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Baseball Maverick: How Sandy Alderson Revolutionized Baseball and Revived the Mets Hardcover – April 7, 2015

by Steve Kettmann (Author)

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In 2010, the New York Mets were in trouble. One of baseball’s most valuable franchises, they had recently suffered an embarrassing September collapse and two bitter losing seasons. Their GM had made costly mistakes. And their principle owners were embroiled in the largest financial scam in American history.

To whom did they turn? Sandy Alderson, a former marine who served in Vietnam and graduated from Harvard Law. In 1981, Alderson started in baseball with Oakland, where he led a revolution in the sport. The A's partnered with Apple, pioneered using statistical analysis, and became a powerhouse, winning the 1989 World Series. When new owners slashed payroll in the 1990s, Alderson's under-the-radar creativity and intelligent management were thrust into the spotlight.

Granted unprecedented access to a working GM over several seasons, bestselling author Steve Kettmann traces Alderson’s history and his renewal of the Mets despite a limited budget, through big trades that brought back high-profile prospects to the development of young aces including Matt Harvey, Zach Wheeler, and Jacob deGrom. Now, the turnaround is almost complete. Baseball Maverick is a gripping, behind-the-scenes look at a Major League team and a fascinating exploration of what it means to be smart.

Print length

320 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Atlantic Monthly Press
Publication date

April 7, 2015
Dimensions

6.5 x 1.5 x 9.5 inches
ISBN-10

0802119980
ISBN-13

978-0802119988
See all details

Michael Leahy
350
Paperback
55 offers from $2.47

Editorial Reviews

Review

Praise for Baseball Maverick:

For the general manager of a New York team, Sandy Alderson remains largely a mystery. Steve Kettmann changes that with this compelling inside look at the Ivy League graduate, former Marine and Vietnam veteran who went on to revolutionize baseball. A must-read for Mets fan and anyone who loves the game.”
Ken Rosenthal, Fox Sports/MLB Network

A fascinating and fresh look at the resurgent team’s winning strategy. Whether you’re a diehard Mets fan like me or just a curious baseball fan in general, you’ll want to read Steve Kettmann’s new book because it’s a compelling human interest story and you will gain insight about how the game has changed.”
Forbes.com

Alderson has long been a baseball man, but his education, time in Vietnam and being the first nonplayer to challenge the supremacy of players in traditional scouting always set him at a distance. His is a story of fathers, sons and American service. . . . Baseball Maverick . . . stands on its own, a worthwhile journey of an important figure Kettmann clearly and understandably admires.”
Howard Bryant, ESPN The Magazine

[A] lively chronicle.”
Newsday

A timely account of how GM Sandy Alderson has revived the entire New York Mets organization and transformed the team into a pennant contender . . . Extremely well-written and unflaggingly interesting, the book will appeal to any baseball fan who wants insight into what GMs do and into how contemporary winning major league baseball teams are built.”
Spitball Magazine

A must for fans of the New York Mets and worth looking at for othersincisive and detailed.”
Epoch Times

Kettmann's solid profile of the Mets' Alderson, now piloting one of the brightest teams in major league baseball, provides worthwhile insider tidbits, along with a competent view of the front office and the intriguing complexities of sports politics.”
Publishers Weekly

A savvy story . . . A seasoned sportswriter's take on the unconventional general manager of the New York Mets and the business side of baseball.”
Shelf Awareness

One of the more talked about titles this year.”
Ron Kaplan’s Baseball Bookshelf

Revealing . . . [Alderson] gave serious access to Kettmann, an astute reporter.”
George Vecsey

In Baseball Maverick, Steve Kettmann paints an intimate portrait of one of the shrewdest, most decorated men to ever occupy the GM chair. The level of detail here is phenomenal, and the result is a really fun read.”
Jonah Keri, author of The Extra 2% and Up, Up, & Away

