Feeding the Monster: How Money, Smarts, and Nerve Took a Team to the Top

Additional Feeding the Monster: How Money, Smarts, and Nerve Took a Team to the Top Information

Feeding the Monster shows what it takes to win a championship, both on and off the field. Seth Mnookin spent mornings in the front office, afternoons in the clubhouse, and evenings in the owners' box. He learned how the Sox persuaded Curt Schilling to sign, why Nomar Garciaparra resented his teammates, and what led to Pedro Martinez's acrimonious exit. He knows the real story behind Theo Epstein's brief departure and witnessed the development of his rift with Larry Lucchino. And in a new epilogue, Mnookin examines the 2006 offseason, including the negotiations for Japanese phenom Daisuke Matsuzaka.

In a juicy narrative that is filled with thrilling detail, Feeding the Monster peels back the curtain to show what it means to be a part of a major league sports team today.

What Customers Say About Feeding the Monster: How Money, Smarts, and Nerve Took a Team to the Top:

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

Dispel some of the rumors surrounding the Boston Red Sox with this behind-the-scenes look at the team's management.