This is a very well written easy to read history of the Oakland A's during the Seventies. The author does provide a balanced view, the good and the bad. After reading this book you will wonder how this team managed to win any games let alone three World Series. This book has the behind the scenes locker room fights and the on the field fights. The players fought each other and the owner Charles Finley and still managed to win games despite The Owner's best efforts. This is a must read for any baseball or sports fan. Enjoy

In his book, Dynastic, Bombastic, Fantastic: Reggie, Rollie, Catfish and Charlie Finley’s Swingin’ A’s, Jason Turbow takes an in-depth look at the 1970’s Oakland A’s and their controversial owner, Charlie Finley. Beginning with their move from Kansas City to Northern California, Turbow chronicles the climb from unenviable obscurity to unquestionable powerhouse as the A’s win three straight World Championships. Led by a brilliant but meddlesome and mercurial owner, these colorful and combative players would leave their mark on baseball history, only to have the franchise dismantled by Finley’s unnecessary frugalness and the game’s move to free agency.

Swimgin’ A’s is a fascinating look at the inner-workings of a baseball franchise. The book is incredibly well-written and well-researched as Turbow makes baseball come alive and presents the people and personalities in the context of long, grueling seasons rife with dysfunction. Finley fought his players, Finley fought his managers, and players fought their owner and each other. This furthered their reputation around the league as rebels. Finley and his players may not have been popular on the larger landscape of baseball but they, like their uniforms, could not be ignored. They just kept winning. Whether they did this because of, or in spite of, their insufferable owner, is still a subject for debate. There is no question that the Oakland A’s of the 1970’s are one of the greatest teams to step foot on a baseball diamond.


Swingin’ A’s is an entertaining and engaging read for any baseball fan. However, it contains graphic language that some readers may find objectionable. Whatever your opinion of Charlie Finley and his team, The Swingin’ A’s deserve to be remembered for their accomplishments on the field rather than the drama they created off of it.


I was given a free copy from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

Spring is fast approaching, and with it comes the siren song of baseball.

Baseball has always been the American sport most conducive to literary exploration. Whether it’s fiction or nonfiction, no sport makes for a better book than baseball.

Some teams – the Boston Red Sox, the New York Yankees – have had more than their share of ink spilled upon them over the years. But that narrow focus means that some truly fascinating narratives haven’t really been told as thoroughly as perhaps they should have.

Thanks to a new book by author Jason Turbow, one particularly underappreciated team is receiving its due.

“Dynastic, Bombastic, Fantastic: Reggie, Rollie, Catfish, and Charlie Finley’s Swingin’ A’s” recounts the weird saga of the Oakland Athletics teams of the 1970s. Despite the fact that they had one of the most successful stretches in baseball history – three straight World Series titles in 1972, 1973 and 1974 – those A’s squads never really received the accolades their successes warranted.

Reggie Jackson, Rollie Fingers, Catfish Hunter – Hall of Famers all. And all of them came into their own as ballplayers in the garish green and gold of the Oakland A’s. Sal Bando, Gene Tenace, Bert Campaneris, Joe Rudi – phenomenal talents whose exceptional play made them key cogs on championship teams. Vida Blue, Blue Moon Odom, Ken Holtzman – volatile pitchers whose tempers off the mound matched their considerable talents on it.

These were the sprawling, brawling Oakland A’s of the 1970s. Perhaps no team in MLB history carried the sort of off-the-field dysfunction that this one did. Sniping in the press, locker room brawls – they were almost cartoonish in their inability to get along.

Yet even as they were at one another’s throats, one thing united them, the one thing that can almost always bring together even those of the greatest antipathy – a common foe. Even with their incredible stretch at the pinnacle of major league baseball, the Oakland A’s were a team that had just such a common foe - their owner, the eccentric Charles O. Finley.

Finley was despised by just about everyone in baseball. His fellow owners hated him. His players loathed him. He simply refused to play by any rules other than the ones he arbitrarily decided on for himself. And while his maverick nature didn’t earn him any friends, it also led – both directly and indirectly – to some of the biggest seismic shifts in the game’s long history.

