-fistedness and stubbornness of their owner – essentially opened the door for what would become free agency.
Major league baseball in the 1970s was something different, a violent collision of the establishment and the counterculture. The A’s existed in that nexus, packed with iconoclasts and led by a man who was against any type of authority that was not his own. This was the team that gave us the handlebar mustache of Rollie Fingers and the nonsense aquatic nickname of the pitcher who was born Jim Hunter.
Turbow captures the deep weirdness of the era as it was refracted through the prism of baseball. He brings to life the antagonism that existed between players and recreates the utter disdain they (and everybody, really) had for Charles Finley. In truth, the A’s had no right becoming a dynasty, but the stars aligned in a very specific way. The combination of talent and time led to the kind of success enjoyed by a scant few teams in MLB history, yet just as quickly, the A’s plummeted into the second division and an irrelevant oblivion as Finley steered his rapidly sinking ship into iceberg after iceberg before finally abandoning it at the bottom of the American League sea.
“Dynastic, Bombastic, Fantastic” tells the story of a team that truly was all of those things. And while those spates of A’s excellence might never be appreciated in the same way that other similar stretches are, thanks to Jason Turbow, fans of baseball history have the opportunity to dig deeper into one of the most bizarre – and fun – teams in the storied saga of the national pastime.
July 2, 2021
When you think about sports dynasties, odds are you rarely consider the Oakland A's of the early Seventies. I say this with some confidence because 1.) the generalized "you" of the previous sentence could encompass people like myself way too young to have known about the A's at the time, and 2.) they're rarely mentioned in the same breath as dynasties in baseball like the Yankees or sports in general like the Jordan-era Bulls or Brady-Belichick Patriots. But they really should be, because if anything else, this book proves that they put the dysfunction in dynasty.
Jason Turbow's "Dynastic, Bombastic, Fantastic" chronicles the early Seventies A's, when they won three straight World Series championships and five straight American League championships, a feat that hadn't been done since the 1949-1954 Yankees. That they did this in spite of off-the-field drama and fights among themselves and with the owner Charlie O. Finley is part of the charm of this book. Turbow expertly weaves the many narratives of the diverse cast of characters who called the Bay Area home during those turbulent title-town years and shows how their dynasty was almost inspired by their shared hatred of Finley, a man so cheap that the 1973 and 1974 championship rings included pieces of green glass instead of actual diamonds.
Reggie Jackson, Rollie Fingers, and Catfish Hunter are the selling point of the book (and all three Hall-of-Famers get ample time to be profiled and discussed as their high and low points with the A's are gone over), but the real charm of the book lies in the stories of position players like Billy North, Ray Fosse, pitchers Ken Holtzman and Vida Blue, and even "designated runner" Herb Washington, who was lured to the team by Finley because he was "the world's fastest man" as a track star. The kooky and crazy collection of ballplayers was managed first by Dick Williams (who won two titles with them in 1972 and 1973) and then Alvin Dark, a Bible-quoting bigot who won with the team in 1974. But always at the center of attention (because he demanded it) was Charles Finley, and it's perhaps in him that Turbow finds the most compelling and infuriating character in the whole saga. This book was a whole hell of a lot of fun in no small part because you can't help but be blown away at the Finley who emerges in this book (almost reminds me of a certain ex-president who shall remain nameless, though the difference here is Finley actually had some good ideas like the designated hitter and starting the regular season on a Saturday).
"Dynastic, Bombastic, Fantastic" is definitely worthy of the last word in its title, and it does a good job of giving credit where credit is long overdue to the three-peat A's of 1972-1974.
Jason Turbow's "Dynastic, Bombastic, Fantastic" chronicles the early Seventies A's, when they won three straight World Series championships and five straight American League championships, a feat that hadn't been done since the 1949-1954 Yankees. That they did this in spite of off-the-field drama and fights among themselves and with the owner Charlie O. Finley is part of the charm of this book. Turbow expertly weaves the many narratives of the diverse cast of characters who called the Bay Area home during those turbulent title-town years and shows how their dynasty was almost inspired by their shared hatred of Finley, a man so cheap that the 1973 and 1974 championship rings included pieces of green glass instead of actual diamonds.
Reggie Jackson, Rollie Fingers, and Catfish Hunter are the selling point of the book (and all three Hall-of-Famers get ample time to be profiled and discussed as their high and low points with the A's are gone over), but the real charm of the book lies in the stories of position players like Billy North, Ray Fosse, pitchers Ken Holtzman and Vida Blue, and even "designated runner" Herb Washington, who was lured to the team by Finley because he was "the world's fastest man" as a track star. The kooky and crazy collection of ballplayers was managed first by Dick Williams (who won two titles with them in 1972 and 1973) and then Alvin Dark, a Bible-quoting bigot who won with the team in 1974. But always at the center of attention (because he demanded it) was Charles Finley, and it's perhaps in him that Turbow finds the most compelling and infuriating character in the whole saga. This book was a whole hell of a lot of fun in no small part because you can't help but be blown away at the Finley who emerges in this book (almost reminds me of a certain ex-president who shall remain nameless, though the difference here is Finley actually had some good ideas like the designated hitter and starting the regular season on a Saturday).
"Dynastic, Bombastic, Fantastic" is definitely worthy of the last word in its title, and it does a good job of giving credit where credit is long overdue to the three-peat A's of 1972-1974.
