Howard Megdal

Any passionate fan of a sports team will find lots in common with Megdal's tale. While the book is baseball-centric, there is a lot that applies to any sport and its fans. The book is strongly written, given that Mr. Megdal is a professional writer and is writing a personal narrative. The prose goes beyond those obvious strenghts, however, and the reader can really feel Megdal's passion, intelligent passion that is, for his team. This is a compelling read for even non-sports fans, but show more devotees of a sports team will really bond with the book. show less

A longtime New York Mets fan and sportswriter, Howard Megdal embarked upon a semi-tongue-in-cheek campaign to save his beloved team from their god-awful management by running for the office of General Manager (even though it's not an elected position). Megdal makes such a clear and cogent case for why his management would be an exponential improvement over the past (the pillars of his campaign are LOGIC, TRANSPARENCY and PASSION, all of which he exhibits in spades), that I was actually show more rooting for his Quixotic campaign to succeed, and shared his satisfaction that the team owners seemed cognizant of his contentions, and selected a manager that may well reflect Megdal's three campaign pillars. And I was surprised at how little I knew about how mismanagement can destroy a promising rookie, and the proper management can bring out the best of journeyman talents. show less

If you've ever felt that you could run your local team better than the numbskulls currently in control, this is the book for you. Megdal is more than knowledgeable about the Mets and baseball and provides illumination on all aspects of running a team. He is also flat-out funny. If the Mets won't have him, maybe my Rockies will.

I am not a fan of the New York Mets, but I still enjoyed reading Howard Megdal’s book. The main premise of the book is Megdal’s campaign to become the General Manger of the New York Mets. In the book, Megdal analyzes the many questionable player personnel moves that the Mets have made during their 50 years as an organization. In each case, he states what was wrong with the move and gives us an alternate move or moves that he says would have been better. Of course, it is easier to see show more which moves were good or bad in hindsight, but Megdal’s philosophy is consistent throughout the book. He feels that the Mets have consistently overpaid to sign aging players beyond their prime instead of concentrating on improving their farm system and waiting for their own young players to develop. Megdal claims that the biggest mistake the Mets made in their history was their failure to sign Alex Rodriguez in 2000. This doesn’t go against his philosophy because A-Rod was still young, in his prime, and he wanted to play for the Mets. Megdal believes that the Mets could have signed him for less money than the Rangers did.

Megdal has written a very enjoyable baseball book. His theories make sense and are consistent. I wish that he could get the Mets' GM job. It would be interesting to see how successful he would be. show less