The Extra 2%: How Wall Street Strategies Took a Major League Baseball Team from Worst to First First - Jonah Keri
I've had a lot of time to think about this book and the main thought
that I took out of this was that the city of Tampa Bay wasn't ready to
take on a Major League Baseball Franchise. Sure, they're arguably the
best run team in the league, given their budget, revenue and bad luck to
be in the most competitive division in North American professional
sports. But they're locked into a long-term lease and now stuck in a
horrible stadium (in both location and aesthetic). Sure the ownership
structure has put together an exciting baseball team, but what's the
point if they're stuck in the equivalent of a black hole that nobody
wants to make the commute to.
Aside from that little rant, it's a
textbook on how to make the most out of what little advantage you might
hold against the large market giants that you compete against. It's
obvious that Alex Anthopolous keeps this book under his pillow, but he's
kicked it up to the extra 15%, valuing his organizational cone of
silence at par with the American dollar.
It'll be interesting to see what kind
of success Tampa is achieving in 5 years. Their horrid first decade in
the league netted some top draft picks for the new management to build
the team around. Granted, with another GM in place, they could have
conceivably ended up like the Baltimore Orioles...
I really liked this book, and I've taken it to heart to my thoughts on player management for even the Ottawa Senators. I find also that after reading The Extra 2%, it's easier to deal with trades that see popular/familiar faces move to other teams. Of course, it also helps not being 12 for that argument.
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