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The highlights of this book that were most interesting to me are the sections on John Henry and Larry Lucchino, Nomar Garciaparra, and the acquisition of Curt Schilling. The details present in this book by Mnookin's unprecedented access to the team and management pretty much makes this a must read for Boston fans -- however, for an author who grew up a diehard Red Sox fan and is already intimately familiar with baseball and the history of the team, the book feels like the editors or publisher perhaps pushed the author into a lot of background info on the team and explanatory details on the game itself, which were unnecessary.Still, it was a good read.I also just read Ian Browne's Dice-K: The First Season of the Red Sox $100 Million Man and highly recommend it, and having read the Yankees title that corresponds with it, I'm looking forward to this new release on the Boston Red Sox as well: Boston Red Sox: An Interactive Guide to the World of Sports (Sports by the Numbers)
Very informing and well detailed book. The first few chapters mostly deal with the sale of the team but as you go further in you start to get more in depth with player personal. The chapters about Manny were very entertaining
All the principals involved in building the team of "idiots" who humiliated Yankee nation in 2004 are here. This is a great book. Easy to read. I loved the inside details of the soap opera front office maneuvers, including the long and drawn out sale to John Henry, Theo Epstein's ascent and fights with Larry Luccino, the signing of Curt Shilling and the hiring of Terry Francona. This book is a must for every member of Red Sox nation.
Mnookin's fanhood limited his conception and scope. What I got was an OK look at those topics, but tainted by an author who is a rabid and admitted Red Sox fan for whom this book was "the chance of a lifetime."Mnookin does mention the hiring of baseball stat king Bill James and briefly talks about the Moneyball-theories of Billy Beane and his short-lived hiring as GM of the Sox, but he never explains how subsequently-hired young GM Theo Epstein used those stat theories to build the Sox. What I hoped for was a sort of "Moneyball, the sequel" about the 2002 sale of the Red Sox and the building of the 2004 (and now 2007) World Series champions. He seemed too much enthralled with his insider status to shake free of gee-whiz season and series recaps to write the much better book that was available to him.Red Sox fans may enjoy this "insider" look from one of their own. For example, Mnookin introduces the "hustle" stat that James worked up for the team, but then never shows how that stat was ever used to bring in new hustling players, let current slackers go, and shape the game-management decisions of Manager Francona. Again, Mnookin says that Francona was hired as a new-thinking manager open to Moneyball theories (unlike old-school Grady Little), but gives no examples.This is a shame, because the opportunities were apparently there for Mnookin to write that book, as he was given an all-access inside pass to Fenway and team offices, short of exposing any proprietary financial documents. Baseball fans who hoped like I did for a more serious look into the application of stat-driven management should be forewarned. Maybe Michael Lewis can be convinced to write a proper sequel from his more-dispassionate stance.See my Moneyball review here:Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game
What ever happened to Kevin "Cowboy up" Millar. Who were those guys. And now, in Feeding the Monster, these questions and more are finally answered. Why did they leave.
They may have had great chemistry, and fans may have loved them, but in 2004 they were an anomoly--a statistical outlier. What brought Johnny Damon to the Yankees. Why did Pedro sign with the Mets. Ever wonder what happened to that self-proclaimed gang of "idiots" that aimed to do what we all knew could not be done, but we believed in them anyway. If history was right, then the idiots had to go.Feeding the Monster provides an absoutely mesmerizing, insider chronicle of franchise operations and player shenanigans leading up to and after the 2004 season (the reprint edition extends the account through to spring 2007). This is the stuff of myth and religion, the stuff of Red Sox belief.
What Mnookin reveals behind the Ruby Red curtain is an ownership-managemant-promotional gang that make decisions on the basis of science, not sentiment. The Idiots, we learn, were growing old, bitter, and complacent.
The book is rich in detail. What happened to them.
According to Mnookin, the Brain Trust knew that the value of the Red Sox could not be compromised by player popularity: Franchise decisions had to be made on the basis of intelligence, "good intelligence." The bottom line was that historical patterns demonstrate that winning teams are young teams, with strong arms, and a high on-base percentage. And who was that bulbous little man with the huge head and huge smile seen on virtually every post-2004 Red Sox publicity stunt.
These are the questions you have been asking yourself. By the end of 2004, Keith Foulke's knees were shot, Pedro's arm was ready to fall off, Damon was old, Trot Nixon was ancient, and Kevin Millar was no longer funny: He was annoying.
All I can add is that when read against the backdrop of any given regular season, Feeding the Monster will provide a deeply satisfying, entertaining narrative that helps to explain the logic underpinning the crazy, soap opera of the Boston Red Sox.
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