Mind Game: How the Boston Red Sox Got Smart, Won a World Series, and Created a New Blueprint for Winning
by Steve Goldman
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Description
Think You Know Baseball? Think Again. The Red Sox finally won a World Series, in a triumph of unconventional wisdom. They rethought the batting order and committed to Johnny Damon as lead-off. Saw the talent in David Ortiz that other teams overlooked. Had the courage to trade one of the game's top shortstops for the good of the team. They knocked over the sacred cows of RBIs, sacrifice bunts, the hit-and-run, and hewed to the new thinking about pitch count--allowing Pedro Martinez, arguably show more baseball's best pitcher ever, to excel. Weaving statistics, narrative, personalities, and anecdote, Mind Game reveals exactly how this group of "idiots," led by Theo Epstein and Terry Francona, was in fact the smartest team in the league, and revolutionizes the thinking fan's understanding of how baseball games are really won and lost. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
Easily the most original and thought-provoking of the deluge of Red Sox World Series books, Mind Game reframes the ups and downs of the 2004 season through the means of some very sophistocated statistical analysis. Among other things, they look at the catatonic first half of the season, the A-Rod fight, the Nomar trade, the September winning streak, and (of course) The Comeback. I won't give anything away here, but suffice it to say that their take on these events is quite a bit different from what has beet written virtually everywhere else. I took half a star off my rating because the writing sometimes takes an annoying 'Look how (bleeping) smart we are' tone. All in all, recommended for baseball fans in general, and a must-have for show more Red Sox fans. show less
Perhaps not as much about the 04 Sox as many fans would like. Probably best described but a pretty well-written collection of essays on stats-driven team-building inspired by the story of the 04 Sox.
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4 Works 104 Members
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- Genres
- Sports and Leisure, Nonfiction, General Nonfiction
- DDC/MDS
- 796.357 — Arts & recreation Recreation, sports, and performing arts Athletic and outdoor sports and games Ball sports Ball and stick sports Baseball
- LCC
- GV875 .B62 .M56 — Geography, Anthropology and Recreation Recreation. Leisure Recreation. Leisure Sports Ball games: Baseball, football, golf, etc.
- BISAC
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- 100
- Popularity
- 321,271
- Reviews
- 2
- Rating
- (3.31)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 1
- UPCs
- 1
