Players

The Story of Sports and Money--and the Visionaries Who Fought to Create a Revolution

By: Matthew Futterman

Narrated by: George Newbern

“Provocative…terrific stories” (The New Yorker) of the people who transformed sports—in the span of a single generation—from a job that required even top athletes to work in the off-season to make ends meet into a massive global business.

It started, as most business deals do, with a handshake. In 1960, a Cleveland lawyer named Mark McCormack convinced a golfer named Arnold Palmer to sign with him. McCormack simply believed that the best athletes had more commercial value than they were being paid for—and he was right. Within a few years, he raised Palmer’s annual income from $5,000 to $500,000, and forever changed the landscape of the sports industry, transforming it from a form of entertainment to a profitable and fully functioning system of its own.

“A remarkable saga…filled with insights not only into sports, but also into human nature” (The Dallas Morning News), Players features landmark moments, including the multiyear battle to free Palmer from a bad deal with the Wilson Sporting Goods Company; the 1973 Wimbledon boycott, when eighty-one of the top tennis players in the world protested the suspension of Nikola Pilic; baseball pitcher Catfish Hunter’s battle to become MLB’s first free agent; and how NFL executives transformed pro football from a commercial dud to the greatest show on earth.

“An entertaining, illuminating read” (New York Journal of Books), Players is a riveting, fly-on-the-wall account of the rise and creation of the modern sports world, and the people who made it happen. “No part of the media and entertainment industry has seen a more substantial economic transformation than sports….A half-century tour spanning a variety of widely recognized and lesser-known sports figures and competitions that have played roles in the industry’s development….Players could not be more timely” (The New York Times).

Starts slow...

This starts slow going all the way back to explain the history of how it all started but it gets better as it goes. I enjoyed it.

Fantastic read!

Any sports fan will love this book, especially if part of your life was spent in the era of more modest money in sports. It would also work for non-sports fans who wonder how sports got so big. AWESOME BOOK!

Very thorough, but felt a bit too long...

There were some issues with pacing and pronunciation of names and it felt like the whole book could have done with another series of edits, but the content is absolutely fantastic, if a bit disjointed. If you are truly looking for the history of the big-time monetization of sport and its growth at the hands of stars and those with foresight and insight behind the scenes with nods to some of the unsung heroes and battles that were fought to pay athletes like the professionals they are... pick this up. You won’t be disappointed!

Weak Effort

There is some good information in this book if you're a sports fan. Perhaps a bit more minutiae than was actually needed to tell the story but not at all bad. The author is supposedly a New York Times sportswriter but his level of knowledge isn't particularly impressive. As for the narrator, once again the person picked to read the book has evidently never watched any games or even ESPN. The number of mispronunciations by reader George Newbern indicated futile attempts at phonics which really didn't work out all that well. If you're a sports fan and this book is ever offered as Audible's Daily Deal it's a good deal, but not worth a credit.

Outstanding# So much better than expected

I'm so glad I found this book. I learned a lot about the history of significant changes in sports. The writing was good. The reader was good. I'm so pleased with this book. And I'd be very interested in Reading other work by the author.