"Jazz Age Giant is well-researched, complemented by plenty of notes. Garratt writes simply and smoothly, explaining complicated subjects in a clear manner. The life of Charles Stoneham may never be crystal clear, but Garratt helps bring it into focus."—Bob D'Angelo, Sports Bookie
"This biography of long-forgotten New York Giants owner Charley Stoneham is a superb example of the craftsmanship that goes into creating a reliable portrait of a person in the baseball industry."—Charlie Bevis, Bevis Baseball Research
“A wonderful, interesting, and informative book, even if you are not a baseball fan. By placing Charles Stoneham within [the context of] New York’s Jazz Age, Robert Garratt offers a unique perspective on the history of Giants baseball ownership.”—Bob Lurie, San Francisco Giants owner, 1976–1993
“Like the fictional Jay Gatsby, Charles Stoneham was a poor boy who became wealthy through marginally legal business practices and often associations with shady characters. As president of John McGraw’s perennially powerful and prosperous New York Giants, Stoneham was a major figure in Major League Baseball until his death in 1936. He is part of a colorful era in baseball and the city of New York, and Garratt does him justice in a well-done biography.”—Charles C. Alexander, author of John McGraw and Rogers Hornsby: A Biography
“A well-researched, informative biography. . . . Much of [Charles Stoneham’s] private life was a mystery, and Robert Garratt reveals the reasons why, which I suspect will come as a surprise to even the most knowledgeable of baseball fans. You won’t find a more entertaining look at baseball as it played out beyond the field during the 1920s and the early years of the Depression.”—Lyle Spatz, coauthor of 1921: The Yankees, the Giants and the Battle for Baseball Supremacy in New York
“Robert F. Garratt’s expertly researched and lively biography of Stoneham, successful businessman and owner of the New York Giants baseball team in the 1920s and 1930s, makes for highly entertaining and informative reading. Garratt’s intriguing positioning of Stoneham’s fascinating life story . . . in juxtaposition with F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Jay Gatsby suggests that it can be read as emblematic of the Jazz Age in which he flourished and adds texture to this account of this famously private figure whose story has hitherto remained unexamined.”—Jackson R. Bryer, president of the F. Scott Fitzgerald Society
