The Cardinals Way

November 9, 2015
In this dry overview aimed strictly at die-hard fans of the St. Louis Cardinals, veteran sportswriter Megdal (Taking the Field) lauds the team’s ability to adapt while it holds on to the past’s good stuff. The Cardinals were an early proponent of using analytics—even employing baseball outsiders for that task—which was not universally embraced by executives. At the same time, they retained the services of coach George Kissell, whose commonsense lessons seeped throughout the organization and touched lives for 68 years. And the Cardinals still rely on scouts, those road warriors of the past, for insight into the baseball stars of tomorrow. Megdal enjoys terrific access to Cardinals management, talking extensively to owner Bill DeWitt, current general manager John Mozeliak, and analytics whiz Jeff Luhnow (now with the resurgent Houston Astros). Unfortunately, his flavorless, rigid approach—setup, lengthy quote, repeat—leaves no room for anecdotes, descriptive scenes, or a deeper understanding of what goes into making a baseball machine. Serious Cardinals fans will savor this glowing insider take on their beloved organization, but most other readers will find the book bland and tiresome. Agent: Sydelle Kramer, Susan Rabiner Literary Agency.

December 15, 2015
Revealing look inside the locker room and front office of a storied baseball franchise. What is the "Cardinals Way?" On one hand, writes seasoned sportswriter Megdal (Wilpon's Folly: The Story of a Man, His Fortune, and the New York Mets, 2011, etc.), it's "a product of a hundred years of serendipity," the result of the confluence of the ideas of numerous baseball pioneers and the realities of the playing field. On the other hand, it's the outcome of a not-always-easy fit between the insistence on old-fashioned, people-based fundamentals and a devotion to metrics and analytics. Megdal digs deep into the business of how a player is picked. We can expect to see one, a young pitcher named Daniel Poncedeleon, in the 2016 season, and a fine choice he will be, capable of hurling hellacious heat and uttering menacing utterances like, "I like someone in there that wants to hit the ball so I can strike 'em out," while also revealing himself to be a pretty nice guy. Having picked a player, the Cardinals coaches now have to groom and train, and therein lies a heavy program of enculturation. After grooming and training, they have to retain their best players, which means paying money, something skinflint owners don't like to do but that does keep a player happy and loyal. Money pervades the game, always figuring in the calculus of who is signed and who is cut and, in the case of the Cardinals, involving "analytic firepower to confidently run an estimate for a player going forward." By that calculus, writes the author, Poncedeleon carries an on-paper value of $1.75 million, cinched for a $5,000 signing bonus--not a bad deal at all and speaking to the shrewdness of the staff and the hunger of a kid eager to show his stuff on the field. Megdal writes with the easy fluency of a Jim Bouton, delivering a book that's of value to students of business as well as baseball fans.

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December 1, 2015

Journalist and sportswriter Megdal (Wilpon's Folly; Taking the Field; The Baseball Talmud) chronicles the history and tradition of the St. Louis Cardinals, from the era when they were managed by Branch Rickey in the years following World War I to the present day. Specifically, Megdal proves that much of the Cardinals' consistent success is linked to an ideology established by Rickey and adhered to by coaches, managers, and the front office at all levels, from the late 1910s to today. The strategy requires a strong farm system, a focus on baseball fundamentals, and data-driven decision making. One of the most interesting aspects of this narrative is the traceable lineage of people linking Branch Rickey to current players, each of whom have left indelible legacies of success, all of whom were followers of the Rickey institution. Even more provocative is how a system can remain relevant and effective amid an evolving sport increasingly dominated by statistical analysis and a departure from more traditional evaluative criteria. VERDICT While targeted toward Cardinals fans, this book will entertain anyone interested in baseball history and is appropriate for all ages.--Matt Schirano, Magnus Wahlstrom Lib., Bridgeport, CT

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2016
Although there are enough choice bits here to pull in the casual baseball fanfor example, the remarkable line author Megdal draws from Cardinal legend Branch Rickey (GM, 191942) to hires of Rickey's who have worked for the team well into the twenty-first centurythis really is a management study of a storied franchise transitioning from a traditional, relentlessly successful scouting system to a still-untested blend of field scouting and heavy analytics. Pushing for this change was, of all people, seventysomething team chairman Bill DeWitt Jr., who in 2003 brought in Jeff Luhnow, a Penn grad with dual degrees in economics and engineering, and no baseball experience, to provide the team with a different take on talent evaluation. The transition obviously worked, the Cards winning World Series titles in 2006 and 2011, but not without acrimony within the organization, which Megdal fully explores in a book that reveals what is taking place within pretty much any serious major-league baseball franchise today.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)