“The Big Chair” by Ned Colletti with Joseph A. Reaves, 464 pages, Putnam, $28 “The Quarterback Whisperer” by Bruce Arians and Lars Anderson, Hachette, 256 pages, $28

Ned Colletti’s baseball journey took him from Bleacher Bum at Wrigley Field to becoming general manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Colletti, with the assistance of former Tribune baseball writer Joseph A. Reaves, provides a fascinating behind-thescenes account of his 35 years working in the front office of the Cubs, Giants and Dodgers. Cubs fans will be interested in his recollection of how the team blundered in failing to keep Greg Maddux in 1992, especially when the future Hall of Fame pitcher wanted to stay. Colletti writes about his “interesting relationship” during his stint as assistant general manager of the Giants with the mercurial Barry Bonds. The meat of the book, though, details his nine-year run as GM of the Dodgers from 2005 to 2014. He faced a supreme challenge in working for embattled owner Frank McCourt, who was eventually forced to sell the team. While he is no longer on the job, Colletti had a hand in assembling many of the players on the current Dodgers team, which has the best record in baseball. More than anything, Colletti shows how being a GM is a 24/7 thrill ride. “Chaos and crisis management,” Colletti writes about the heartbeat of the job. “Pick a day. Any day. That was a day in my life.”

Bears fans will wince when they read in Bruce Arians’ book that he thought he would be the team’s new head coach after the 2012 season. “I honestly figured I’d get the job,” he wrote. Nope. Instead, the Bears hired Marc Trestman, who had a terrible two-year run. Arians was hired by the Arizona Cardinals, where he twice has been named NFL Coach of the Year. Arians writes about his work with quarterbacks at various stops in his career. He has coached some of the best: Peyton Manning, Ben Roethlisberger, Andrew Luck and Carson Palmer. Arians believes no two quarterbacks are the same, so he aims to devise strategies that play to their strengths. Of Manning, Arian raved about the quarterback’s preparation. “To Peyton, every snap was like viewing a gripping blockbuster movie, full of nuance, mini-plotline and layers of complexity.” Arians helped revive the career of Palmer, who had a career season in their first year together. Arians also provides good insider details about coaching offense. If he had come to Chicago, Arians wrote, he had a plan for Jay Cutler “that would put him in position to succeed.”