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

~ (Author), Larry Guest (Author)
Key Phrases: evergreen clause, straight division title, scouting director, Kansas City, Bobby Cox, World Series (more...)

Editorial Reviews

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Product Description

DESCRIPTION: In 2005, the Atlanta Braves won their unprecedented 14th straight National League East title. And behind this success has been the genius of John Schuerholz, whose anti-Moneyball philosophies kept the Braves among the elite teams in baseball for over a decade. Now, Schuerholz pulls back the curtain for the first time, revealing everything from how the Braves traded for Barry Bonds in the early '90s to dealing with John Rocker's hateful comments in 1999 to losing pitchers Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine to the recent acquisition of superstar Tim Hudson, and, against all odds, how he helped keep the Braves at the top of the baseball mountain. Offering a remarkable and candid view inside one of the most incredible minds in all sports, BUILT TO WIN will make baseball fans worldwide look at the game in a whole new way.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing (April 2, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446578681
• ISBN-13: 978-0446578684
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 0.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #428,210 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Disappointed, December 1, 2007

By	Scott C. Carmichael - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You'll gain ideas you can use in almost any field of life!, August 30, 2006

By	Blaine Greenfield "eclectic reader" (Belle Meade, NJ) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Too Much Philosophy, Too Little Baseball, January 25, 2009

By	Zachary Koenig "K-Dawg" (Fergus Falls, MN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Built to Win: Inside Stories and Leadership Strategies from Baseball's Winningest GM (Paperback)

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.