About the Book
From one of Canada's top baseball writers and radio hosts: a retrospective of the Toronto Blue Jays on the 20th anniversary of Joe Carter's World Series-winning home run--and a look ahead to what promises to be their most successful season since. A must-have for all Blue Jays fans, and a great read for Toronto and Canadian sports fans in general.
In Full Count, Jeff Blair takes us back to the days when the Toronto Blue Jays were "the Cadillac of franchises," and shows us exactly what they did right to become baseball's premier club. Then he explores the disappointing aftermath, when the league's fourth-largest market became an also-ran: seemingly destined to languish behind the big-spending Yankees and Red Sox and free-wheeling Rays--until the offseason of 2012. Full Count will appeal not only to casual fans wanting re-live Blue Jays history, but also to the serious baseball fan who wants to know the real details and business decisions that drove the team to the pinnacle, then to mediocrity, and now (hopefully) back to the top once again."
About the Author :
Like Joe Carter, JEFF BLAIR has "touched 'em all" in more than 30 years of sportswriting and broadcasting. The Globe and Mail s sports columnist and host of The Jeff Blair Show on Sportsnet 590/The Fan in Toronto has covered Olympics, World Series, Stanley Cups and earthquakes while working in Winnipeg, Calgary, Montreal and Toronto. But his first love is baseball, which he covered from 1989-97 as a beat reporter with The Gazette and has covered since then as a columnist with the Globe and Mail. Blair grew up in Morden, Man., and attended the University of Manitoba. He lives in Hamilton with wife, Shelley, and daughter, Emma Rose."
Review :
NATIONAL BESTSELLER
Blair is lucid, informed and intelligent.... We can appreciate...Blair s judicious commentary on a team that always seems to be on the wrong side of the baseball gods.
Philip Marchand, National Post
Full Count is learned and thorough, with a keen eye on engaging readers instead of drowning them in the deluge of the author s knowledge.... The book manages that rare narrative pull that eludes so much contemporary sports writing.
Quill & Quire
Full Count is the book Jays fans have been waiting for. Jeff Blair nails the twin goals of any successful author, telling stories loaded with flair and detail and gaining tremendous access to the principals who could shed the most light on the past four decades of baseball in Toronto. Not a Jays diehard? No problem. With tales of boardroom dealings, team-building strategies, and vivid storytelling, Blair, like Joe Carter twenty years before him, touches em all.
Jonah Keri, author of the New York Times bestseller The Extra 2%: How Wall Street Strategies Took a Major League Baseball Team from Worst to First"
NATIONAL BESTSELLER
Blair is lucid, informed and intelligent.... We can appreciate...Blair s judicious commentary on a team that always seems to be on the wrong side of the baseball gods.
Philip Marchand, "National Post"
"Full Count" is learned and thorough, with a keen eye on engaging readers instead of drowning them in the deluge of the author s knowledge.... The book manages that rare narrative pull that eludes so much contemporary sports writing.
"Quill & Quire"
"Full Count" is the book Jays fans have been waiting for. Jeff Blair nails the twin goals of any successful author, telling stories loaded with flair and detail and gaining tremendous access to the principals who could shed the most light on the past four decades of baseball in Toronto. Not a Jays diehard? No problem. With tales of boardroom dealings, team-building strategies, and vivid storytelling, Blair, like Joe Carter twenty years before him, touches em all.
Jonah Keri, author of the New York Times bestseller "The Extra 2%: How Wall Street Strategies Took a Major League Baseball Team from Worst to First""
NATIONAL BESTSELLER
"Blair is lucid, informed and intelligent.... We can appreciate...Blair's judicious commentary on a team that always seems to be on the wrong side of the baseball gods."
--Philip Marchand, "National Post"
""Full Count" is learned and thorough, with a keen eye on engaging readers instead of drowning them in the deluge of the author's knowledge.... The book manages that rare narrative pull that eludes so much contemporary sports writing."
--"Quill & Quire"
""Full Count" is the book Jays fans have been waiting for. Jeff Blair nails the twin goals of any successful author, telling stories loaded with flair and detail and gaining tremendous access to the principals who could shed the most light on the past four decades of baseball in Toronto. Not a Jays diehard? No problem. With tales of boardroom dealings, team-building strategies, and vivid storytelling, Blair, like Joe Carter twenty years before him, touches 'em all."
--Jonah Keri, author of the New York Times bestseller "The Extra 2%: How Wall Street Strategies Took a Major League Baseball Team from Worst to First"
NATIONAL BESTSELLER
"Blair is lucid, informed and intelligent.... We can appreciate...Blair's judicious commentary on a team that always seems to be on the wrong side of the baseball gods."
--Philip Marchand, "National Post"
""Full Count" is learned and thorough, with a keen eye on engaging readers instead of drowning them in the deluge of the author's knowledge.... The book manages that rare narrative pull that eludes so much contemporary sports writing."
--"Quill & Quire"
""Full Count" is the book Jays fans have been waiting for. Jeff Blair nails the twin goals of any successful author, telling stories loaded with flair and detail and gaining tremendous access to the principals who could shed the most light on the past four decades of baseball in Toronto. Not a Jays diehard? No problem. With tales of boardroom dealings, team-building strategies, and vivid storytelling, Blair, like Joe Carter twenty years before him, touches 'em all."
--Jonah Keri, author of the New York Times bestseller "The Extra 2%: How Wall Street Strategies Took a Major League Baseball Team from Worst to First"
""Full Count" is the book Jays fans have been waiting for. Jeff Blair nails the twin goals of any successful author, telling stories loaded with flair and detail and gaining tremendous access to the principals who could shed the most light on the past four decades of baseball in Toronto. Not a Jays diehard? No problem. With tales of boardroom dealings, team-building strategies, and vivid storytelling, Blair, like Joe Carter twenty years before him, touches 'em all."
--Jonah Keri, author of the New York Times bestseller "The Extra 2%: How Wall Street Strategies Took a Major League Baseball Team from Worst to First"