Steve Kettmann expertly takes you along the fascinating journey of a true Renaissance man. From combat to the roots of modern analytics to rebuilding the New York MetsI'll let you decide the most difficult of such pursuitsSandy Alderson is a compelling case study of leadership.”
Tom Verducci, Senior Writer, Sports Illustrated

Sandy Alderson’s character and credentials are among the most impressive in baseball. He is an original thinker and a true maverick . . . the title says it all. A book about Sandy is long overdue, and Kettmann’s is outstanding.”
Dennis Eckersley

Sandy Alderson stumbled into baseball, but as Steve Kettmann shows so adroitly, he’s put a best foot forward everywhere he’s marched in the game. If, under his aegis, Alderson’s Mets can finally come back to glory, it will cap the career of a man who has not only led his teams, but led the whole sport.”
Frank Deford

A fascinating and enlightening book on one of baseball’s mystery men. Kettmann does a brilliant job delivering a behind-the-scenes look at how Alderson built this team to win in 2015.”
Bob Nightengale, USA Today baseball columnist

Steve Kettmann has given us so much more than a baseball book or biography; he has given us a fascinating look into one of the game’s great minds. Sandy Alderson defies any simple description, but Kettmann has brilliantly painted a portrait that ties together the Marine, the scholar, the general manager, and the maverick streak that binds them together.”
T.J. Quinn, ESPN reporter and anchor

Offers [a] revealing view of Madoff-impacted Mets.”
Howard Megdal, Capital New York

Steve Kettmann has long taken readers into the unexplored reaches of baseball, the places the game’s poets bypass but where historythe real kind; not the fairy-tale stuffis made. In Baseball Maverick, he has given us the pre-Moneyball story of a man and new ways of thinking about the game. It’s really, really good.”
Bryan Curtis, staff writer, Grantland

[Baseball Maverick] captures all of Sandy’s complexity. It is a rollicking, fascinating read.”
Lowell Cohn, Santa Rosa Press Democrat

About the Author

Steve Kettmann has reported from more than forty countries for publications including the New York Times and the New Republic. A former San Francisco Chronicle A's beat writer, he is the author or coauthor of nine previous books, including One Day at Fenway and Juiced by Jose Canseco.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Atlantic Monthly Press (April 7, 2015)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0802119980
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0802119988
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.31 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.5 x 1.5 x 9.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #2,797,182 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2,263 in Baseball Biographies (Books)
- #6,008 in Baseball (Books)
- #10,129 in Popular Culture in Social Sciences

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Steve Kettmann

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Steve Kettmann is the co-director of a writers' retreat center in Northern California called the Wellstone Center in the Redwoods in Northern California www.wellstoneredwoods.org and Publisher of Wellstone Books. He's the author or co-author of nine books, including four New York Times bestsellers. His most recent is "Baseball Maverick: How Sandy Alderson Revolutionized Baseball and Revived the New York Mets."

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Mwk

Must Read For Any Baseball Fan, Not Just Mets

Reviewed in the United States on May 1, 2015

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While Moneyball was a landmark achievement, ushering in a new era of analytic thought in MLB front offices, it is not the Bible of how to apply analytics to building a baseball team that many fans may think it is. Clearly baseball analytics has evolved exponentially since the 2002 draft highlighted in the book, but based on Beane's selections in that draft, Beane should commended more for his intent than his execution. His legacy will always be that he successfully sold the idea of analytics to the baseball world, regardless of whether or not his analytic science actually worked, Alderson, as described in Kettman's excellent book, seems to be the perfect foil to Beane's cavalier salesman. Rather than broadcasting his intellect, Alderson comes off as a humble and respectful executive who knows what he doesn't know. Not that he's not aware of what he can learn from analytics, but he is aware of its limitations.

This book is a thorough biography, and given Alderson's experience, is a detailed and nostalgic look at baseball's history from the late 80's forward. Which makes it interesting for any baseball fan, not just Mets fans. However, if you're a Mets fan, you're in for a treat and should feel lucky someone has decided to write a book about your team. The last half of the book is especially interesting, providing new insight related to every trade or free agent move the team has made since Alderson took over from Minaya. If you ever wondered why they traded away Jose Reyes, here's your answer. If you ever wanted to understand what being GM is really like (not the Brad Pitt version), you'll learn that too. Alderson proves he is a man who truly reveres the game of baseball, and Kettmann succeeds in every way in this easy to read portrayal. A must read for any baseball fan.