March 23, 2020
This is the second Jason Turbow baseball book I've read this year, and the second I've given 5 stars to (the other was "The Baseball Codes"). I'll read anything the man writes from here on. The story of the 70s A's was already ridiculous and inspiring, but Turbow does such a fantastic job balancing big themes and small but insightful stories about the characters that surrounded those teams that he made the whole sordid story leap off the page.
I was only nine years old in 1977, but I already knew the Charlie Finley was a snake and that the A's by that time were a totally hapless franchise....I remember when their radio station was 10-watt KALX in Berkeley, a station you couldn't even hear in San Francisco or at the Oakland Coliseum itself! My memory of the A's in the late 70s are of easy grounders between legs, .195 batting averages and hundreds of losses. This book only has some perfunctory chapters about that era - it's mostly about the glory days of 1971-75 - but it was still great to read about it and how it came to be. Excellent book, highly recommended semi-missing chapter of baseball lore, told brilliantly.
I was only nine years old in 1977, but I already knew the Charlie Finley was a snake and that the A's by that time were a totally hapless franchise....I remember when their radio station was 10-watt KALX in Berkeley, a station you couldn't even hear in San Francisco or at the Oakland Coliseum itself! My memory of the A's in the late 70s are of easy grounders between legs, .195 batting averages and hundreds of losses. This book only has some perfunctory chapters about that era - it's mostly about the glory days of 1971-75 - but it was still great to read about it and how it came to be. Excellent book, highly recommended semi-missing chapter of baseball lore, told brilliantly.
August 25, 2025
I went to the Coliseum for the final season of the Oakland As. I got a Rollie Fingers bobble head as the giveaway. This gave me a bit of a chance to learn more about him and the team.
How did this book find me? It is in the Audible+ catalog until August 26.
How did this book find me? It is in the Audible+ catalog until August 26.
July 15, 2019
A well documented account on how small market teams could compete on a yearly bases due to the reserve clause. Once Catfish Hunter became a free agent, teams such as the A's had to adapt and find alternative ideologies to compete on a yearly basis. Therefore, this book can be considered a prologue to "Moneyball". Overall, the book is well written and thoroughly researched.
June 14, 2024
Colorful portrait of just how contentious things can get on even the greatest of teams.
February 21, 2021
Wildly entertaining. One of the best baseball books I’ve read.
March 2, 2024
I knew that the 1970’s Oakland A’s were colorful and successful, but I had no idea what a wild ride it was. Highly recommended for anyone interested in baseball history.
February 11, 2018
An engaging dive into the established baseball institutions and the iconoclastic Oakland A’s of the early 1970s. An inside look into a changing game set against the backdrop of larger-than-life personalities.
August 20, 2019
Pretty good. Eschews the sports book crutch of spending whole chapters getting into the backgrounds of the principal players and then recapping whole games where those principal players turn out to be heroes. I learned a lot. I knew next to nothing of the Mike Andrews story in the 1973 World Series, Herb Washington and just what an asshole Chuck Finley was.
Finley is appropriately roasted here. It would be impossible to even spin his actions in a positive light and it’s not attempted. Every dastardly deed is chronicled. What isn’t really detailed is how he built rosters. Finley was the General manager. And as general manager he won three straight World Series. Some players he inherited and otherwise he dealt sometimes reacquiring players he traded away. It’s not discussed if he depended on scouts or if he had any philosophy. Or did he have a good enough team to fill the vacuum of the Yankees not being good, Baltimore falling off and running into the Dodgers and Reds before they could get really good?
Finley is appropriately roasted here. It would be impossible to even spin his actions in a positive light and it’s not attempted. Every dastardly deed is chronicled. What isn’t really detailed is how he built rosters. Finley was the General manager. And as general manager he won three straight World Series. Some players he inherited and otherwise he dealt sometimes reacquiring players he traded away. It’s not discussed if he depended on scouts or if he had any philosophy. Or did he have a good enough team to fill the vacuum of the Yankees not being good, Baltimore falling off and running into the Dodgers and Reds before they could get really good?
March 9, 2017
This book brings the stars of the A's of the early '70s to vivid life! While it's fabulous to read the many behind the scenes stories about Catfish, Vida, Blue Moon, Tenace, Rollie Fingers, Rudi, Campaneris, and the incomparable Reggie Jackson, the batshit crazy star of the this book is the Owner, Charlie O. Finley. Jason Turbow is a fabulous writer, and does a masterful job of balancing game accounts with anecdotal narratives. This book is terrific!
April 12, 2017
Comprehensive and entertaining, probably going to serve as the standard work on the most interesting team of the 1970s. If editing, I would have done my best to discourage the post facto analysis and pop psychology, but those things don't take up much space. I'd still like to read a good biography of Charlie Finley - I suspect one already exists - but I now feel otherwise educated about the Swingin' A's...
March 19, 2022
I am from Portland, Oregon, where I was born and raised. I'm a Seattle Mariners fan. However, I'm old enough to remember a little bit of the pre-Griffey Mariners and how bad they were. When the Mariners sucked when I was a young boy, I briefly rooted for the next closest team to Portland, which is the Oakland A's. That team I briefly rooted for was the A's of the 80s, not the 70s, which this book is about and was a little before my time.
