The must-read sports book of the year, Three Nights in August captures the strategic and emotional complexities of baseball's quintessential form, the three-game series. As the St. Louis Cardinals battle their archrival Chicago Cubs for first place, we watch from the dugout through the eyes of legendary manager Tony La Russa, considered by many to be the shrewdest mind in the game today. In his twenty-seven years of managing, La Russa has won more games than any current manager and has been named Manager of the Year a record five times. A great leader, he's built his success on the conviction that ballgames are won not only by the numbers but also by the hearts and minds of those who play. Drawing on unprecedented access to a major league manager and his team, Buzz Bissinger brings a revelatory intimacy to baseball and offers some surprising observations on the psychology of the clutch, the eccentricities of players, the rise of video, and the complex art of retaliation when a batter is hit by a pitch.