Ed Barrow was one of the first general managers, and he built the Yankees' dynasties in the 30s and 40s. Hence the title "Ed Barrow: The Bulldog Who Built the Yankees' First Dynasty." The book is written by Daniel Levitt, the co-author of Paths to Glory, which won a SABR award for research.
And that's where the primary value of "Ed Barrow" comes in: its research. It reminds me, in some ways, of a political biography, although Barrow never held office and probably could not have. There's a feeling here that Levitt read every in-house memo with the clubs and read Barrow's diary and private correspondence. You get the kind of details that could only come from sources like those. And because Barrow was league president (in the minors) and a GM, you get a lot of financial information about turn of the century baseball, like the chart showing team profits, dividends and retained earnings from 1920-1924.
So in that regard, it is a valuable book. The kind you are glad was written. But as a read, it can be a little dry. The first half of the book is dedicated to his pre-Yankee years in baseball, which consisted mostly of various managing, ownership and administrative roles in minor leagues. The Minors were different back then, and the book provides some insights into how the Minors interacted with the Majors, and how much different it was then, than now. However, the detail in this part of the book is almost overwhelming, and perhaps too voluminous to remain interesting for 100+ pages.
The most interesting portions revolve around attempts to form new Minor leagues, and in some cases, new Major leagues, like the Federal League and even the American League. Barrow had a role in many of these through his relationship with the baseball intelligentsia.
Barrow then gets tapped to manage the Red Sox, at a time when Babe Ruth was on the mound. The book begins to pick up the pace about this point, although the focus remains on Barrow's relationship with management much more than his relationship with players. There are few anecdotes about the players here; even one as colorful as Ruth. Barrow's relationship with Harry Frazee, the owner of the Sox who eventually sells Ruth to the Yankees, starts the transition to the more familiar aspects of baseball history.
The Yankees portion of the book does not show off as much research, though I trust it was done. Perhaps that's because the names here (Ruth, Gehrig, Dimaggio) are more familiar and the second half is less dry. I have to compliment the author, though, because the book avoids the biographer's trap of talking too much about the players and the games, and not enough about the subject.
Not only is there a nice recap of those early Yankee teams, you learn a lot about baseball's transactional rules (e.g., waivers and the 40 man roster) and how those developed. (Hint: it's like watching the owners making sausage). The trouble is, for an incredibly important baseball pioneer, I didn't find Barrow himself all that interesting. Probably his most interesting quirk is his love for boxing, and his penchant for confrontation.
All-in-all, this book adds valuable information to the baseball archives, and allows the reader to learn a number of things about the minor leagues, their relationship with the majors, and the behind-the-scenes decision making that the major league clubs engaged in regarding the players. I would not call it a "must read" or a "light read." It is not for the casual fan. However, if you are a member of SABR and enjoy their various publications, you will get a lot out of this book.
