Feeding the Monster book review

Before I get to the review, let's scan the news from across the league...not much going on. The Globe and Mail has a report that salaries were up 9% last season to an average of $2,699,292 US. Can't wait to see the figures next year... Interesting that amongst the teams with the 12 lowest average salaries, only one finished with a winning record...the 2006 Toronto Blue Jays. The Mets met with Jeff Suppan yesterday and the Cubs seem close to another free agent deal, this time with Cliff Floyd. Finally, everyone's favorite catcher Rod Barajas seems to have found a home with the Phillies for less money, but we're not reporting this until he takes the physical.

So I picked up Feeding the Monster by Seth Mnookin and I found it to be a tremendous book. It is an amazing chronicle of the journey that led to the Red Sox becoming World Champions. It begins with the introduction to the ownership group and all their trials and tribulations in trying to acquire ANY Major League team. In this part, there were A LOT of stories that I had not heard previously which made it absolutely fascinating. They also go through the near hiring of Billy Beane, the hiring of Epstein and all the subsequent moves and near moves. The near-trades of Manny Ramirez are all discussed pretty openly in the book as is the locker room battles between different players. It ends finally with the bizarre Epstein resignation and then his re-hiring. Mnookin did an incredible job of interview as many stakeholders as possible and getting all the stories from different vantage points. There's a lot in this book that had not previously been mentioned openly. The entire Nomar saga leading up to the trade and the reaction to the trade is fabulously chronicled. All in all, I think it's a great read for any baseball or sport fan.