Baseball Maverick: How Sandy Alderson Revolutionized Baseball and Revived the Mets

by Steve Kettmann

Overview

In 2010, the New York Mets were in trouble. One of baseball’s most valuable franchises, they had recently suffered an embarrassing September collapse and two bitter losing seasons. Their GM had made costly mistakes. And their principle owners were embroiled in the largest financial scam in American history.

To whom did they turn? Sandy Alderson, a former marine who served in Vietnam and graduated from Harvard Law. In 1981, Alderson started in baseball with Oakland, where he led a revolution in the sport. The A's partnered with Apple, pioneered using statistical analysis, and became a powerhouse, winning the 1989 World Series. When new owners slashed payroll in the 1990s, Alderson's under-the-radar creativity and intelligent management were thrust into the spotlight.

Granted unprecedented access to a working GM over several seasons, bestselling author Steve Kettmann traces Alderson’s history and his renewal of the Mets despite a limited budget, through big trades that brought back high-profile prospects to the development of young aces including Matt Harvey, Zach Wheeler, and Jacob deGrom. Now, the turnaround is almost complete. Baseball Maverick is a gripping, behind-the-scenes look at a Major League team and a fascinating exploration of what it means to be smart.

Customer Reviews

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780802192561
Publisher:	Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
Publication date:	04/07/2015
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Steve Kettmann has reported from more than forty countries for publications including the New York Times and the New Republic. A former San Francisco Chronicle A's beat writer, he is the author or coauthor of nine previous books, including One Day at Fenway and Juiced by Jose Canseco.

Table of Contents

Prologue: The Meaning of a World Series 1

Part I The Marine Shakes Up Baseball in Oakland

1 Khe Sanh 15

2 Poster Boy 28

3 Holy Toledo! 39

4 Hooked Up with Apple 55

5 Computer Helps A's Zap Tigers 63

6 The Google of Baseball 74

7 Earthquake 85

8 Passing the Torch 99

Part II "Come on, Blue!"

9 Alderson's Brain Trust 125

10 The Madoff Mess 134

11 Anatomy of a Trade 146

12 Winter Meetings 2012 166

13 Spring Training 2013 178

14 Sweep 191

15 Patience 204

16 The Best Day of the Year 217

17 "Come On, Blue!" 226

Part III Line in the Sandy

18 Hangin' with Jay-Z 239

19 The Ninety-Win Challenge 248

20 Don't Think 253

21 Fizzle 265

22 "Throw a Goddamned Fastball!" 279

23 Hanging by a Thread 289

24 Back to Where It All Started 300

25 Talent Unfolds 310

Part IV November Baseball

26 Zero Hour for the Mets 325

27 A Week to Remember 332

28 Finally Back to the Playoffs 344

29 Sixty Feet, Six Inches 356

Acknowledgments 367

Editorial Reviews

03/23/2015
With Vietnam combat experience, a Harvard law degree, and time logged with the fabled 1980s Oakland A's in the "moneyball" era, Sandy Alderson became the GM of the limping New York Mets in 2010, with the blessing of Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig. Kettmann (One Day at Fenway) picks up the long journey of Alderson with cheerleading zeal, as the latter goes from being a Marines platoon commander in Vietnam to becoming an Ivy League mouthpiece representing a buyer for the Oakland Athletics. He then steps up as an executive for the same team, which competes in three straight World Series. The Mets, following back-to-back disappointing seasons and a lackluster former GM, welcomed Alderson with his solid baseball instincts; he stressed player development over good trades, and despite a limited budget, he featured top-ranked young talents such as Zack Wheeler, Matt Harvey and Jacob deGrom. Kettmann's solid profile of the Mets' Alderson, now piloting one of the brightest teams in major league baseball, provides worthwhile insider tidbits, along with a competent view of the front office and the intriguing complexities of sports politics. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for Baseball Maverick :

“For the general manager of a New York team, Sandy Alderson remains largely a mystery. Steve Kettmann changes that with this compelling inside look at the Ivy League graduate, former Marine and Vietnam veteran who went on to revolutionize baseball. A must-read for Mets fan and anyone who loves the game.”
—Ken Rosenthal, Fox Sports/MLB Network

“A fascinating and fresh look at the resurgent team’s winning strategy. Whether you’re a diehard Mets fan like me or just a curious baseball fan in general, you’ll want to read Steve Kettmann’s new book because it’s a compelling human interest story and you will gain insight about how the game has changed.”
—Forbes.com

“Alderson has long been a baseball man, but his education, time in Vietnam and being the first nonplayer to challenge the supremacy of players in traditional scouting always set him at a distance. His is a story of fathers, sons and American service. . . . Baseball Maverick. . . stands on its own, a worthwhile journey of an important figure Kettmann clearly and understandably admires.”
—Howard Bryant, ESPN The Magazine

“[A] lively chronicle.”
— Newsday

“A timely account of how GM Sandy Alderson has revived the entire New York Mets organization and transformed the team into a pennant contender . . . Extremely well-written and unflaggingly interesting, the book will appeal to any baseball fan who wants insight into what GMs do and into how contemporary winning major league baseball teams are built.”
— Spitball Magazine

“A must for fans of the New York Mets and worth looking at for others—incisive and detailed.”
— Epoch Times

“Kettmann's solid profile of the Mets' Alderson, now piloting one of the brightest teams in major league baseball, provides worthwhile insider tidbits, along with a competent view of the front office and the intriguing complexities of sports politics.”
— Publishers Weekly

