Players - by Matthew Futterman (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

"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).

Review Quotes

"Players is an entertaining, illuminating read. . . . Futterman's investigative research reveals insights and insider perspectives that even those highly knowledgeable in the sports featured will find informative, even intriguing."
--New York Journal of Books

"A complex tale, compellingly told . . . Players might be the best book about the business of sports since Moneyball."
--Grace Lichtenstein, The Millions

"A smart, rollicking read about the business of sports, with fresh insight into the breathtaking financial boom that has revolutionized every sport we love and every game we watch. Populated with the boldest pioneers, from Mark McCormack and Arnold Palmer to George Steinbrenner and Marvin Miller, Players is a landmark book that will be consulted, and cherished, for years."
--Don Van Natta Jr., ESPN investigative reporter, Pulitzer Prize winner, and New York Times bestselling author of First Off the Tee, Wonder Girl and coauthor of Her Way

"An indispensable volume . . . Smart, insightful, and pleasantly opinionated."
--Publishers Weekly

"An insightful, reader-friendly study of the economic transformation of pro sports in America and beyond."
--Booklist

"Could not be more timely . . . No part of the media and entertainment industry has seen a more substantial economic transformation than sports. . . . Mr. Futterman, a sportswriter for The Wall Street Journal, takes us on 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."
--New York Times

"Fascinating . . . Insightful . . . Despite the multiple sports explored and the large cast of characters, Futterman develops his theme seamlessly in a book that will appeal to casual fans as well as those who live and die according to the accomplishments of athletes."
--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"Finally we have the full story of business and sports, told with a mastery that only a writer of Matthew Futterman's years of experience in both fields could bring to the table. As I read Players I was reminded of Michael Lewis's Moneyball because it's one of those great stories that's been hiding in plain sight, and it also shows us how the games themselves were changed by the action off the field. Anybody with an interest in money or sports will devour this book."
--Jim Nantz

"Masterful . . . A remarkable saga . . . Filled with insights not only into sports, but also into human nature . . . Downright thrilling."
--Dallas Morning News

"Provocative . . . There are also terrific stories."
--Louis Menand, The New Yorker

"Sports is big business. We all know that today, but how and why did football, baseball, basketball, and the Olympics become so big? And what does that mean to athletes and fans? Matthew Futterman provides the answers in this revealing and wonderfully readable book. Players is a winner."
--David Maraniss, author of When Pride Still Mattered, Clemente, and Rome 1960

"The business of sports has been completely transformed over the course of my lifetime, and Players is a riveting behind-the-scenes look at the beginnings of that revolution. I couldn't put it down."
--Billy Beane

"The magnitude by which athletes have become bigger, faster, and stronger is dwarfed by the degree to which they have become richer. Players is a deeply reported expose of the forces that have so often morphed sports from pure fun into pure business. It's a fascinating read whether you're interested in big time sports, big time business, or the intersection of the two."
--David Epstein, author of The Sports Gene