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

The spring after their World Series championship, the Boston Red Sox were headed for disaster. In Feeding the Monster: How Money, Smarts, and Nerve Took a Team to the Top, Seth Mnookin reports how management savvy saved the day. It makes great reading for MBA students.

MBA Grads Can Feed Their Own Monsters
by Gabby Hyman
gabby.hyman@MBA-business-schools.com
MBA-Business-Schools Book Reviewer

Feeding the Monster: How Money, Smarts, and Nerve Took a Team to the Top, by Seth Mnookin, hardcover; Simon & Schuster, $26.

Despite its glorious World Series victory the previous fall, in the spring of 2005 the Boston Red Sox baseball organization was bottoming out on a full-fledged corporate meltdown. Its caustic, perfectionist CEO Larry Lucchino was in open warfare with the American League’s enfant terrible general manager Theo Epstein, who suddenly resigned. Was the team destined to an embarrassing corporate death spiral?

Early in the 2005 season, business journalist Seth Mnookin was granted unprecedented access to Lucchino and team owners John Henry and Tom Werner. Mnookin’s book about the soap opera that was averted by savvy corporate leadership debuted at the eighth slot on the March New York Times Business Book Bestseller’s List.

Books about the inner workings of corporate big-time sports are nothing new, witness the success of Michael Lewis’ Moneyball. What was unique about Mnookin’s effort was his virtually unlimited free reign in consulting everyone in the Red Sox organization, from ownership to bench players. The next result: intimate examinations of how front-office business decisions are made and how they affect everyone in the organization.

Feeding the MBA Degree Student—and the Monster

It’s not surprising to see Mnookin’s debut sales success among business readers, which is why Feeding the Monster should have an equal share of devotees among the MBA set. Mnookin, former senior writer for Newsweek and current Vanity Fair contributing editor, previously traced the management squabbles and the Judith Miller scandal at The New York Times organization. His understanding how ownership issues affected overall performance of the Times organization from top to bottom sufficiently impressed principal Red Sox owner Henry into opening his front office and clubhouse to the writer.

So what’s in it for the MBA student? Mnookin’s lifelong devotion to the Red Sox team coupled with an uncustomary in-depth look at statistical and analytical business acumen adds up to a winner. Even non-baseball fans will find the scrutiny of how management righted a ship on its way to disaster more than invigorating.

About Seth Mnookin

Harvard grad Mnookin began his journalism career as a rock critic and Florida hard news reporter. His previous book, Hard News, became a Washington Post Best Book of the Year. He has written for The New Yorker, Slate, Salon, The Washington Post Book World, The New York Times Book Review, and Spin.

About the Author

Gabby Hyman has created online strategies and written content for Fortune 500 companies including eToys, GoTo.com, Siebel Systems, Microsoft Encarta, Avaya, and Nissan UK.

Posted on April 17, 2007 at 11:15 AM

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