I started reading this book not only during the off-season, but also during a lockout (thankfully recently resolved.) Baseball is my favorite sport. I was Jonesing for baseball. This book should have been a breeze, I should have devoured this book. Instead, I found this book a slog. A part of this was Finley reminded of Trump if he was a baseball owner, and I'm not a fan of Trump. Players and managers who worked under Finley hated him and I hated him too. I found it unpleasant to read about him.
The prose is fine and it tells a decent narrative. I'm happy I read it. I haven't read too many baseball books to compare.
I started reading this book not only during the off-season, but also during a lockout (thankfully recently resolved.) Baseball is my favorite sport. I was Jonesing for baseball. This book should have been a breeze, I should have devoured this book. Instead, I found this book a slog. A part of this was Finley reminded of Trump if he was a baseball owner, and I'm not a fan of Trump. Players and managers who worked under Finley hated him and I hated him too. I found it unpleasant to read about him.
The prose is fine and it tells a decent narrative. I'm happy I read it. I haven't read too many baseball books to compare.
March 6, 2018
Great book for any 70's baseball fan. I know about Finley and his ways but this book added so much more to what I already knew, or thought I knew. The author interviewed many of the former players on those teams and their recollections and stories were, er, fantastic. A fun and easy read just in time for Spring Training!
The only negative (and I would have deducted a star if Goodreads allowed) is that he kept calling Charlie Finley; "The Owner", throughout the book. It got annoying and then I just glazed over it and got used to it after awhile. No idea why he didn't just say "Finley" except to think it was funny? But it was still a good enough book for me to give it the full five stars.
The only negative (and I would have deducted a star if Goodreads allowed) is that he kept calling Charlie Finley; "The Owner", throughout the book. It got annoying and then I just glazed over it and got used to it after awhile. No idea why he didn't just say "Finley" except to think it was funny? But it was still a good enough book for me to give it the full five stars.
July 30, 2025
The 70s elicit a flood of nostalgia for the common American: disco music or heavy weed infused rock if you prefer, sideburns and thick mustachioed hippie escapees that wore butterfly collared button downs and jammed 8 tracks into their muscled up Chevy Novas, single income boomer households that bought single family residences without crippling college debt saddling them and raised Gen X kids on ashtrays and hose water. Yessir, good times. Across the sports landscape, the Cowboys, Raiders and especially the Steelers dominated the football scene while the NBA saw increased parity after a stranglehold on the 1960s by the Celtics. In baseball, the rise of dynasties or near dynasties by the Reds, Pirates, Orioles and A’s made great headliner fodder for the sport. Turbow instantly immerses us into the world of the Oakland Athletics (A’s) during that time. This was no ordinary era for baseball; the Athletics, as depicted, were emblematic in many ways of a business model microcosm. The employees (aka the players) each brought their respective talents to make the business run under a meddling puppeteer of an owner/operator (aka The Owner aka Charlie Finley in this case) and succeeded either because of him or in spite of him. You decide. But here’s what we think we know: By all accounts Finley was a self-aggrandizing manipulator who desperately tried to parlay his perceived goodwill into subservience. (See: Finley’s dealings with Vida Blue in particular). Power is immensely corruptible and misguided when dealing with individuals on individuality, interpersonal connection, and monetary worth to the ball club often based on statistics but could also include intangibles like hustle/leadership/the ability to keep a locker room focused and together. Power for the sake of power, often in Finley’s case, became a blinding agent, greed the driving force, or self-importance. That’s not to say Finley wasn’t innovative or did not have any inventive ideas. He’s often credited with suggesting the DH, having ballplayers that could play multiple positions, and preferable World Series scheduling. He also made the savvy suggestion of allowing ALL players to become free agents after every year rather than a select few in order to dilute the field and therefore cap the high rate of spending (his suggestion was denied by his fellow owners). For perspective, in 1975, at the end of his career, Hank Aaron was virtually the highest paid player at $250000 per year. Fifty years later Juan Soto is receiving nearly $62 million this year. Free agency, for better or worse, was a defining moment in the tenure of Finley’s ownership. Often creating a culture of bitterness within his players by undercutting them in their salary requests, particularly in how they stacked up competitively throughout the league, it cost him in the end when a contractual stipulation for his star pitcher, Jim “Catfish” Hunter, was not met. Hunter was granted free agency, signed for more money with the Yankees and the rest is history. All told the A’s won three consecutive World Series with the requisite amount of talent that included three eventual Hall of Famers in Catfish Hunter, Reggie Jackson, and Rollie Fingers and a number of other fringe greats such as Sal Bando, Joe Rudi, Gene Tenace, Bert Campaneris, Ken Holtzman, and Vida Blue. While the drama and fistfights that seemed to percolate often within the clubhouse would indicate a team in self-destruct mode, it actually made them more resilient in a 70s way—put aside our grudges and go out and win the whole damn thing. There’s a refreshing sentiment amidst a collective group of diverse voices…
…Jackson, the brash, young, arrogant OF…
…Bando, the all star captain complaining openly about the owner…
…Campaneris, the speedy and fiery Cuban with a temper…
…Catfish, the North Carolina farm boy ace…
…Bill North, the well read CF…
…Blue Moon Odom, the needling in your face pitcher that never shut up…
…Rollie Fingers, the distractible shut down reliever with the handlebar mustache…
…who scraped and clawed their way to dominance in the thicket of a megalomaniac owner who often self-sabotaged his own team’s financial success with a stripped down administrative team and sparse relationship with the Oakland community. It is an absolute travesty to see a team of this caliber wasted and such few eyewitnesses to corroborate their achievements. In 1973 and 1974, the last two years of their three year run, the Oakland A’s were 8th and 11th out of 12 in American League attendance. I can’t imagine retelling a historical account of baseball without including the 70s era A’s as a major factor in the progress of MLB. A compelling story for sure, and a deep cut for nostalgic baseball fans everywhere.
