Dayn Perry’s Winners Is Not the Loser

by
July 30, 2013

At present, yours truly has become somewhat addicted to the foremost social cataloging site for books, Goodreads. As such, I have spent a chunk of time cataloging a fairly comprehensive list of books that I recall reading. When I sorted said list by “avg rating,” there was only one book I expected to find at the very bottom — Winners: How Good Baseball Teams Become Great Ones (And It’s Not The Way You Think), by NotGraphs’ very own Dayn Perry. When Carson introduces Dayn on their various podcasts, he often lists one of Dayn’s books as being “less than serviceable,” and this is the book to which he refers.

But, hark! There is one book that I have graced with my time and my eyeballs that is even less serviceable, according to the Goodreads community:

Winners

Henceforth, let it be known that Winners is not the loser, but merely a loser.





 

Paul Swydan used to be the managing editor of The Hardball Times, a writer and editor for FanGraphs and a writer for Boston.com and The Boston Globe. Now, he owns The Silver Unicorn Bookstore, an independent bookstore in Acton, Mass. Follow him on Twitter @Swydan. Follow the store @SilUnicornActon.

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Well-Beered Englishman
10 years ago

Looking through your Goodreads list, how is Stieg Larsson ahead of Green Eggs and Ham? And how is Watchmen ahead of Count of Monte Cristo?

Of course, setting aside my mock horror, a lot of these ratings make sense in the context of today’s internet-savvy citizen. And, of course, the eclecticism of your tastes will inevitably create juxtapositions like Jerry Crasnick (3.72) outwriting Jean-Jacques Rousseau (3.70). But I simply do not understand how we can live in a universe where The Cat in the Hat is rated a mere 4.12 of 5.

2
Alexander Nevermind
10 years ago
Reply to  Well-Beered Englishman

That rating is too high for The Cat in the Hat. He wears a string tie that magically just sits on his neck, but no one ever mentions this as if it is a totally normal thing for a cat. But a hat? Yes, that must be pointed out.

5
Oh, Beepy
10 years ago
Reply to  Alexander Nevermind

Sometimes I like to picture a group of people near a punch bowl at a party having the conversation taking place in a comments section.

You sound like a lot of fun.

-1
tylersnotes
10 years ago
Reply to  Well-Beered Englishman

the cat in the hat is a lot like Weezer’s catalog– you should probably be able to appreciate the original on its own merits, but the later bastardized stuff is so terrible as to make the original less pure. plus the increase in popularity of the character has followed in direct contrast to the quality of products utilizing the character. It’s no longer even really possible to like or not like the cat in the hat. you must love or hate it, when the only true just opinion would be to simply acknowledge its existence and move on to the far superior Fox in Socks.

1