BOOK REVIEW: Feeding the Monster by Seth Mnookin

In author and Vanity Fair editor, Seth Mnookin's Feeding the Monster: How Money, Smarts, and Nerve Took a Team to the Top, is a tribute to both the team and Major League Baseball. Feeding the Monster begins with a brief biography of the Red Sox peppered with League history and unique player backgrounds. In Part I: A Century of Boston Baseball we learn more about Tom Yawkey than any newspaper ever revealed since Yawkey bought the Red Sox just before his 30th birthday in 1933, and we find out just exactly what lies behind "The Curse of the Bambino".

The word "player" refers to more than the guys out on the field in Part II as Mnookin offers accounts of ball club owners, teams of investors, principals and agents. He takes readers through the excruciating 2002 sale of the Boston Red Sox to the mild-mannered John Henry, television executive Tom Werner, and attorney Larry Lucchino. Each of these men is given earned homage in the separate chapters Mnookin's devotes to them, and each prove to be a character with a good reason to shell out millions to be a part of Boston's baseball history.

The third part of the book introduces us to Bill James, a numbers geek responsible for coining the term "sabermetrics" defined as "a general term that refers to the use of statistics in the quest for truly objective knowledge about baseball" - for example, taking into account a player's on-base average as opposed to his batting average. We also meet General Managers Billy Beane and Theo Epstein, the youngest General Manager ever hired.

Part IV takes us on a thrill ride through the careers of what Mnookin refers to as "The Best Hitting Team Ever Assembled". His account of David Ortiz' rise to full potential after leaving the Minnesota Twins and signing on as a big hitter with the Red Sox is reason enough to buy and read this book. But we also get to read about the Korean pitcher Byung-Hyun Kim's foray into the Red Sox ring under the questionable coaching auspices of Grady Little and Manny Ramirez' contemptuous love / hate career in Boston. We are brought to fully understand the quip "Manny being Manny" after reading about his on-again, off-again devotion to Boston.

When, in Part V, Mnookin details the 2004 baseball season and the Red Sox' surprising victory in the World Series, it's just like being there again. With personalities like Johnny Damon, Pedro Martinez, Curt Schilling, Jason Varitek and David Ortiz in the field, the season is intense, but also just plain fun.

Mnookin then takes on the aftermath of the Red Sox' World Series Championship.Manny Ramirez sticks with the winning team instead of allowing himself to be traded (which, incidentally, he's been asking for ever since he first met owner John Henry on the field). Epstein's position in GM was in question and the Red Sox try to steal Papelbon from the Minnesota Twins. (Yes! Papelbon used to be with the Twins!) Mnookin also reveals what Red Sox pitcher, Kevin Millar, had printed on t-shirts he had specially made for the whole 2005 team.

Mnookin's reportage-style writing does justice to the main theme of a defiant World Series Championship while serving up a plethora of behind-the-scenes truths and images such as media battles, up-close confrontations at the plate, team rivalries and personal anecdotes across the board. Feeding the Monster doesn't just step up to the plate; it delivers a satisfying home run.

Feeding the Monster
Simon & Schuster July 2006
433 Pages
ISBN: 0743286812

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