Customer Reviews

Built to Win: Inside Stories and Leadership Strategies from Baseball's Winningest GM

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I bought this book with the hope of some kind of insight, and some good stories.

It's a decent book, but I could care less about John Schuerholz the poet, I bought the book for baseball.

I was very disappointed, it seems like another book that is an attempt to destroy "Moneyball" in the book market, but fails miserably.

I love the Braves, but left this book feeling pretty disappointed.

First of all, I've been a Braves fan for 30 years, so I appreciate the success of the Schuerholz era. Having said that, this book is really terrible.

Schuerholz comes across as a pompous blowhard who wants us to know that he IS the best dressed man in baseball ("dapper" & "stylish apparel" are used in the book), and that he and Tom Glavine know more about wine than idiots like Stan Kasten. In fact, we get three pages on a Chateau La Fleur Petrus Pomerol, vintage 1961 - oh yeah, that's great reading!! Add some incessant name dropping and a pile of Management 101 anecdotes and you get this opus of self-love.

I really thought I'd enjoy this book. It's too bad the big guy didn't stick to baseball and leave the management cliches for someone as impressed with the author's insights as the author himself. It's almost as if Schuerholz is desperately seeking his share of the credit for the success of the team; so much so that he tries to convince the reader that his management expertise is more responsible for the team's success than the organization Bobby Cox had in place when the author arrived in Atlanta. I'm not buying it, John - even though I was dumb enough to buy this book.

Though the Atlanta Braves will probably not make the playoffs
this year after having done so the previous 14 seasons, I am
still amazed by the team's success . . . and wanted to find
out more about how it was made possible.

So when I saw that the Braves' GM, John Schuerholz, had a
book out--BUILT TO WIN, written with
Larry Guest--I obtained it with the hope of learning even some
of his secrets . . . after reading it, methinks I came across
with several ideas that I can apply not only in my teaching but
in life as well.

Schuerholz uses many baseball examples, which may turn
off some potential readers . . . however, what he says applies
to virtually any company or organization . . . in particular, I liked
his five principles for building a winning team in any endeavor:

1. Create a new vision.
2. Establish organizational goals.
3. Develop a roadmap, or game plan, if you prefer, for success.
4. Inspired the staff.
5. Provide the leadership.

I also liked his advice on how to tell a winner from a loser:
A winner says, "Let's find out." A loser says, "Nobody knows."

When a winner makes a mistake, he says, "I was wrong." When a loser
makes a mistake, he says, "It wasn't my fault."

A winner says, "I'm good, but not as good as I ought to be." A loser says,
"I'm not as bad as a lot of other people."

A winner tries to learn from those who are superior to him. A loser tries to
tear down those who are superior to him.

A winner says, "There ought to be a better way to do it." A loser says,
"That's the way it's always been done here."

Winners encourage innovations, creativity and passion for their work,
for their life.

Lastly, I'll value BUILT TO WIN for the following passage:
I left them with one of my favorite sayings, "Winners make commitments.
Losers make excuses." I reminded the people at that meeting there
had been enough excuses offered to the Atlanta area and our great
fans about why we haven't succeeded, why this team hasn't won,
why the seats were dirty, why the ballpark food wasn't very good,
why the ushers and parking attendants weren't more attentive or
pleasant. Why, why, why . . .

I pledged we were no longer going to offer excuses for those things.
Instead we were going to make commitments to fixing all of it. After all,
winners make commitments.

My feeling is that if you make the commitment to buy this book
for any baseball fan, he or she won't be disappointed!

Wow, with all due respect to John Scherholz this book is just a waste of time....The number of contradictions and arrogant comments are just too much....

As I began reading this book, I figured that it would explain the inside stories of how the Atlanta Braves were so successful from 1991-2005. The book tries to do this, but does so in completely the wrong fashion, making it an incredibly boring read.

Instead of describing the interesting deals/performances/stories that likely characterized those classic Braves teams, John Schuerholz instead spews out little more than inspirational quotes and philosophical points of view that, though they may contribute to his success, are unique to him and thus not inherently interesting. Schuerholz is trying to lay out the "basic mindset" of a winning GM, but what he doesn't realize is that each GM/organization (even the winning ones) goes through different methods of building a good team.

