Review by Booklist Review
Seasoned baseball writer Miller here fully engages with the age-old baseball debate over how much a manager contributes to their team's success, or failure. Paradoxically, while data analysis, or sabermetrics, has comandeered both front offices and locker rooms, a manager's ability to find the beating heart of a ballplayer beneath a crush of statistics remains hugely consequential, as these interview-based profiles of some of the game's most successful managers--like Terry Francona, Dusty Baker, Bruce Bochy, Bob and son Aaron Boone, Buddy and son David Bell, Cito Gaston, and Dave Roberts--attest. Still, as Miller amply shows, managers today have less say over that day's lineup card, over the signing of new players by the front office, over how many pitches a pitcher throws in a game, and other important decisions on and off the field. Data analysis notwithstanding, the key to most managers' success is their relationships with their players, going back at least to Casey Stengel, whom the author quotes: "The secret of successful managing is to keep the five guys who hate you away from the four guys who haven't made up their minds."
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
This revealing report from sportswriter Miller (coauthor of Ninety Percent Mental) investigates the evolving role of baseball managers. Tracing how an increasing reliance on data analytics has changed the front office, Miller contrasts how Yankees manager Billy Martin sometimes selected starting lineups by picking names from a hat in the 1970s with how Oakland Athletics general manager Billy Beane crunched numbers to determine the most advantageous plays in the 2000s. The "human element" remains key, Miller contends, describing how Dodgers skipper Dave Roberts prioritizes "honest and free-flowing communication with his players" so they don't feel caught off guard by his comments to the press. Elsewhere, Miller compares Yankees manager Aaron Boone with his father, Bob Boone, manager of the Cincinnati Reds in the early 2000s, noting that while the increasingly corporate nature of MLB has raised the financial stakes (Yankees pitcher Gerrit Cole's $36 million salary is more than half of the Reds' entire payroll under Bob), Aaron aspires to create the same supportive atmosphere his father cultivated in Cincinnati. Miller provides readers with an insider's view of life in the front office and solicits surprisingly candid reflections from his subjects. For instance, Roberts admits to badly mishandling a public statement concerning sexual assault allegations against one of his pitchers. Baseball fans will want to check this out. Agent: Rob Kirkpatrick, Kirkpatrick Literary. (May)
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
The shifting view from baseball's hottest seat. Seasoned baseball reporter Miller takes readers inside front offices, locker rooms, dugouts, and the living rooms of living legends in this intimate and definitive look at where managers now fit in a game transformed. "Managing always has been the industry's loneliest job," Miller writes. "It's just lonely today for different reasons." The rise--and perhaps tyranny--of analytics, which Miller says "caps a player's ability by identifying what he doesn't do well and, instead of teaching and developing those areas, finds a second puzzle piece that simply plugs in to overcome the first player's shortcomings," has taken decision-making out of managers' hands and distributed it across organizations. Little in today's game escapes the influence of front office economic models and stat-happy baseball ops functions. But winning the numbers game doesn't always mean winning ballgames, and it's the manager alone who must step to the plate when collective calls swing and miss. This takes a toll. Like U.S. presidents, Miller points out, baseball managers also "usually look shockingly older at the end of their terms than at the beginning." Survival demands certain qualities: an ability to flex, a willingness to collaborate with pointy-headed suits, strong leadership, and the kind of knowledge that can help players believe in a mission--and in themselves. This is a book filled with warmth and soul, a credit to the trust Miller has built across years of clubhouse reporting. He spends time in future Hall of Famer Dusty Baker's vineyard; watches Aaron Boone's Yankees from the home of Phillies legend Bob Boone, Aaron's father; and devotes a chapter to four days spent alongside the Dodgers' Dave Roberts for an "an unprecedented peek inside the day-to-day life of a modern manager." Miller deploys a light editorial hand and often lets skippers speak seemingly unfiltered for paragraphs at a time. The result is plainspoken, colorful, and deeply insightful--much like this book. Essential reading for students of the game and aspiring leaders. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
