Tampa Bay Times called Stadium For Rent (Second Edition) “Notable” for 2015 baseball season!
STADIUM FOR RENT:
Tampa Bay’s Quest for Major League Baseball
returned to print just in time for
Tropicana Field’s 25th Anniversary (02-28-15)
and the continuing discussion of where the
Tampa Bay Rays should build their next stadium.
SEEMS LIKE OLD TIMES, RIGHT?
STADIUM FOR RENT
2nd Edition, Expanded, Updated, Illustrated
BY BOB ANDELMAN
Stuart Sternberg, managing partner, Tampa Bay Rays, Maddux Business Report by Bob Andelman
STADIUM FOR RENT: Tampa Bay’s Quest for Major League Baseball: This is the true, complicated story of the decades-long battle to bring a baseball team to Florida’s West Coast.
Back in print for the first time in two decades, Bob Andelman’s detailed investigation has been updated and expanded with hundreds of political cartoons and photos that illustrate the community’s sometimes brutal campaign, as well as an all-new introduction by best-selling sportswriter Peter Golenbock (Dynasty; Red Sox Nation; Balls; George) and an afterword by award-winning Tampa Bay Times sports columnist Gary Shelton (http://www.garysheltonsports.com). Plus, interviews with original Tampa Bay Devil Rays franchise owner Vincent J. Naimoli and the man to whom he sold managing interest in the team, Stuart Sternberg.
No baseball, business, or community development bookshelf should be without this one-of-a-kind story.
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/StadiumForRent
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/andelman
Website: http://www.mrmediabooks.com
Available anywhere books are sold!
PRAISE for STADIUM FOR RENT (First Edition)
Tampa Tribune editorial cartoon by Wayne Stayskal
“Journalist Bob Andelman tells in painful detail how close (Tampa Bay) came to winning… Recommended for serious sports collection.”
– Morey Berger, Library Journal
“Andelman points a finger not at the bay area’s civic leaders but at the panjandrums of baseball. He provides an impeccably researched play-by-play of every inning of this high-stakes game in which the home team has been shut out… The story is compelling, and in Andelman’s hands, it’s masterfully organized and written.”
– Tom Chase, Spitball: The Literary Baseball Magazine
“A phenomenal read. The guy did his research… I became so engrossed, I couldn’t put it down… a superb job on how he put it together.”
– Erica Stuart, associate producer, 60 Minutes, CBS-TV
“Andelman put it in perspective.”
– Tom McEwen, “The Morning After,” Tampa Tribune
St. Petersburg Times editorial cartoon by Don Addis
“Andelman tells the bittersweet, folly-filled tale of Tampa Bay’s courtship of a major league franchise—the Florida White Sox, perhaps, or the St. Petersburg Marlins. St. Petersburg, in particular, just couldn’t take no for an answer and built a beautiful stadium, despite a lack of encouragement from Major League Baseball. As it was probably always destined to do, the franchise went to Miami, and St. Petersburg’s stadium is the elaborate home to tractor-pulls.”
– John Mort, Booklist
“Awesome.”
– Tedd Webb, 970 WFLA Radio
“In Stadium For Rent, Bob Andelman details St. Petersburg’s journey from stalking horse to major league market with great skill and attention to detail. It’s impossible to fully grasp the impact of the worst-to-first AL pennant winners of 2008 without learning how they came into existence.”
– Jonah Keri, author of The Extra 2%: How Wall Street Strategies Took a Major League Baseball Team from Worst to First
St. Petersburg Times editorial cartoon by Clay Bennett
“A work that could cause an iceberg to boil. It has everything but a happy ending, rattling off the aggravation we’ve endured here in the clinical manner of an autopsy.”
– Joe Henderson, Tampa Tribune
“A home run… If you think there was a lot of public game-playing (if you’ll pardon the pun) going on while the City of St. Petersburg kept getting the short shrift, you should read the book to see what really went on.”
– John J. Tischner, Pinellas County Review
“A finely detailed account of this region’s dubious distinction for taking brush-back pitch after brush-back pitch from the denizens of the diamond… It isn’t a pretty story. It isn’t even ugly. Just pathetic. Stadium For Rent is a good, albeit frustrating read.”
– Dan Ruth, Tampa Tribune
“The best parts of the book are Andelman’s portrayals of personalities who led the baseball effort. Among them: Jack Lake, the cantankerous newspaper manager obsessed with getting baseball; Frank Morsani, the remarkably baseball-naive car dealer; and Rick Dodge, the steel-willed assistant city manager who bounced back after each defeat only to become embroiled in yet another plan.”
– E.A. Torriero, San Jose Mercury News
Bob Andelman, Players Magazine profile, photograph by Dennis Osborne
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Bob Andelman is the host and producer of Mr. Media® Interviews, a video podcast begun in February 2007 (http://www.MrMedia.com). He is also the author or co-author of 15 books, including: The Wawa Way with Howard Stoeckel; Building Atlanta with Herman J. Russell; Fans Not Customers with Vernon W. Hill, founder of Commerce Bank and Metro Bank UK; Mind Over Business with Ken Baum; The Consulate: A Novel with Thomas R. Stutler; The Profiler with Pat Brown; Built From Scratch with the founders of The Home Depot; The Profit Zone with Adrian Slywotzky; Mean Business with Albert J. Dunlap, and Will Eisner: A Spirited Life.
Andelman and his wife, Mimi, live in St. Petersburg with their child, Charlie, a student at Florida State University, and loyal terrier companion, Chase.
“STADIUM FOR RENT: Tampa Bay’s Quest for Major League Baseball”
Author: Bob Andelman
Trade Paperback; 456 pages; Retail Price: $19.95
ISBN-13 978-1507655061
ISBN-10 1507655061
Publication Date: February 2015
For interviews, review copies or speaking engagements:
Bob Andelman
Mr. Media Books
Phone: 727-458-6475
E-Mail: mrmediabooks@gmail.com
Order ‘Stadium For Rent: Tampa Bay’s Quest for Major League Baseball’ by Bob Andelman, now available in an expanded, updated and illustrated 456-page special edition, available from Amazon.com by clicking on the book cover above!
