August 06, 2007

Bill Giles Book May Not Even Exist

Last week, I noted a discussion of Phillies owner Bill Giles' book, Pouring Six Beers at a Time, which itself noted that parts of the book may have been not so much accurate. But, whatever. It's a memoir. Do you know how many baseball memoirs have errors in them? Is there a portion higher than 100 percent?

An alert reader passed along this review by Jim McCaffrey of The Bulletin from earlier this year. It sums up the book pretty well: Entertaining, but lacking in detail about interesting characters Giles knew. One such man is Roy Hofheinz, who helped broker the deal for baseball in Houston. And here's what Giles' book says about Hofheinz:

Giles' one-paragraph biography of Hofheinz is quite literally lifted right out of Wikipedia.

Factual errors, Wikipedia thievery... looks like Giles' memoir explains the Phillies quite well.

Giles' Book Gives Insights On Phillies' Failures [The Bulletin]
Friday: Phillies Owner Just Like Every Other Memoirist

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August 03, 2007

Phillies Owner Just Like Every Other Memoirist

Earlier this year, Phillies chairman Bill Giles released his memoir, Pouring Six Beers at a Time, a look into his time in baseball. It was generally funnier than anyone expected it to be, it had a great story about Kiteman, etc., etc.

Of course, it's a Phillies book, so...

I'm working on a biography of Paul Richards, so accuracy compels me to point out that he was not the GM of Houston in 1967. He was in Atlanta. That's one of many flagrant errors in Giles's entertaining book.

Fortunately for the public, pretty much every memoir has flagrant errors. Er. But, hey, at least Bill Giles didn't include his thoughts on Brett Myers from last year in his book.

Ten Things I Didn't Know Last Week [Hardball Times]

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October 20, 2006

Closest Phils'll Get To World Series Anytime Soon

But, hey, the Phils' owner was honorary National League president! That's gotta count for something.

St. Louis 3, NY Mets 1 [AP/Yahoo!]

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July 11, 2006

Blogicized: Hey, Everybody Pile On!

Yee-ha! It's Bash Bill Giles Day™ here in Philadelphia, and bloggers are just going bananas about it! (Including myself!) So it's time for a special all-Bash Bill Giles edition of Blogicized! Let's take a look!

• A commenter pointed out this amusing piece by Tom Durso, which includes a nice translation guide for what Giles is actually trying to say. It's worth it for the last line. [Shallow Center]

• "Ruby Legs" says that Bill Giles must be forced out, a la Marge Schott, and also says the Phillies are worth a billion dollars. That seems about a billion dollars too high. [Phillyville]

• Will Bunch says this team must be sold immediately, but says a boycott won't work, so we have to beg. I can only imagine the email he's going to get from Giles: "On your knees, beyotch!" [Attytood]

• Balls, Sticks & Stuff asks: Are the Phillies incompetent, or just stupid? [Balls, Sticks & Stuff]

• Award-winning headline writer Peter Mucha comes up with the longest poll in Internet history. [Early Word]

• And, finally, Dan Rubin recaps it all! Huzzah! [Blinq]

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Bill Giles Opens Mouth, Remembers Why He Usually Doesn't Talk To Press

Okay, let's tread slowly into this one, shall we? Bill Giles has an interview in the Inquirer today with Todd Zolecki where he, uhm, speaks about the Phillies and shows why he should probably keep his mouth shut.

Here are the opening questions, and the money quotes:

Q: What did you hear [about the Myers incident]?

A: "I don't know that I'm privileged to say. I'm not the spokesman for the Phillies. I do know what really happened was a lot less than what the public thinks happened and that's the sad part because some bystander saw something that really didn't happen. Brett was trying to help his wife." [...]

Q: But witnesses saw it.
A: "One of our employees [marketing manager Debbie Nocito] saw the whole thing. She said, 'He did not hit her at all, and he didn't grab her hair or anything.' So all the reports were untrue, from what I understand."

After the jump, some more Giles quotes, some analysis and some good old-fashioned bashing of WIP.

Continue reading "Bill Giles Opens Mouth, Remembers Why He Usually Doesn't Talk To Press"

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