…Jackson, the brash, young, arrogant OF…
…Bando, the all star captain complaining openly about the owner…
…Campaneris, the speedy and fiery Cuban with a temper…
…Catfish, the North Carolina farm boy ace…
…Bill North, the well read CF…
…Blue Moon Odom, the needling in your face pitcher that never shut up…
…Rollie Fingers, the distractible shut down reliever with the handlebar mustache…
…who scraped and clawed their way to dominance in the thicket of a megalomaniac owner who often self-sabotaged his own team’s financial success with a stripped down administrative team and sparse relationship with the Oakland community. It is an absolute travesty to see a team of this caliber wasted and such few eyewitnesses to corroborate their achievements. In 1973 and 1974, the last two years of their three year run, the Oakland A’s were 8th and 11th out of 12 in American League attendance. I can’t imagine retelling a historical account of baseball without including the 70s era A’s as a major factor in the progress of MLB. A compelling story for sure, and a deep cut for nostalgic baseball fans everywhere.
April 16, 2020
Very interesting subject matter for my 70s baseball education. A self-aggrandizing, cheapskate owner with a great eye for talent and promotion, (who also made a stupid mistake by moving his team to Oakland of all places) fires manager after manager, makes a million trades, tries to rip off his players, and wins three straight World Series.
Some thoughts:
- Vida Blue, as a 21-year old Cy Young and MVP winner, pitched more than 300 innings and made all of $14,500. Just wow. Looking at the innings this guy threw it's a real question of whether or not he could have been a Hall of Famer if he hadn't been overworked early in his career and later fallen in with the cocaine crowd
- Ray Fosse was straight up unlucky, his career derailed by the coward Pete Rose in the All-Star game and sustaining a pretty serious injury breaking up a locker room fight between Reggie Jackson and Billy North over a girl
- Surprised I didn't know Sal Bando more considering how good he was at his peak
- Dick Green may have had the most valuable hitless WS of any position player ever with his great anticipatory defense
- Bill Buckner talked a lot of shit. That really did not payoff in his career
- Foul on the author for using an ethnic slur to describe Alvin Dark. Makes you look small and provincial, dude
- Reggie Jackson is the ~75th best player of all time, but carried himself like he was top 10. Would want him on the team in October, and he certainly had moments of insight as a man, but this guy's ego may have been bigger than Finley's
- Catfish Hunter, probably the greatest NC player pre-Bumgarner and Seager, but looking at his overall career that Hall of Fame entry is a stretch. But props to him for getting breach of contract to make him a lucrative free agent with the Yankees
- Why couldn't these guys enjoy anything? Even on post-championship plane rides they get in each other's face. In the playoffs they start dumb fights for egging Fingers on about a failing marriage. Their manager says he's quitting during the damn World Series. Yeesh, try to have some fun without conflict
- I knew MC Hammer was a bat boy for the A's, but didn't know until this book that Mrs. Fields was a hot pants girl for the team who baked cookies for the umps
- Yes, had Finley not been a cheapskate and had Oakland not been such a shitty town to put a team in there's a very real chance the team could have won even more than it did. However, a break the wrong way in some very close series in '72 and '73 could have left the A's as a one time champ. I'd say they won as many titles as they deserved, if not one more
- The author does not even try to hide his disgust for Finley, but despite all his issues the bottom line is the guy won 3 World Series, as owner and GM. How many have ever accomplished that?
Some thoughts:
- Vida Blue, as a 21-year old Cy Young and MVP winner, pitched more than 300 innings and made all of $14,500. Just wow. Looking at the innings this guy threw it's a real question of whether or not he could have been a Hall of Famer if he hadn't been overworked early in his career and later fallen in with the cocaine crowd
- Ray Fosse was straight up unlucky, his career derailed by the coward Pete Rose in the All-Star game and sustaining a pretty serious injury breaking up a locker room fight between Reggie Jackson and Billy North over a girl
- Surprised I didn't know Sal Bando more considering how good he was at his peak
- Dick Green may have had the most valuable hitless WS of any position player ever with his great anticipatory defense
- Bill Buckner talked a lot of shit. That really did not payoff in his career
- Foul on the author for using an ethnic slur to describe Alvin Dark. Makes you look small and provincial, dude
- Reggie Jackson is the ~75th best player of all time, but carried himself like he was top 10. Would want him on the team in October, and he certainly had moments of insight as a man, but this guy's ego may have been bigger than Finley's
- Catfish Hunter, probably the greatest NC player pre-Bumgarner and Seager, but looking at his overall career that Hall of Fame entry is a stretch. But props to him for getting breach of contract to make him a lucrative free agent with the Yankees
- Why couldn't these guys enjoy anything? Even on post-championship plane rides they get in each other's face. In the playoffs they start dumb fights for egging Fingers on about a failing marriage. Their manager says he's quitting during the damn World Series. Yeesh, try to have some fun without conflict
- I knew MC Hammer was a bat boy for the A's, but didn't know until this book that Mrs. Fields was a hot pants girl for the team who baked cookies for the umps
- Yes, had Finley not been a cheapskate and had Oakland not been such a shitty town to put a team in there's a very real chance the team could have won even more than it did. However, a break the wrong way in some very close series in '72 and '73 could have left the A's as a one time champ. I'd say they won as many titles as they deserved, if not one more
- The author does not even try to hide his disgust for Finley, but despite all his issues the bottom line is the guy won 3 World Series, as owner and GM. How many have ever accomplished that?
