For months I've been meaning to write about Phillies Confidential, and now here it is just three days from the first game of the season. The subtitle of this wonderful book, by Gary "Sarge" Mathews with Scott Lauber, is The Untold Inside Story of the 2008 Championship Season. Mathews, a former outfielder who played with the Phillies in the 1983 World Series, is now a TV broadcaster with the team. Lauber is a beat writer for the Wilmington News Journal and a blogger I follow.
Mathews gets top billing, but Lauber deserves recognition. Written in a back-and-forth format, the book reads like a journal, or maybe a very well-written joint blog, with Mathews providing the insights unique to a former player, and Lauber providing a savvy journalistic approach. Though the story of the 2008 championship season, the book starts with the end of the 2007 season, which saw the Phillies claw their way past the gagging Mets to win the NL East.
On TV Mathews has an idiosyncratic flair and unflappable sense of humor, which I thoroughly enjoy. Though his signature stream-of-conscious comments were somewhat reined in, his professional acuity comes across in the easy, conversational tone and texture of the book. Which is to say that I learned a lot of subtle things about baseball from Sarge.
Rather than a day-by-day account, Phillies Confidential concentrates on key moments, acquisitions, events, and games that led to the World Series championship. Along the way, Mathews and Lauber highlight the contributions (or not) of each player and how, more than anything else, this group came to play together as a real team.
I bought the book for my mother for Christmas, then later borrowed it to read. I've since dipped into it a couple times again. When Mathews and Lauber were approached last May by Triumph Books about collaborating on the project, no one had any idea that a World Series championship was in the offing. But the sometimes frustrating and rocky season of 2008 came to a sweet and thrilling conclusion for the Phillies and their fans. Phillies Confidential captures it all. This is a very good baseball book.
