Move over Moneyball, there is a new addition to the business of baseball library. Baseball author and financial reporter Jonah Keri has written a highly readable and engaging account of the transformation of the Tampa Bay Rays from perennial basement dweller to American League champion. If you are like most baseball fans you probably asked, “where did the Rays come from?” when the team suddenly jumped to the top of the standings in 2008. In The Extra 2% Jonah Keri shows how the Rays rise was no fluke. He takes the reader through the torturous history of the Tampa Bay franchise from the empty Trop to the botched draft picks. The team bumped along the bottom until it faced possible contraction under the failed ownership of Vince Naimoli, whose excessive thriftiness reached extreme levels. Rays employees had to pay for their own internet access and Naimoli would scour the crowd at the Trop through binoculars looking for anyone who brought in outside food.
Things turned around in 2005 when Wall Street gurus Stuart Sternberg and Matthew Silverman bought the team and brought a new approached to running the Rays. Jonah Keri includes interviews with the people behind the scenes to show how a group of friends with limited baseball experience could turn around a small market team with a dreadful history.
Red Sox fans will find plenty to like in this book as much of what happened with the Rays had a direct impact on the Sox. You will see the Coco fight and the ALCS from the other side and see how a new rivalry was born. It’s possible for you might even gain a little respect for the franchise you may have maligned for many years; I did.
Like Moneyball, The Extra 2% is a book that will appeal to a broad spectrum of people. It is well written and interesting for the casual baseball fan and is filled with insight that can be applied in the business world. If you liked Moneyball you will thoroughly enjoy The Extra 2%. There are so many nuggets of great info in this book that it is sure to become a major part of any future discussion on the business of baseball.
The book becomes available on March 8th.
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