5 people found this helpful

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P. Quadrino

Fun read, great stories, good book for baseball fans, MUST read for Mets fans

Reviewed in the United States on March 3, 2016

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An enjoyable, informative read. Kettmann is a smooth writer and effective storyteller. He provides background on Sandy Alderson's career, starting off with stories of a young Alderson, son of an Air Force pilot, posing as a journalist so he could enter the Vietnamese warzone and ride his bicycle around exploring. The military background stories were surprisingly fascinating. How all of that (Marine officer, Dartmouth alum, Harvard Law school grad) eventually led to Alderson landing in a major league front office was something I was always interested in reading about.

Among my favorites parts of the book is the section on Alderson's years with the Oakland A's. Kettmann covers it well. It really does read like a Moneyball prequel, as Alderson scooped up stats guru Eric Walker, introduced Apple computers into baseball ops, and hired a full-time psychiatrist for the organization, among other cutting edge moves. Of course, he also nurtured Billy Beane into his eventual GM role. Alderson is clearly portrayed as the Obi Wan Kenobi to Beane's Luke Skywalker.

As a Mets fan, I found the large portion of the book dealing with Alderson's career in NY enthralling. Lots of behind the scenes details on transactions and reactions to games. My favorite parts of the book were the descriptions of Alderson's excitement about Jacob deGrom prior to his Rookie of the Year season. Kettmann isn't an AMAZING writer but he describes the uniqueness of deGrom very well.

My only quibbles with the book are that it seemed to be TOO detailed at times, bogging the reader in minor details and slowing the story down. I also think Kettmann too often resorted to a journalistic, reporter-esque style of writing that can get boring in a book-length text. His forays into more thoughtful prose were terrific, I just wish more of the book was written that way.

I'm also in agreement with some of the other reviews that there could have been more information about Alderson & Co's team-building and strategic efforts as opposed to details of individual ballgames.

But that's all nitpicking about imperfections. It's a great book, well worth a read for any baseball fan and a MUST read for any Mets fan.

One person found this helpful

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A. Fred Alexander

Why I ordered copies for our 3 adult children and a buddy after reading my copy.

Reviewed in the United States on April 6, 2015

Verified Purchase

As an avid reader with time these days, I just finished Baseball Maverick. Though not a sports fan particularly, I was fascinated to see how Alderson blended then-new technology, operations analysis, and baseball to develop winning teams through thoughtful years of management. Insights from scouts and others are also in the complex equation of human performance. Alderson's days as a Marine officer reveal his character and, I think, underpin much of his approach to teamwork, training, and focusing on the mission (winning) even without optimal manpower or other resources. As the story unfolds, his ability to turn phrases shines through--and Kettman is no slouch there, either. This is an excellent book for a range of readers, from die-hard Mets fans, general baseball enthusiasts, to those who want legal insider knowledge of how baseball works behind the scenes and simply an interesting topic, well told.
For me, it is a rarely encountered genre, a book-length account of an ongoing story--Sandy Alderson, the Mets, and MLB--that combines strong human profile across 40+ years of leadership, clear descriptions of the stress of business behind the scenes, and the excitement of baseball, that may be on its way back to truly becoming our national pastime. I think enough of this book to have ordered copies for our 3 kids for Christmas!

3 people found this helpful

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Kenneth Michael Maddock

This books gives you a great insight into the thinking of the Mets GM

Reviewed in the United States on June 24, 2015

Verified Purchase

I thought the book was okay, but I really wanted to read more about the Mets rather than Sandy Alderson's life. This books gives you a great insight into the thinking of the Mets GM. However, like I said before, it focused too much on Alderson's life.

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