August 25, 2018
Entertaining read of a team that with all of the ownership meddling, bad trades, poor environment, locker room fiascoes, and injuries should have been relegated to losing. Despite all of the obstacles, this team was amazing, and this book captures the legacy of a team that is often forgotten.
The book moves at a pretty good pace. The author could have dug deeper to uncover the thoughts and paths of many of the characters, but the research is strong enough to carry the reader through the will to uncover the 'whys' behind each character's time in the A's journey. With that said, the inside stories surrounding A's manager, Dick Williams, set a very sharp background to support how this team grew to success and how they could stay on top for a long time. Williams emphasis on fundamentals and how his drive could wear thin are easily depicted.
The author also presents a very vivid picture of the enigmatic and even mercurial, Charles O'Finley. An enjoyable feature is that the author somehow displays an understanding of the successes of O'Finley. 'Charlie O' makes a lot of blunders, but he also stands a firm ground which is heeds respect. With that said, the reader can read between the lines that libations, pride, and ego were certainly major drags on his decision-making and miserly behavior. The reader will often find a lot of head-shaking when recounting some of his moves throughout the decade.
The author also provides a great answer as to how this team won with a lot of 'no-name' players and through the chaotic environment and the miserable, if not petty, acts of Charles O'Finley. Many of the players came up through the A's system at the same time, and they were able to have powerful concoction of group accountability and respect. Also, the A's had incredible leadership with many of the players on the team. A's players may have been perceived as renegades, but they demanded the best of themselves and the teammates surrounding them. The author does a great job in conveying how they demanded the respect of each other and themselves throughout the book.
It helps that I'm a big fan of the '70s A's. However, I'll say that this was a very enjoyable summer baseball read. Rock the white cleats. Go green and gold. By the end of the book, you'll see the Kelly Green and Gold combo in a different way. Damn, this team was good.
BD
The book moves at a pretty good pace. The author could have dug deeper to uncover the thoughts and paths of many of the characters, but the research is strong enough to carry the reader through the will to uncover the 'whys' behind each character's time in the A's journey. With that said, the inside stories surrounding A's manager, Dick Williams, set a very sharp background to support how this team grew to success and how they could stay on top for a long time. Williams emphasis on fundamentals and how his drive could wear thin are easily depicted.
The author also presents a very vivid picture of the enigmatic and even mercurial, Charles O'Finley. An enjoyable feature is that the author somehow displays an understanding of the successes of O'Finley. 'Charlie O' makes a lot of blunders, but he also stands a firm ground which is heeds respect. With that said, the reader can read between the lines that libations, pride, and ego were certainly major drags on his decision-making and miserly behavior. The reader will often find a lot of head-shaking when recounting some of his moves throughout the decade.
The author also provides a great answer as to how this team won with a lot of 'no-name' players and through the chaotic environment and the miserable, if not petty, acts of Charles O'Finley. Many of the players came up through the A's system at the same time, and they were able to have powerful concoction of group accountability and respect. Also, the A's had incredible leadership with many of the players on the team. A's players may have been perceived as renegades, but they demanded the best of themselves and the teammates surrounding them. The author does a great job in conveying how they demanded the respect of each other and themselves throughout the book.
It helps that I'm a big fan of the '70s A's. However, I'll say that this was a very enjoyable summer baseball read. Rock the white cleats. Go green and gold. By the end of the book, you'll see the Kelly Green and Gold combo in a different way. Damn, this team was good.
BD
December 8, 2017
The bad guy, the antagonist, the villain. Choose a label and that’s Charles Finley in Jason Turbow’s excellent book entitled, Dynastic, Bombastic, Fantastic. “No man is indispensable here. Except maybe me,” blared the bombastic, self-absorbed owner of the dynastic 1970’s Oakland Athletics. Indispensable? Yeah right, Charlie O., we don’t believe you! Catfish Hunter, ace of the pitching staff even admitted “I tried not to think the worst of him, but it was impossible.” Let that sink in.
According to Turbow, Finley “equated power with importance and importance with love even in the absence of actual affection.” His players hated him. His coaches would rather quit than follow his ridiculous orders (Finley didn’t care; going through 14 managers in 17 years). What’s more, the media couldn’t find anything positive to rave about. They were quick to bury the Oakland Pathetics/Triple-A’s once they stopped winning. And the fans, they stayed home mostly uninterested, despite their team’s success. If they only knew the insanity that happened behind the scenes and in the locker room.
