In the first book ever to chronicle the birth of a major-league baseball franchise from conception to Opening Day, Big League, Big Time takes you inside the Diamondbacks dugout - and their corporate suite - to examine the billion-dollar business of baseball and its enormous impact on our culture. Complete with profiles of new Diamondbacks players from Travis Lee to perennial all-star Matt Williams, an exclusive inside-the-war-room look at the expansion draft, a dissection of the media's role in the global growth of the sports industry, and insights into the promotional blitz from spring training to opening day, Big League, Big Time is a rare glimpse into the politics, business, and promise of baseball.

Big League, Big Time: Birth of Arizona Diamondbacks

Business & Money

Sherman, Len

Industries

Atria

On March 31, 1998, more than 48,500 fans cheered the arrival of Major League Baseball's newest expansion team, the Arizona Diamondbacks. In the first book ever to chronicle the birth of a major-league baseball franchise from conception to Opening Day, Big League, Big Time takes you inside the Diamondbacks dugout -- and their corporate suite -- to examine the billion-dollar business of baseball and its enormous impact on our culture. 
 While many prominent people went to bat for baseball in Phoenix, sports entrepreneur Jerry Colangelo, the Diamondbacks' managing general partner, swung for the fences and scored a league-envious, $355 million state-of-the-art baseball facility. Big League, Big Time discloses how Colangelo's revolutionary vision for the Diamondbacks affected all aspects of the club -- especially his choice of personnel, from Jay Bell and Andy Benes to former Yankees manager Buck Showalter, "a young man with old-fashioned ideas." 
 But even before they had drafted a player, the Diamondbacks front office was well aware that marketing "The Show" was the off-the-field game they couldn't afford to lose. Read the inside story of how they chose the team's name and colors, successfully maneuvered multimillion-dollar deals with a host of major sponsors, determinedly wooed the vast Mexican market, attracted such celebrity coinvestors as Billy Crystal and Lou Gosset, Jr., and became one of the five highest revenue-producing franchises before a single game was played. 
 Complete with player profiles, an exclusive inside-the-war-room took at the expansion draft, and a dissection of the media's role in the global growth of the sports industry, Big League, Big Time is a rare glimpse into the politics, business, and promise of baseball -- a fascinating analysis of how one city cultivated a very special field of dreams.

Big League, Big Time: The Birth Of The Arizona Diamondbacks, The Billion Dollar Business Of Sports

Biographies & Memoirs

GALLERY BOOKS

The nation's most popular health spa share some of its secrets for relieving stress, exercising regularly, eating right, and bringing spirituality into the home.

The Canyon Ranch Guide to Living Younger Longer: A Complete Program for Optimal Health for Body, Mind, and Spirit

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Canyon Ranch

Exercise & Fitness

Free Press

Big League, Big Time: The Birth Of The Arizona Diamondbacks, The Billion-dollar Business Of Sports, And The Power Of The Media In America

Sports & Outdoors

Baseball

Diane Pub Co.

Presents the life and career of the Arizona sheriff known for his unorthodox methods and toughness on crime, discussing his creation of the Tent City Jail and describing his views on such issues as illegal immigration and drug abuse.

Joe's Law: America's Toughest Sheriff Takes on Illegal Immigration, Drugs, and Everything Else That Threatens America

Arpaio, Joe

Community & Culture

Amacom Books

How You Play the Game: Lessons for Life from the Billion-Dollar Business of Sports

Looks at the life and career of the owner of the Phoenix Suns and Arizona Diamondbacks

Colangelo, Jerry

This is a story of passion and commitment and faith―qualities that drove one working-class kid to not only build a sports empire, but also to change the way the entire sports industry has done business. In How You Play the Game, Jerry Colangelo, in his own words, tells how he emerged from the tough streets of Chicago Heights as a high school and college sports star…how he helped create and build the Chicago Bulls―at a time when the NBA was a second-tier professional league, and two basketball teams had already failed in the Windy City…how he moved to Arizona and started the Phoenix Suns, an organization that fought its way to become the ninth richest franchise in all of sports…and how he then began baseball’s newest team, the Arizona Diamondbacks. This is a tale of determination, faith, and, most assuredly, good timing and good luck. In truth, this isn’t one story―but many. Jerry weaves together a lifetime of great moments in sports and tense times in business. Peppered with stories about players and coaches, including Charles Barkley and Connie Hawkins, Red Holzman, and Buck Showalter, as well as owners, general managers, investors, reporters, and more, How You Play the Game is truly an insider’s look at the sports world. Mr. Colangelo’s 30-year history mirrors the evolution of sports to the global marketing and media mega-industry it is today.

Professionals & Academics

AMACOM

Interviews with celebrities attempt to discover the reasons they campaign for issues and candidates, and what are the effects of their political endorsements

The Good, the Bad and the Famous: Celebrities Playing Politics

Politics & Social Sciences

Politics & Government

LYLE STUART +

He is both feared and admired, and for the past two decades he has been both lionized and demonized by the media. Outspoken, no-nonsense, and eminently fascinating, Joseph M. Arpaio captured the public’s imagination from his first day as sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona, (a county larger than the state of New Jersey) in 1992. He has become an icon, not only in his own state, but around the world. For sixteen straight years he has averaged an unprecedented 80 percent approval rating.To his ardent followers, “Sheriff Joe,” as he is universally known, is a hero: both for his toughness on crime—and criminals—and his sense of humanity. Sheriff Joe conceived the Tent City Jail, where he houses inmates in surplus army tents left over from the Korean War. Known as the “Alcatraz of Arizona,” his jail brought back male and female chain gangs (for cleaning parks and roadways) and provides stringent, often unorthodox discipline. To discourage theft, the Sheriff insisted that his inmates be restrained with pink handcuffs, and don pink underwear and socks. Inmates are permitted to watch educational programming only, like news, Animal Planet, and The Weather Channel. And by eliminating comforts for his inmates, he has managed to shave $500,000 annually from the cost of keeping prisoners.But he also offers a wide range of educational and therapeutic programs for his inmates, though they’re far less publicized. His opponents decry him for his iron-fisted approach, but no one can deny that Sheriff Joe is one of the country’s most respected elected officials.In this audiobook, “America’s Toughest Sheriff” takes an uncensored look at some of the most difficult and important issues facing America today. The only local law enforcement official in the country directing his deputies to arrest illegal immigrants, Arpaio has shamed the U.S. Border Patrol, the Dept. of Homeland Security, and other federal bureaus, and become a prominent leader in the fight against some of our most pervasive problems. In Joe’s Law he tackles the issue of illegal immigration head on: its relationship with drug trafficking, taxes, and crime, and how it impacts healthcare and education as well. Arpaio offers fair and innovative ways to solve this dilemma and many others, not only for his own state, but for the entire country.The Sheriff’s struggle has personal consequences as well, as the book opens with the revelation of an all-too-credible assassination plot against him, arising from his aggressive and very public anti–illegal immigration campaign.Compelling and courageous, Joe’s Law is a candid take on some of American society’s most pressing problems, and one man’s revolutionary vision for eliminating them.

Arpaio, Sheriff Joe

BRILLIANCE AUDIO ^

Speaking plainly and courageously about crime, punishment, and politics, this book demands to be read. --Rush Limbaugh, Political commentator, talk show host

America's Toughest Sheriff: How to Win the War Against Crime

Humor & Entertainment

Summit Group

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Books by Sherman, Len