13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting but ultimately disappointing, July 28, 2006
In general, I enjoyed this book; Seth Mnookin is a good writer, if a little bland, and the book flowed nicely. But it had plenty of problems. Let's make a list:
The Good
1)It's easy to understand, even if you don't know too much about baseball. I consider myself an avid Red Sox fan and a baseball connoisseur, so explanations of ERA and batting average bored me, but it does make the book more inclusive to a wider audience. It also includes a brief history of the team for those that are less familiar with it.
2)There are plenty of entertaining anecdotes and side stories in here. The sections on Nomar are particularly well-done. I now have more background information on the Red Sox ownership troika than I would have ever thought possible. What an interesting group of people.
3)The section on the sale of the team would make a new book in and of itself, and is very well-done and interesting, providing you have a rudimentary understanding of economics and finance. If you don't, or hate numbers, prepare to be bored silly and skip about 75 pages.
4)There is a lot of new information on the process that brought about the Schilling trade. I found the tale of Jed Hoyer's ugly Thanksgiving stomach virus to be two of the funniest paragraphs in the whole book, though I'm sure Jed would disagree.
5)And, of course, the famous Epstein/Lucchino rift is very well-documented and traced, to the point that I found myself getting frustrated with the characters for not noticing that Theo was acting increasingly bizarre and doing something about it months earlier. If Mnookin noticed, somebody else should have. A very nice job leading into the final explosion.
The bad:
1)I said there is a lot of background information that makes it more inclusive for casual fans. This is true, but the corollary is that if you are a true Red Sox fan, many parts of this book will drive you batty. The entire history of the team section at the beginning is largely irrelevant to the rest of the book, and Mnookin spends way too much time rehashing information that most respectable Sox fans already know, like descriptions of games and whatnot. It really slogs at times.
2)For a guy who spent all this time with the Red Sox front office, he sure didn't include as much revelatory material as I thought he would. It was a disappointment. Casual fans may be impressed, but hard-core Red Sox fans will recognize many of his insights as already being common knowledge from Boston Globe or even AP stories.
3)The style is easy to follow but also fairly pedantic and dry.
4)Mnookin does a good job with the Epstein/Lucchino fiasco right up until Theo quits, and then after that his analysis is severely lacking. I realize that he was not with the team much after this point, but given that this was one of the most momentous things to occur in the history of the ownership group, which was exactly what he was writing about, you'd think he might put things off a little bit to try to gain more insight into what was going on.
5)The book gives a very sympathetic portrayal of pretty much every character except Dan Shaughnessy. Not that there is a problem with portraying Shaughnessy as a jerk, because he is. But John Henry is not a saint. Tom Werner is not a saint. Larry Lucchino sure isn't a saint (to be fair, his portrayal was more negative). And I got the distinct impression that Mnookin didn't have nearly as much insight into Epstein as he did into the ownership troika. That's not to say there wasn't any, because there was, and I understand that Epstein is not, by nature, eager to open up to someone like Mnookin, but it was noticeable.
5)The pictures. Funny thing to get upset about, I know. But he spent a year there. Did he bring a camera? There isn't one single picture of the Fenway offices or any of the characters at work or with Mnookin or any such thing. No pictures of Joe O'Donnell or any lesser characters. I recognized every single photo from the Globe or AP except the one of Theo against some graffiti-covered wall. Visuals would be nice, thanks.
I'd recommend the book, but be prepared for it not to be quite what you thought it was going to be.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Amazing read, August 7, 2006
I love this book. I was 10 in 1967 when I first joined "The Nation," and your summaries of games of the past is spot on, including things I remember and things I had completely forgotten about. Reading Feeding the Monster was like reading about your immediate family, with parts you want to relive and parts that are painful to think about. I read it through so quickly because I couldn't wait to find out what happened in every chapter, even though I obviously already knew the final results. Then I went back and read it more slowly and savored every page. I'm glad the book sets the record straight for a lot of us about what happened with the team historically, the sale of the team to John Henry, and what goes on now behind closed doors most of us could have never hoped to open. I've never read anything that had such amazing details about a team's makeup, about player negotiations, and about the pressures of playing (and working) in sports (or in Boston). I've also never read such poetic descriptions (and intimate details) about what goes on on the field and how the players do what they do. The chapters on David Ortiz are worth it in and of themselves. I'd recommend it not just to Red Sox fans but to baseball fans, people who want to learn about American business, and people interested in social history. Even Yankees fans will enjoy it.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent Work, July 25, 2006
After reading all of the hype about this book, I was prepared to be disappointed. Between all the reviews and articles, I thought I had read all of the revelations. I was totally wrong and I've never had a perspective like this one. I've read many, many books about the sport and have never read anything that combined management and ownership and players and the on-field aspect like this one. I think it's probably something I'll go back and read repeatedly as time goes on, like "9 Innings" and "Moneyball" and "Ball Four" combined into one.
Because people are so passionate about the Red Sox and about baseball I suspect there will be lots of different reactions to the book. Already it seems to have angered those who think they're the only "true" fans. Take the review in the Globe, where the writer (a host of a sports show) said he would prefer to remain ignorant (his words, not mine) about what actually happens in the game, or one of the reviews here written by Bill Nowlin, who has written many, many books of his own about the Red Sox (eight since 2004 alone). He makes fun of the title but doesn't say he's good friends with Rob Neyer and took part in research for Neyer's book. He also says this book made a mistake by saying Kevin Youkilis was on the World Series roster, but Youkilis was indeed on the roster, replacing Ramiro Mendoza, who'd proven himself utterly worthless in the ALCS.
I think that's to be expected when writing about baseball and the Red Sox. People feel very strongly about both, regardless of what else is going on in the world. I wasted many hours of my life reading all of the books that came out after the 2004 World Series, and this is one that finally looks at the whole history of the last six years while giving you the behind-the-scenes access and the beauty of the game. If you want to know anything about either baseball or the Red Sox this may be the best book produced in the past ten years, and may be one of the best baseball books ever.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
![[Start the discussion]](http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/x-locale/communities/discussion_boards/start-new-discussion-sec._V192250339_.gif){kind=small}
