Seize Shorthanded: The Untold Story Of The Seals:Hockeys Most Colorful Team Picturized By Brad Kurtzberg Format Brochure

is a tough book to rate, The first part of the book seemed like it could have been folded into the second part of the book almost as an intro.
Most of the points made save the team records and maybe a couple of other items were repeated in the part about the individual players.
I enjoyed the portion about the players a lot, The team came to life in that part and I learned a lot of things like certain players who were Seals, If the book was the second part only, the book would have been at leaststars, The biggest drawback at least in the Kindle edition was that multiple times, someone failed to see that Saskatoon is a city, substituting it for the province's name of Saskatchewan eg.
, one player was from Creelman, Saskatoon according to the book which is phyiscally impossible, That flaw was annoying and held it back, I did enjoy the book though and would reccomend it in spite of the errors to hockey fan, Hockey players are the approachable athletes when people ask them to share stories about their playing days and this books has plenty of those stories.
The author was able to obtain stories from nearly every player who donned the sweater of the Oakland Seals franchise and they spun some great tales.
There is comedy, drama and history in nearly every one of them,

My problem with this book was the structure, The book starts with a recollection of Seals history that was not in depth but more anecdotal, Good if you wanted just stories but I prefer history like that to be more fact based,

There were three main sections of the book in which the player's musings were shared, Early middle and late years were the sections and while that was fine, there were some tidbits that were repeated over and over by the author not the players.
Example: the Seals missed the playoffs inby six points, This was stated by the author, not the players, in every story about a player who was on that team, Unless the player talked about it, it was not necessary to say this fact over and over again, Same with other facts such as nine players leaving the Seals for the WHA or that they wore white skates for a short time.


These and similar flaws made reading the book a chore, It was worth the trouble because the players shared wonderful memories, But the reader has to endure a lot of repetition to do so, the stories the players tell are quite entertaining Ok, first off, I really, REALLY want to rate this book high because it is a great story in hockey history, and readers must be aware of the author's lack of experience with regards to this overall work.
It was a Herculean effort to gather up all the information, track down all the personalities, and somehow gel it all together,

That said, the beginning narrative is great, while the playerbyplayer accounts at the end, the bulk of the book, are just okay.
In a perfect world with the Hockey Gods smiling down from their ice rink in the sky, having all this info meshed into a cohesive narrative, from team inception to team disintegration, would have made the book perfect, and could have better highlighted the minefield these guys skated through season after season, being hamstrung by management, sabotaged by owners, and screwed by the league.
The Seals were undoubtedly the Trojans of the NHL's Iliad, and they deserve recognition for their sacrifices, Kurtzberg gave it his very best, Probably only of interest to people who actually followed the Seals, It is an interesting portrayal of how not to run a sports team, They had many talented management people and players but managed to have ownership that was only interested in short term reward, A lot of fun to read if you are into the history of the game,stars! It was really awesome to see all the players that made up the Seals history and about what caused the relocation of the team.
Allowed indepth interviews with the players and was a fun read, "The saga of the Oakland/California Seals nineyear journey through the NHL is a strange, funny and sad tale that is nearly forgotten and has never been told.
. . until now.  
 
Off the ice, the history of the Seals is practically a tale of how not to run a franchise,   The team joined the NHL inas part of the “Second Six” expansion teams and stayed in Oakland until moving to Cleveland in.
  The Seals had seven different ownership groups in nine years and chaos reigned throughout the process,   This book shows you the inner workings of a hockey club that was always on the brink of bankruptcy and/or relocating and takes you behind the scenes of many of the mistakes made by NHL owners and executives during the early years of expansion.
  It also chronicles the crazy days of ownership by Charlie Finley, a man who admittedly knew nothing about hockey but knew he wanted to run his team his way.
  Hilarity and disaster resulted.
On the ice, the Seals met with little success but were never dull,   In nine years, the team had to put up with white skates, few fans and a cast of characters that were unique
This book allows the

players and coaches to tell their own story.
  More thaninterviews were conducted with former Seals players, owners, coaches and employees to get a clear picture of what it was like to play in the NHL in thes ands.
  The rise of the WHA, continuing expansion and more hilarious stories of what really happens to an NHL team on the road and in the locker room.
 
 
Hockey fans will love this true tale of the Sealshockeys most colorful team, "
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