Good Enough to Dream

Good Enough to Dream is a book by Roger Kahn, published in 1985. It details the season of the 1983 Utica Blue Sox, of which Kahn was president and co-owner. Kahn also puts in a fair bit of autobiography about his childhood and his quest to become a minor league owner before getting into the heart of the season and its players. The book's strong point is its first-person account of a pennant race and the personalities, shedding light on people like Jim Gattis, Barry Moss and Roy Moretti. On the other hand, Kahn tries to paint his team as underdogs, denying criticism of them as being more experienced than the rest of the league because some of their key players had been let go by MLB organizations. When a MLB team lets go a guy with AA or high A experience and they come back to play low A, they are not underdogs, but rather should be expected to do better. Utica's average age was 23.1, 2 years older than their playoff rival Newark Orioles and 2.5 ahead of regular-season rival Little Falls Mets. That is a huge difference in baseball terms. Also, as Kahn concedes, the managers of the other teams had to bring prospects along on a development basis, not letting pitchers throw too many pitches, not a concern for the independent Blue Sox. It is also disturbing to hear the father of a teenager recount his glee at judging a beauty pageant of teenage girls.