I loved the way this book was crafted. It is wonderfully written, backed with complete references, movie-like ‘where-they-are-now’ character profiles at the end and extremely juicy footnotes (my personal favorite) that go the extra mile. Who knew the A’s had a connection with Mrs. Field’s delicious cookies? And acting on a tip, did the Oakland Police Department really check the tall and neglected outfield grass for pot plants? This book is wild.
So was Finley all bad? Of course not; Finley was also fantastic in his own way. First, he was a survivor (tuberculosis) and then he became a goal-oriented, self-made businessman. He was relentless and driven; “the kind of guy who invented work when there wasn’t any to do”. He was fearless, a confident salesman and a motivator. He reminds me of important people in my own life. But most of all, he was an independent thinker and a visionary. Finley pushed for ideas like the designated hitter, divisional play, night World Series games and colorful uniforms before others even considered the possibilities. Finley’s motto was “sweat plus sacrifice equals success”. Think about where we could be if we adopted that motto. New Year’s Resolutions are just around the corner! Meanwhile, if you’re looking for a great baseball book this holiday season, I highly recommend Jason Turbow’s Dynastic, Bombastic, Fantastic!
According to Turbow, Finley “equated power with importance and importance with love even in the absence of actual affection.” His players hated him. His coaches would rather quit than follow his ridiculous orders (Finley didn’t care; going through 14 managers in 17 years). What’s more, the media couldn’t find anything positive to rave about. They were quick to bury the Oakland Pathetics/Triple-A’s once they stopped winning. And the fans, they stayed home mostly uninterested, despite their team’s success. If they only knew the insanity that happened behind the scenes and in the locker room.
I loved the way this book was crafted. It is wonderfully written, backed with complete references, movie-like ‘where-they-are-now’ character profiles at the end and extremely juicy footnotes (my personal favorite) that go the extra mile. Who knew the A’s had a connection with Mrs. Field’s delicious cookies? And acting on a tip, did the Oakland Police Department really check the tall and neglected outfield grass for pot plants? This book is wild.
So was Finley all bad? Of course not; Finley was also fantastic in his own way. First, he was a survivor (tuberculosis) and then he became a goal-oriented, self-made businessman. He was relentless and driven; “the kind of guy who invented work when there wasn’t any to do”. He was fearless, a confident salesman and a motivator. He reminds me of important people in my own life. But most of all, he was an independent thinker and a visionary. Finley pushed for ideas like the designated hitter, divisional play, night World Series games and colorful uniforms before others even considered the possibilities. Finley’s motto was “sweat plus sacrifice equals success”. Think about where we could be if we adopted that motto. New Year’s Resolutions are just around the corner! Meanwhile, if you’re looking for a great baseball book this holiday season, I highly recommend Jason Turbow’s Dynastic, Bombastic, Fantastic!
May 21, 2025
There are so many adjectives to describe the Oakland A's of the 1970's. Transformative, dominant, traumatizing and dysfunctional. They may also have been one of the best baseball teams ever assembled. Their collection of personalities (and egos) ran the gamut from superstar (Reginald Martinez Jackson) whose ego was only overshadowed by his insecurities, to the angry, Vida Blue, who could have been one of the best pitchers of all time had he not been so bitter and angry about everything. There were hall of famers, Jackson, Rollie Fingers and Catfish Hunter, as well as members of the hall of very good, like Joe Rudi and Sal Bando and they physically fought with, as well as mentally tormented each other.
As much as they seemed to dislike each other off the field, they were united in their hatred for one person, Charlie Finley, the owner of the team. Charles O. Finley was an innovator, things like the designated hitter, night World Series games and Divisional play were all innovations that he developed. He was also a malignant narcissist and a blatant self-promoter. He was the GM of the team, and it was his way or no way, oftentimes calling the dugout during games to make the managers do what he wanted them to do. He ruthlessly lowballed his players during contract negotiations, then spinning the narrative to the press so everything appeared in his favor. He was cheap and a bully, everything went through him and he never went to Oakland to support the community or his team, choosing to stay at home in Chicago and bark orders from afar. Dick Williams, the manager of those teams literally quit during the celebration of a second straight series victory because of him and his meddling. Finley was also a great businessman, making millions selling insurance and he saw the writing on the wall that free agency would spell the end of his run.
This book is an "A-" both the on field and off field drama played a prominent role, and this collection of players, with their bright green and yellow uniforms and crazy at the time facial hair were covered very well, even with a "Where Are They Now? " segment of the main characters. This is one of the best baseball teams to ever exist and this book is a great resource.
As much as they seemed to dislike each other off the field, they were united in their hatred for one person, Charlie Finley, the owner of the team. Charles O. Finley was an innovator, things like the designated hitter, night World Series games and Divisional play were all innovations that he developed. He was also a malignant narcissist and a blatant self-promoter. He was the GM of the team, and it was his way or no way, oftentimes calling the dugout during games to make the managers do what he wanted them to do. He ruthlessly lowballed his players during contract negotiations, then spinning the narrative to the press so everything appeared in his favor. He was cheap and a bully, everything went through him and he never went to Oakland to support the community or his team, choosing to stay at home in Chicago and bark orders from afar. Dick Williams, the manager of those teams literally quit during the celebration of a second straight series victory because of him and his meddling. Finley was also a great businessman, making millions selling insurance and he saw the writing on the wall that free agency would spell the end of his run.
