They Bled Blue: Review

I just finished ‘Dodgerland’ when ‘They Bled Blue’ came out. This kinda worked out perfect because I could jump from the story about the 1977-1978 World Series teams straight to the one about the 1981 team.
A big chuck of the book is about Fernando (duh!) and his rise to stardom. But we also get to know the other players and their manager better. There's even some unmasking of 'mister USA' Steve Garvey.

The chapter ‘Struck’ gives us an extended look at the strike. Why it came to be and how the players tried to stay in shape and were able to scrape together some money. A very interesting and important part of MLB-history. The history of Chavez Ravine is touched upon, but if you want to know more about the ravine, read ‘City of Dreams’ by Jerald Podair, which I reviewed HERE. Or wait till 'Stealing Home: Los Angeles, the Dodgers, and the Lives Caught in Between' comes out in 2020. The chapter 'Doodle Dandy', about the World Series is more than 70 pages long and takes you on a great journey along those games.

Ofcourse this book has something annoying. More than in any book I’ve ever read, the author in this one uses footnotes on a huge scale. If you tape them togehter you’ve got a whole other book. Sometimes the footnotes take up half the page or continue on the next page. The weird thing… all the info in the notes is not ‘well, if ya really wanna know, read the note’ kinda stuff. It’s all very interesting. So why not just PUT IT IN THE STORY? Otherwise, please use endnotes!

This is the only thing I can find that’s a negative, other than that, Turbow has presented the Dodger faithful with a great tome of facts, and some great pictures as well, about the 1981 season.