Three Nights in August: Strategy, Heartbreak and Joy Inside the Mind of a Manager » (Unabridged, 8 CDs, 10 hours)

In nonfiction bestsellers like Friday Night Lights, A Prayer for the City, and Three Nights in August, author/journalist Buzz Bissinger has demonstrated an undeniable knack for capturing the rhythms of life in big cities and small towns alike.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Friday Night Lights follows 2004 National League Champion St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony LaRussa through a three-game series with the arch-rival Chicago Cubs. Bissinger chronicles the process by which the manager leads his players to victory and distills the essence of the game from locker room and front office to dugout and field of play.

Publishers Weekly

Bissinger eschews the usual method of writing about baseball in the context of a season or a career, choosing instead to dissect the game by carefully watching one three-game series between the Cardinals and Cubs in late 2003. The Pulitzer-winning journalist and author of Friday Night Lights had unprecedented access to Cardinals manager Tony La Russa, as well as his staff and team, and he used that entr e to pick La Russa's formidable baseball brain about everything from how he assembles a lineup to why he uses certain relievers. As the series unfolds, Bissinger reveals La Russa's history and personality, conveying the manager's intensity and his compulsive need to be prepared for any situation that might arise during " `the war' of each at-bat." Typical characters-the gamer, the natural, the headcase, the crafty old timer-are present, but Bissinger gives new life to their familiar stories with his insider's view and cheeky descriptions (e.g., "Martinez's response to pressure has been like a 45-rpm record, a timeless hit on one side, and the flip side maybe best forgotten"). Bissinger analyzes each team's pitch-by-pitch strategy and gets the dirt on numerous enduring baseball questions: What does it feel like to have to close your first game in Yankee Stadium? Who knew about players using steroids before the current scandal hit? Do managers tell their pitchers to throw at hitters? Mixing classic baseball stories with little-known details and an exclusive perspective, this work should appeal to any baseball fan. Agent, David Gernert. (Apr. 5) Forecast: La Russa will make appearances tied in to the book's promo, and there will be a press conference for the book at spring training. Both should help this book rise to the top of this season's baseball book flood. Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

CONTENTS
Preface xi
Foreword by Tony La Russa xvii
Prologue 1
GAME ONE
1 Fear Factor 17
2 Locked In 26
3 "I'm Gonna Kill You!" 41
4 The Peeker 53
5 The Pitcher's Tale 67
6 Praying for Change 85
GAME TWO
7 Gonzalez Must Pay 105
8 Light My Fire 121
9 Whodunit 138
10 Being There 156
11 Under Pressure 175
GAME THREE
12 D.K. 199
13 Thing of Beauty 216
14 Kiss My Ass 224
15 Three Nights in August 240
Epilogue 254
Postscript 264
A Note on Sources 269
Acknowledgments 271
Index 273