This book is an "A-" both the on field and off field drama played a prominent role, and this collection of players, with their bright green and yellow uniforms and crazy at the time facial hair were covered very well, even with a "Where Are They Now? " segment of the main characters. This is one of the best baseball teams to ever exist and this book is a great resource.
December 17, 2018
It's a book about baseball, but to a certain degree the baseball is incidental. This is an attempt to understand the mind of one Charles O. Finley and the way that his personality both created and ensured the self-destruction of a dynasty. There's something epic about the story of the seemingly self-made man who watches his empire slip away and dies unmourned and unloved.
And yet, there's something pretty banal about that too. Finley is the most prominent character, as the owner of the Oakland A's, but he is not the most interesting one. The issue is that Finley is incapable of surprise. His ends are always about greed and self-aggrandizement. He never compromises, even when it's in his own best interest. He betrays anyone who trusts him. He is a figure of absolutes, and even extremism gets stale if it cannot evolve with time.
The book stands out because of how it highlights the many people who operated in the franchise and chose different ways of being. Like Alvin Dark, the manager brought in to be a patsy who ends up diffusing Finley's rage by being uncompromisingly kind, who tries to respect his players even when they don't respect him. Of course Dark is also an ignorant racial bigot, who makes generalizations about his players based on race because it's simply how he understands the world to be. Dark isn't a cartoon villain; he's a mixed up man who is sometimes hopelessly backward, sometimes boldly progressive.
The same goes for the players who alternate between championing the rights of unionized labor to chafing under the expectation to adjust to data-based analysis.
The book is about respect. What made and broke most of these relationships was being given dignity or someone trying to take it away (usually Finley himself). While I don't remember any of these teams, not having been born, I can really appreciate the degree to which the author relied on first person accounts from those who were there, giving this almost the feel of an oral history.
And yet, there's something pretty banal about that too. Finley is the most prominent character, as the owner of the Oakland A's, but he is not the most interesting one. The issue is that Finley is incapable of surprise. His ends are always about greed and self-aggrandizement. He never compromises, even when it's in his own best interest. He betrays anyone who trusts him. He is a figure of absolutes, and even extremism gets stale if it cannot evolve with time.
The book stands out because of how it highlights the many people who operated in the franchise and chose different ways of being. Like Alvin Dark, the manager brought in to be a patsy who ends up diffusing Finley's rage by being uncompromisingly kind, who tries to respect his players even when they don't respect him. Of course Dark is also an ignorant racial bigot, who makes generalizations about his players based on race because it's simply how he understands the world to be. Dark isn't a cartoon villain; he's a mixed up man who is sometimes hopelessly backward, sometimes boldly progressive.
The same goes for the players who alternate between championing the rights of unionized labor to chafing under the expectation to adjust to data-based analysis.
The book is about respect. What made and broke most of these relationships was being given dignity or someone trying to take it away (usually Finley himself). While I don't remember any of these teams, not having been born, I can really appreciate the degree to which the author relied on first person accounts from those who were there, giving this almost the feel of an oral history.
October 18, 2020
I grew up an avid baseball fan and liked watching the Oakland A's baseball team because they looked different in their green, yellow and white uniforms and had moustaches, beards, and sideburns. They were the creation of a baseball genius, an innovator but also a self-promoter and a narcissist - Charlie Finley. They also could play better than the other teams because they maximized their talents playing like one and for awhile seemed unbeatable. I still remember most of them: Jim 'Catfish' Hunter, Ken Holtzman, John 'Blue Moon' Odom, Vida Blue, Darold Knowles, Rollie Fingers, Dave Duncan, Gene Tenace, Ray Fosse, Mike Epstein, Dick Green, Bert Campaneris, Sal Bando, Mike Andrews, Joe Rudi, Reggie Jackson, Billy North, Herb Washington and Claudell Washington. I also recall the most successful of the managers during the 1971-75 dominant years, Dick Williams and Alvin Dark. But the man who in 1961 bought and moved the Kansas City Athletics to Oakland and re-labeled them the A's was the tyrannical, meglomaniacal and temperamental Charles O. Finley. Finley could not abide with anyone telling him how to scout, recruit, develop, or treat his players so he made himself the general manager at the onset. There was no denying, Finley was an astute evaluator of talent and an architect of winning baseball teams. But, he was also a destructive force who often undermined his managers, insulted his players, stole the spotlight for himself and was exceedingly undervaluing and underpaying his players. His intrusive and emotional outbursts resulted in the destroying the winning A's of the early-1970s. Amazingly, from the destruction and terrible team of the latter-1970s, he laid the groundwork of future success with the drafting of such players as Mike Norris, Rickey Henderson, Tony Armas, Dwayne Murphy, Matt Keough, and Rick Langford for the 1980s. In 1980, he also hired Billy Martin who would lead the revival of the A's after Finley sold the team to the Levi Strauss family in 1980. Finley sold the team because of his divorce and not because he wanted out. The author pulls no in laying praise and blame on Finley for the drama that the A's franchise was in the 1970s. He also gives the reader an insight into each of the players who made up that "dynastic, bombastic, and fantastic" A's team. It was a nostalgic and insightful baseball book. Personally, I rank it as one of the best baseball books that I have ever read. Enjoy the ride.
October 13, 2018
If it is possible to pity a group of back-to-back-to-back World Series championship baseball players, this book will help you do it.
