In their unrelenting drive to create a thriving desert metropolis, leaders of the most populous city in the arid Southwest, Phoenix, Arizona, seemed oblivious to two essential elements that form a vibrant urban environment. The arts were noticeably absent and the city's urban core had dissipated into a vast and empty suburbia: a city lacking an urban heart. In 1980, a visionary - Dick Mallery, partner at the powerhouse law firm. Snell & Wilmer - emerged to take the first major step to shape Phoenix into a great city, not just a big one. A veritable civic drama, "Play by Play" illustrates the...