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The Extra 2%: How Wall Street Strategies Took a Major League Baseball Team from Worst to First

Jonah Keri (Author), Lloyd James (Narrator), LLC Dreamscape Media (Publisher)
4 out of 5 stars 121 customer reviews
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Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 starsA lot of fluff, yet you have to read it
By Standard Poodle on April 11, 2011
Format: Hardcover
A hard one! There certainly are not a lot books out on the Rays, and any intelligent baseball book is well worth a read. However, as well-intentioned as this work is, and the fact that if you are a baseball fan you are bound to read it, I cannot give it a great review. Here are a few points:

First, there really is NOT much there. It seems like it would have been a better magazine article. There is heavy repetition that is not really needed.

There are no interesting secrets, no revelations, not even a real idea of how the team works.

Tropicana Field is heavily featured; the general discussion of stadium building is interesting but how many times can the author complain about the Trop? Really, I think a reader would "get it" early in the book.

The history of the team is interesting - perhaps a history of the Rays would be a better work.

Inevitably, this will be compared to Moneyball. Face it, the author's premise/thesis is designed to appeal to fans of that work. However, this work is nowhere nearly as involved, or as interesting as Moneyball.

You do not get a lot of player info; more of this would bring the story to life. Yes, there are some anecdotes, particularly re: Garza and Longoria but not enough to really get an idea of the management mindset.

Overall, I do not regret buying this, and do not want to dissuade you, but it could have really been something great. I feel that a great book could be written about this team, but this is not it. In the meantime, this will have to do.
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3.0 out of 5 starsMeh.
By Amazon Customer on April 3, 2011
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
Solid sort of book, but not something I would go out of the way to recommend to a friend who has interest in baseball. I felt like I've read this before and Billy Beane was way more entertaining a character. Plus, I'm interested in the Rays, and I felt like I came away with very little understanding of the new regime. I guess just playing close to the vest is part of the Wall St strategy, but it didn't leave me too satisfied as a reader. Got to know plenty about the Naimoli-Lamar fiasco, but that was a pretty public mess, and the rehash here mainly left me with pity for Chuck Lamar. The writing is okay. Some humorous jabs and quips seep in through parenthetical asides. It's very similar to Baseball Between the Numbers (the BP compilation put out a couple years back that Keri edited, and is a little more interesting than this book) in that the author asks some interesting, offbeat questions but the intellectual energy behind the question doesn't flow through the writing. All that said though, as a baseball fan, I'm glad we're seeing more books like this one these days with good, solid analysis, especially of teams that have been overlooked for too long, just like the Rays.
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5.0 out of 5 starsInsight into an organization against massive odds
By Will on September 22, 2011
Format: Hardcover
No doubt, this book will be compared with Moneyball, as it is the study of how an organization against massive odds applied a unique management style and ultimately became successful (much more successful than Beane's A's, by the way). While I certainly can't speak for Keri, I read this less as a look at a revolutionary concept like Moneyball and more as the history of how a bunch of dudes from Wall Street with no real baseball background to speak of took an organization that was among the worst run in sports and turned it into a perennial winner. It is a fascinating look into just how terribly the Rays were run before the new regime took over and some of the things that they changed once they did. It also explains some of the reasons why the Rays have such problems drawing crowds (spoiler alert: it's not because no one likes the team). Maybe Keri intended this to be like Moneyball, but I read it almost as a history of their organization. And in that respect, I think, it is a very interesting read.

If there is one real nitpick I can come up with about the book, it is that you don't hear much from Stu Sternberg, Andrew Friedman, or Jonathan Silverman. However, seeing as how Billy Beane has finished in the AL West cellar the last few years, maybe the Rays brain trust simply didn't want to reveal too much. After sabermetrics was introduced to the wider baseball community, Billy Beane lost his competitive advantage; it is understandable that the Rays were wary of revealing too much. Also, I would have LOVED if Keri had gotten access to Vince Naimoli; he seems like a fascinating (read: insane) man.

Overall, this is not a perfect book; it can get a bit repetitive at times and there is not quite as much access to the protagonists of the book as I probably would have liked.Read more ›
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3.0 out of 5 starsMostly enjoyable, but not Moneyball 2
By John J. Franco on May 18, 2011
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
This book is really a collection of essays that meander through the period beginning with Stuart Sternberg's purchase of a minority share of the Devil Rays and continuing through the 2010 season. It lacks a solid structure that really ties the whole thing together, but the stories themselves can be entertaining. Some are good, and some are lacking.

The Wall Street backgrounds of Sternberg and Friedman, and some window into how that plays into the current management of the team, are covered. It would be good if this was explored in more detail. The Extra 2% is naturally compared to Moneyball. But in Moneyball, Michael Lewis tells anecdotes from the A's history and always relates them back to something about Billy Beane's approach. The Extra 2% doesn't really do that - the stories are told for the sake of including them.

The good:

-The area scout who really wanted the Rays to draft Albert Pujols (spoiler alert: they didn't)
-The antics of Vince Naimoli and his failures to rally the community or follow a coherent plan
-The history of Joe Maddon, the Rays' quirky manager who spent a career earning this gig
-The long journey that Naimoli took to get the team established in Tampa, and all the fits and starts along the way
-

The bad:

-Tropicana Field is a dump, we get it. If we didn't, it would be apparent by the 5th time that it comes up
-The inconsistent editing and tone. Some parts are almost documentary-like, well-written, structured, and professional. Others feature swearing and colloquial language - not quotes either, just a change in writing style.
-The lack of overarching story leads to changes in scope. At times, Keri is focusing on the results of individual games.

Overall, this was an enjoyable book.Read more ›
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsGreat read

Loved the conversation on St Petersburg journey to get a ballpark.

Published 2 months ago by Sean Carey
5.0 out of 5 starsAn excellent look at two different baseball teams - even if the second...

I've been a fan of the Tampa Bay Rays since their early days, when they were still referred to as the “Devil Rays”. Read more

Published 3 months ago by Andrew Kuligowski
5.0 out of 5 starsAwesome, highly recommend

Awesome, insightful, and interesting read. I love the inside scoop and insight from players, executives, etc. Read more

Published 4 months ago by Matt Strope
5.0 out of 5 starsbrilliantly uses a fun

The Extra 2% is a charming book that touches on many aspects of business while being disguised as a true underdog story in the baseball world. Read more

Published 5 months ago by Jonathan
3.0 out of 5 starsa better title than the book

Keri is an interesting writer, but I came away wondering what the 2% solution actually was. Yes, the Rays did some smart things (actually, avoided doing the same old dumb stuff),... Read more

Published 8 months ago by S. Bassin
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

Solid book with great insight into the Tampa Bay organization.

Published 8 months ago by Slow Reader
5.0 out of 5 starsA very insightful book about the transformation of a dormant ...

A very insightful book about the transformation of a dormant baseball franchise into a well-run organization that gives itself a chance to compete against the likes of the Yankees... Read more

Published 8 months ago by Patrick Malave
5.0 out of 5 starsMONEYBALL for the Rays

Fascinating inside look at how a bunch of Wall St. guys turned the franchise around; think MONEYBALL

Published 9 months ago by Dr. William Costello
3.0 out of 5 starsGreat turnaround story

It is a great read about strategy, making smart decisions, and finding value in overlooked areas. It has a little more history about how the rays becoming a franchise than I was... Read more

Published 15 months ago by John Taylor
3.0 out of 5 starsSo-So Book About a So-So Team

This is a decent effort about a decent team, but will really only be interesting to Rays fans and now Dodfer dans, now that the Rays former GM is running the Dodger Front Office. Read more

Published 15 months ago by Lee Fink

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