In the final years of baseball's pre-free agency era, a megalomaniac of a baseball owner constantly wields his power and suppresses the salaries of the best players on the best team of the early 1970s. This book is as much a biographical sketch of owner Charlie Finley's continuous struggles to maintain self-importance and gain respect among his peers and subordinates as it is a guide for how not to win friends and influence people. Reading accounts of what Finley's players and other employees had to endure in order to work or play professional baseball for him will leave you shaking your head over and over. It's hard to believe he was ever given an opportunity to own and maintain a business with employees over any length of time, let alone one of the greatest professional baseball teams ever.
The A's franchise has a rich and dynamic history dating back to the early 20th century influence of Connie Mack to the modern day "Moneyball" approach to managing the team. This book takes a look at a time in between, when the quality of baseball on the field was at its highest at the same time that the professionalism of the ownership and the off-the-field drama was at its lowest; a collection of the team's proudest and most shameful moments happening simultaneously.
They say that truth is stranger than fiction, and this book lives up to that standard. Turbow did a great job with his research and presentation. Even though you know going into it that the A's win every playoff series between 1972-1974, there's still suspense and wonder in the story. Very well-written and dramatic, this is a page-turner. It is certainly one of the best baseball books I've ever read.
In the final years of baseball's pre-free agency era, a megalomaniac of a baseball owner constantly wields his power and suppresses the salaries of the best players on the best team of the early 1970s. This book is as much a biographical sketch of owner Charlie Finley's continuous struggles to maintain self-importance and gain respect among his peers and subordinates as it is a guide for how not to win friends and influence people. Reading accounts of what Finley's players and other employees had to endure in order to work or play professional baseball for him will leave you shaking your head over and over. It's hard to believe he was ever given an opportunity to own and maintain a business with employees over any length of time, let alone one of the greatest professional baseball teams ever.
The A's franchise has a rich and dynamic history dating back to the early 20th century influence of Connie Mack to the modern day "Moneyball" approach to managing the team. This book takes a look at a time in between, when the quality of baseball on the field was at its highest at the same time that the professionalism of the ownership and the off-the-field drama was at its lowest; a collection of the team's proudest and most shameful moments happening simultaneously.
They say that truth is stranger than fiction, and this book lives up to that standard. Turbow did a great job with his research and presentation. Even though you know going into it that the A's win every playoff series between 1972-1974, there's still suspense and wonder in the story. Very well-written and dramatic, this is a page-turner. It is certainly one of the best baseball books I've ever read.
June 3, 2020
What a tremendous bargain to have picked this up super-inexpensively at Ollie's Discount Warehouse! I later found a copy of "Finley Ball" there, also & decided to read both of them consecutively. Karen may have soft-pedaled Charlie O. "The Owner" Finley's behavior in her book, but such was not the case here! It was almost as if Turbow had an axe to grind & perhaps with good reason.
I became a baseball fan in June 1974, primarily as a Pittsburgh Pirates fan, but seeing the A's on national television A LOT, I was enamored of their look & we only had B&W TV! When I saw the facial hair & colorful uniforms on our precious baseball cards, I knew that I had found my American League team! I watched them win the World Series that year & although I was saddened the following year when they lost in the ALCS to my best friend (the other Buccos fan)'s AL team, the Boston Red Sox, it set up the greatest Series in history vs the Reds.
I watched the dismantling of the A's in bewilderment & rooted for Reggie's Yankees against the LA Dodgers. I remain a fan of Rollie Fingers' handlebar moustache & while I have an outstanding beard, my moustache is lacking. 8=(
When I was stationed, in the Navy, at NAS Alameda & got an invite from the A's to be a season ticket holder in 1988 & 1989 for a few as twenty (20) military-priced tickets, I jumped on it! I got to see them in the ALCS vs BOS that year & vs the Dodgers in the WS & the following year, it was TOR in the ALCS & the SF Giants in the WS.
My first time seeing a live game at the Coliseum brought back a flood of memories, as did this book. I did not realize the depth of what had happened in my childhood, but it is all crystal-clear now. What a shame.
A tremendous book!
I became a baseball fan in June 1974, primarily as a Pittsburgh Pirates fan, but seeing the A's on national television A LOT, I was enamored of their look & we only had B&W TV! When I saw the facial hair & colorful uniforms on our precious baseball cards, I knew that I had found my American League team! I watched them win the World Series that year & although I was saddened the following year when they lost in the ALCS to my best friend (the other Buccos fan)'s AL team, the Boston Red Sox, it set up the greatest Series in history vs the Reds.
I watched the dismantling of the A's in bewilderment & rooted for Reggie's Yankees against the LA Dodgers. I remain a fan of Rollie Fingers' handlebar moustache & while I have an outstanding beard, my moustache is lacking. 8=(
When I was stationed, in the Navy, at NAS Alameda & got an invite from the A's to be a season ticket holder in 1988 & 1989 for a few as twenty (20) military-priced tickets, I jumped on it! I got to see them in the ALCS vs BOS that year & vs the Dodgers in the WS & the following year, it was TOR in the ALCS & the SF Giants in the WS.
My first time seeing a live game at the Coliseum brought back a flood of memories, as did this book. I did not realize the depth of what had happened in my childhood, but it is all crystal-clear now. What a shame.
A tremendous book!
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