The Big Chair: The Smooth Hops and Bad Bounces from the Inside World of the Acclaimed Los Angeles Dodgers General Manager

“The Big Chair isn’t a recliner. It’s a hot seat that never relents,” writes Colletti, the Los Angeles Dodgers’ general manager from 2005 to 2014, in this entertaining and insightful mix of memoir and behind-the-scenes anecdotes. L.A. is a long way from working-class Chicago, where Colletti grew up a fan of the Cubs in an 899-sq.-ft. house that was actually an upgrade from his parents’ old digs, a converted garage. Colletti was working as a sportswriter when he took a job with the Cubs in 1981 as a member of the front office. Colletti faced an immediate challenge when he took the Dodgers GM job in 2005: building a decent team with little time—and dealing with a tumultuous ownership change (MLB commissioner Bud Selig took control of the team after the owners recklessly spent more than $100 million) and wrestling with difficult personalities such as pitcher David Wells (Colletti called the 260-pound Wells a “fat fuck” to get him to listen in a financial argument). Colletti mostly avoids self-congratulatory tedium, escorting readers through a typical day (which usually concluded around 3 a.m.) and a blockbuster trade with the Red Sox (the Dodgers received Josh Beckett, Carl Crawford, Adrian Gonzalez, and Nick Punto in exchange for Iván DeJesús Jr. and James Lomey). Colletti’s description of the abrupt end to his job with the Dodgers comes with a touch of poignancy. There comes a time, Colletti admits in this earnest memoir, when “you only see and hear your memories.” (Oct.)