Shameless Promotion: Jonah Keri’s “The Extra 2%”
Though I’m not entirely sure “It was a dark and stormy night” is the most relevant opening line for a book that examines the meteoric rise of the Tampa Bay Rays, there’s little else to criticize about this excerpt from (FanGraphs author!) Jonah Keri’s forthcoming book, The Extra 2%: How Wall Street Strategies Took a Major League Baseball Team from Worst to First.
Just from this brief excerpt — which includes Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban’s foreward and Keri’s prologue — the reader can already feel himself not only being (a) seduced by the Rays’ David-and-Goliath narrative, but also (b) overcome with a strong desire to give exactly $15.44 to Keri and his handlers.
One also feels slightly sick to his stomach when he’s forced to remember that, after the 2002 season, the Rays traded literally their best player, Randy Winn, for Lou Piniella — i.e. a frigging coach.
Carson Cistulli has published a book of aphorisms called Spirited Ejaculations of a New Enthusiast.
I’m still disappointed that Jonah couldn’t get Dan Gilbert instead of Mark Cuban. Or Comic Sans MS.