The Extra 2%: How Wall Street Strategies Took a Major League

The Extra 2%: How Wall Street Strategies Took a Major League Baseball Team from Worst to First

What happens when three financial industry whiz kids and certified baseball nuts take over an ailing major league franchise and implement the same strategies that fueled their success on Wall Street? In the case of the 2008 Tampa Bay Rays, an American League championship happensâ€”the culmination of one of the greatest turnarounds in baseball history.

In The Extra 2%, financial journalist and sportswriter Jonah Keri chronicles the remarkable story of one teamâ€™s Cinderella journey from divisional doormat to World Series contender. When former Goldman Sachs colleagues Stuart Sternberg and Matthew Silverman assumed control of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in 2005, it looked as if they were buying the baseball equivalent of a penny stock. But the incoming regime came armed with a master plan: to leverage their skill at trading, valuation, and management to build a model twenty-first-century franchise that could compete with their bigger, stronger, richer rivalsâ€”and prevail.

Together with â€œboy geniusâ€ general manager Andrew Friedman, the new Rays owners jettisoned the old ways of doing things, substituting their own innovative ideas about employee development, marketing and public relations, and personnel management. They exorcized the â€œdevilâ€ from the teamâ€™s nickname, developed metrics that let them take advantage of undervalued aspects of the game, like defense, and hired a forward-thinking field manager as dedicated to unconventional strategy as they were. By quantifying the gameâ€™s intangiblesâ€”that extra 2% that separates a winning organization from a losing oneâ€”they were able to deliver to Tampa Bay something that Billy Beaneâ€™s â€œMoneyballâ€ had never brought to Oakland: an American League pennant.

A book about what happens when you apply your business skills to your lifeâ€™s passion, The Extra 2% is an informative and entertaining case study for any organization that wants to go from worst to first.
Country USA
Brand BALLANTINE GROUP
Manufacturer ESPN Books
Binding Hardcover
ItemPartNumber 9780345517654
Color Multicolor
ReleaseDate 2011-03-08
UnitCount 1
EANs 9780345517654

Country	USA
Brand	BALLANTINE GROUP
Manufacturer	ESPN Books
Binding	Hardcover
ItemPartNumber	9780345517654
Color	Multicolor
ReleaseDate	2011-03-08
UnitCount	1
EANs	9780345517654

The Extra 2%: How Wall Street Strategies Took a Major League Baseball Team from Worst to First