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Baseball Primer Newsblog— The Best News Links from the Baseball Newsstand
Friday, December 12, 2008
Not only that…Jonah needs a title for the sure best-seller! (I’ve already sent in “When They Do the Zobristol Stomp: Whoa, Oh, Oh , Ah-Ah-Ah, Oh” to the publishers…so don’t bother)
I’m thrilled to report that I’ve agreed to terms, with a joint partnership of ESPN Books and Random House, to write a book about the Tampa Bay Rays and their Wall Street approach to baseball.
I’m psyched about the project, because there’s an amazing story to be told. Three guys with limited baseball experience but a wealth of Wall Street experience, Stuart Sternberg (Goldman Sachs), Matt Silverman (Goldman Sachs) and Andrew Friedman (Bear Stearns) have taken the Rays from the worst team in baseball to the 2008 AL champions. That’s not even stating it strongly enough. When these Wall Street guys took over three years ago, the Rays were the butt of constant jokes, the weak sister in a division ruled by the unbeatable Yankees and Red Sox. Now…well, I’m writing a book about them! They’ve got a loaded team that’s going to be very good for many years to come.
...Oh, and one more thing. We haven’t settled on a title yet. I’ll be talking to my editors in the next few days. If you’ve got a great title idea in the meantime, feel free to pass it along.
Thanks to Jon Weisman.
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1. Foster Posted: December 12, 2008 at 06:31 AM (#3027201)But, it looks to me like these guys were good but also very fortunate to inherit a terrific farm system; we'll have to see how credible the story that they innovated anything here really is.
I also agree with the above comment that pitching 'Wall Street approach' will not resonate particularly well at this point.
Heh! Head to bloomberg.com and read about Madoff Investment Securities if you want a good larf!
As to the subject at hand, this is the first I've heard of the Rays Wall Street approach. Is it some kind of "Moneyball" variation?
Now Wall Street is the butt of all jokes.
I've been reading Michael Lewis's latest. One observation I really like is something to the effect that scandals and greed could never bring down Wall Street. Everyone knows they are corrupt and greedy. The mortgage implosion did far worse for them: It exposed them for being stupid.
Maybe. They do seem loaded on the pitching side which is a good place to be loaded. On offense through, the list of "longterm" stars probably only has Longoria's name on it. Upton obviously has potential -- it will be interesting to see if the power returns this year -- and he's a good player.
But whether they will be very good for many years to come depends on what they can handle on the financial side and how well their arb buyout gambles work. But recall a few years back the Indians appeared to have a strong young core and nearly made the WS in 2007 ... and now it's just Grady Sizemore, the miraculous Lee and a hopefully healthy Carmona.
I would have bet the life of Robinred that this post would show up in this thread.
Yelowstone Ritter
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