From the massive rise of the decade’s early years to the cratering of its ending, “Dynastic, Bombastic, Fantastic” paints a picture of perhaps the most undercelebrated great team of the modern era. This was the team that – thanks to the almost comical combination of tight-fistedness and stubbornness of their owner – essentially opened the door for what would become free agency.

Major league baseball in the 1970s was something different, a violent collision of the establishment and the counterculture. The A’s existed in that nexus, packed with iconoclasts and led by a man who was against any type of authority that was not his own. This was the team that gave us the handlebar mustache of Rollie Fingers and the nonsense aquatic nickname of the pitcher who was born Jim Hunter.

Turbow captures the deep weirdness of the era as it was refracted through the prism of baseball. He brings to life the antagonism that existed between players and recreates the utter disdain they (and everybody, really) had for Charles Finley. In truth, the A’s had no right becoming a dynasty, but the stars aligned in a very specific way. The combination of talent and time led to the kind of success enjoyed by a scant few teams in MLB history, yet just as quickly, the A’s plummeted into the second division and an irrelevant oblivion as Finley steered his rapidly sinking ship into iceberg after iceberg before finally abandoning it at the bottom of the American League sea.

“Dynastic, Bombastic, Fantastic” tells the story of a team that truly was all of those things. And while those spates of A’s excellence might never be appreciated in the same way that other similar stretches are, thanks to Jason Turbow, fans of baseball history have the opportunity to dig deeper into one of the most bizarre – and fun – teams in the storied saga of the national pastime.

I received a free Kindle copy of this book courtesy of Net Galley and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, the publisher. It was with the understanding that I would post a reivew on Net Galley, Goodreads, Amazon and my history book review blog. I also posted a review on my Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google Plus pages.

I requested this book as I am a fan of baseball and remember vividly the Oakland Athletic teams of the early to mid 1970's. It is the first book by Jason Turbow that I have read.

This book is well researched and an entertaining read. It covers how a dysfunctional organization and team overcame the obstacles to win three world series in a span of 5 years and how the club broke up after that run. Some could consider Charles Finley to be a mad genuis, but the team was successful often in spite of the colorful owner.

I recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of baseball and in particular the Oakland Athletics.

I grew up watching the Amazing A’S winning the World Series three years in a row. Really though they were in the playoffs before and after. I am sure that most people remember their colorful uniforms, mustaches, and their personalities. This book goes into all of that and starts with the owner Charles Finley. How he became an owner, moving the team from Kansas City to Oakland. His finding the player’s weather they were in high school or college. He was the one listening to a few scouts and bringing these players together. I found that part of the story very fascinating. That was something that I did not know. He did go through a lot of managers until he found Dick Williams who left after their second championship because he was tired of Finley. I always wondered about that. His putting this team together was before the draft started and even after the draft he was still picking good players. The book also goes into contract negotiations which in the end would be the down fall for the team. He missed an insurance payment on Catfish Hunter’s contract and even when he was given the chance to make the payment he refused. He then at the end of the year went to the commissioner’s office wanting them to intercede and when they did, Hunter’s lawyer was able to go to court on the grounds of his contract was violated. The court in turn made Hunter a free agent because Finley did not met his part of the promise of said contract. Then months later when he signed with the Yankees Finley saw the way things were going to change and tried to sell away ball players. Some worked some did not. There still the only team other than the New York Yankees to win three World Series in a row, and I think if they would have stayed together they could have won more. They also beat the big red machine of the 70’s, the Baltimore Orioles, L.A. Dodgers, and yet it is like people have forgot about them. Also in this day an age of sabermetrics Dick Williams the manager was using his pitchers back then the way people talk about using them now. In the 72 series against the Reds he came in relief for most games while he was the best pitcher, and the one game he did start game 6 he lost. With him and Fingers the Reds were shocked. It was things like this that made the A’S special and fun to watch, and I was only able to see them on T.V. By the time I saw them in person they were with other teams but still good players. Being a Yankee fan I still like baseball and this is a great book about baseball and a great team. Worth the read.

Fun read for any baseball fan who grew up in the 1970s or has an interest in baseball history.