The book begins with a little story about how Barry Bonds nearly became an Atlanta Brave, then trails off into an unnecessarily harsh criticism of Oakland GM Billy Beane's "Moneyball" philosophy (stupid due to the fact that Beane has had just as much success with the model as Schuerholz) and finally descends into little more than Schuerholz spouting quotes about "winning" for the next 100-200 pages. There is no context to the stories told in the book. In fact, I found the only interesting part of the entire book to be the last 10 or so pages, where each Braves team (from 1991-2005) is given a quick summary. Had the entire book been about that, I would be giving it a much better review!

Thus, please DO NOT begin reading this book if you are expecting great Braves baseball stories. You will likely enjoy this book much more than I if you are into inspirational memoirs, but otherwise stay away.

Every now and then Schuerholz will offer up some inside info on different trades, almost trades (Barry Bonds nearly traded to Atlanta, for example), and free agent signings that will keep you somewhat interested. Overall, however, the book is just boring, repetitive (by chapter 6 you will hate the phrase "evergreen clause"), poorly worded, and offers little insight on how the business of baseball works that most fans didn't already know.

Schuerholz also takes a few pot shots at the "Money Ball" way of thinking, and uses very poor examples to support his arguments. (He uses his signing of Raul Mondesi as a argument in favor of an emphasis on scouting, then later in the chapter acknowledges that Mondesi was a complete bust and had to release him half way through the season)

I enjoyed taking a closer look at a baseball front office, but they poor writing and dead-end anecdotes that Schuerholz offers up made this book a bit difficult to read.

I picked up a copy of the book at the local Dollar store and I am glad I didn't pay full price for it. I am not sure if he is surrounded by a group of toadies or what but I have to wonder who gave him any feed back on the manuscript. The man must have a wealth of knowledge about how trades were made, how some people he thought were stars failed and others he thought wouldn't make it did, etc. There were some good stories such as the Bonds to Atlanta trade. I had heard Andre Thomas was involved and he wasn't mentioned so I don't know if the full story wasn't in the book or that was just a rumor.

He had some interesting things to say about Andrew Jones (positive) and some agents (negative) but really nothing about what went on in Kansas City, why that team collapsed or how he worked with Bobby Cox to make trades. He did make some great trades and mentioned a few but not much into the thought process behind them.

I wouldn't know who the intended audience for the book is. It's not for baseball junkies, it's not for business managers, maybe people who want a few tips on management techniques? I don't know but if you are looking for baseball don't expect to find much here.

John Schuerholz' book reads as if it was directly dictated to his writer. There are bland recollections of several decades in baseball, but the general themes seems to be pointing out obvious concepts (work together, listen to your staff) to make this a business/management book. Meanwhile, Schuerholz levels repeated jabs at players for being greedy and directly states that agents are destroying the game. These statements are routinely paired with an attempt to bill the Atlanta Braves as a medium-market team without the resources of largest teams. However, Schuerholz argues revenues for the team are modest, without acknowledging that Time Warner, the owner of his team, has cleared hundreds of millions of dollars in advertising by broadcasting Braves games. Sadly, this is a book devoid of self-reflection or insider details.

As a lifetime Braves fan I may be a little biased, but as a lifetime baseball fan I think I can make a fair review. It seems like Schuerholz wanted to write a book about how to be a great leader in the business world, but he just could not stop talking about all the interesting behind the scenes baseball stories from his career as a general manager for the Kansas City Royals and the Atlanta Braves.

These stories make this book a fun read for baseball fans. Schuerholz talks about the Glavine debacle, trading for Barry Bonds, stealing Maddux away from the Yankees, and trying to sign Arod among other things. This book is a must read for Braves fans, and a pretty good look into the life of a general manager for baseball fans.

This book is not for everybody. However, it is very good to help you think through things that come up in a business. It is not for just baseball. One might think so, however, because of the cover. It is worth the price.