3 Nights in August: Strategy, Heartbreak, and Joy Inside the Mind of a Manager

Buzz Bissinger

Apr 2006 · Sold by HMH

About this ebook

This inside view with the Cardinals’ Tony La Russa by the #1 New York Times–bestselling author of Friday Night Lights “should appeal to any baseball fan” (Publishers Weekly).

A Chicago Tribune Best Book of the Year
 
 “Plenty of books have taken us inside baseball, but August takes us directly inside players’ heads.” —Entertainment Weekly
 
3 Nights in August captures the strategic and emotional complexities of baseball’s quintessential form: the three-game series. As the St. Louis Cardinals battle their archrival, the Chicago Cubs, we watch from the dugout through the eyes of legendary Tony La Russa, considered by many to be the greatest manager of the modern era. In his thirty-three years of managing, La Russa won three World Series titles and was named Manager of the Year a record five times. He now stands as the third-winningest manager in the history of baseball.
 
A great leader, La Russa built his success on the conviction that ball games are won not only by the numbers but also by the hearts and minds of those who play. Drawing on unprecedented access to a major league skipper and his team, Buzz Bissinger portrays baseball with a revelatory intimacy that offers many surprisingly tactical insights—and furthers the debate on major league managerial style and strategy in his provocative afterword.
 
“Superb . . . Will be devoured by hard-core strategists.” —The New York Times Book Review

Ratings and reviews

This is a book where the writing got in the way. The author puts LaRussa on a pedestal, treating his every move and thought as gospel. A clear case of flowery prose making it hard to choke down pages, which dramatically slowed my reading. I love baseball. I didn't love this.

If that sounds good to you, this is a must! Need I say more?

I loved this book from cover to cover. Its amazing. Its my favorite book.

About the author

Buzz Bissinger is a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and author of four books, including New York Times bestseller 3 Nights in August and Friday Night Lights, which has sold two million copies and inspired a film and TV franchise. He is a contributing editor for Vanity Fair and a sports columnist for the Daily Beast. Bissinger has written for the New York Times, the New Republic, Time, and many other publications.