“A savvy story . . . A seasoned sportswriter's take on the unconventional general manager of the New York Mets and the business side of baseball.”
—Shelf Awareness

“One of the more talked about titles this year.”
—Ron Kaplan’s Baseball Bookshelf

“Revealing . . . [Alderson] gave serious access to Kettmann, an astute reporter.”
—George Vecsey

“In Baseball Maverick , Steve Kettmann paints an intimate portrait of one of the shrewdest, most decorated men to ever occupy the GM chair. The level of detail here is phenomenal, and the result is a really fun read.”
—Jonah Keri, author of The Extra 2% and Up, Up, & Away

“Steve Kettmann expertly takes you along the fascinating journey of a true Renaissance man. From combat to the roots of modern analytics to rebuilding the New York Mets—I'll let you decide the most difficult of such pursuits—Sandy Alderson is a compelling case study of leadership.”
—Tom Verducci, Senior Writer, Sports Illustrated

“Sandy Alderson’s character and credentials are among the most impressive in baseball. He is an original thinker and a true maverick . . . the title says it all. A book about Sandy is long overdue, and Kettmann’s is outstanding.”
—Dennis Eckersley

“Sandy Alderson stumbled into baseball, but as Steve Kettmann shows so adroitly, he’s put a best foot forward everywhere he’s marched in the game. If, under his aegis, Alderson’s Mets can finally come back to glory, it will cap the career of a man who has not only led his teams, but led the whole sport.”
—Frank Deford

“A fascinating and enlightening book on one of baseball’s mystery men. Kettmann does a brilliant job delivering a behind-the-scenes look at how Alderson built this team to win in 2015.”
—Bob Nightengale, USA Today baseball columnist

“Steve Kettmann has given us so much more than a baseball book or biography; he has given us a fascinating look into one of the game’s great minds. Sandy Alderson defies any simple description, but Kettmann has brilliantly painted a portrait that ties together the Marine, the scholar, the general manager, and the maverick streak that binds them together.”
—T.J. Quinn, ESPN reporter and anchor

“Offers [a] revealing view of Madoff-impacted Mets.”
—Howard Megdal, Capital New York

“Steve Kettmann has long taken readers into the unexplored reaches of baseball, the places the game’s poets bypass but where history—the real kind; not the fairy-tale stuff—is made. In Baseball Maverick , he has given us the pre-Moneyball story of a man and new ways of thinking about the game. It’s really, really good.”
—Bryan Curtis, staff writer, Grantland

“[ Baseball Maverick ] captures all of Sandy’s complexity. It is a rollicking, fascinating read.”
—Lowell Cohn, Santa Rosa Press Democrat

From the Publisher

03/15/2015
When former marine and Harvard Law graduate Sandy Alderson became general manager of the New York Mets in 2011 there was a lot of talk about "Moneyball with money," but with two of the team's investors subsequently ensnared in Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme, the second "money" became a spent notion. In the 1980s, Alderson served as general manager of the Oakland Athletics's succeeding in the robust Bash Brothers era of Mark McGwire and Jose Canseco before moving onto the MLB's commissioner's office in the late 1990s and choosing his protégé Billy Beane to become his replacement. Best-selling author Kettmann (One Day at Fenway) uses the present-day Mets (a collapsed team with looming financial peril and embittered fans) as a backdrop to showcase Alderson in action, but it's the manager's prior work that takes center stage: his development in Oakland, partnership with Apple, and "quantitative analysis by mathematical methods." It becomes evident that Alderson's genius lies in his healthy pragmatism and ability to efficiently reason. VERDICT There are many deceptively simple nuggets of wisdom dispersed here that are applicable to multiple contexts. Though the title may seem directed toward Mets fans, Kettmann's nimbly written, captivating story line will appeal to all sports fans. A riveting and rich deconstruction of Alderson's process and a fascinating peek behind baseball's curtain.—Benjamin Malczewski, Toledo-Lucas Cty. P.L., MI

Library Journal

2015-02-18
A biography of one of baseball's leading front-office figures. Raised in a military family, Sandy Alderson (b. 1947) attended Dartmouth, joined the Marines, served in Vietnam, and climbed the ranks in major league baseball, eventually becoming part of the brain trust for the Oakland A's. He rose to become general manager of that team when they saw a run of success that included two World Series appearances and one win, in 1989. As GM of the A's, he helped to revolutionize the game by introducing sophisticated statistical and computer analysis to the game. Indeed, Alderson deserves as much credit as Billy Beane, Alderson's successor as A's GM, who was featured in Michael Lewis' book Moneyball and the award-winning film of the same name. From the A's, Alderson went on to work for the MLB league office, the San Diego Padres, and the New York Mets, where he became GM in 2010. Prolific journalist Kettmann (One Day at Fenway: A Day in the Life of Baseball in America, 2004, etc.) convincingly argues for Alderson's importance, but he spends more than half of the book on Alderson's ongoing work with the Mets. As the subtitle indicates, Kettmann believes that Alderson is a central figure in "reviving" the franchise. Perhaps the Mets are poised to flourish in the years to come, but in Alderson's four years at the helm, the Mets have never surpassed 80 wins in a 162-game regular season. In the five years prior to Alderson's tenure, the Mets never won fewer than 70 games; in 2008, they won 89, and in 2006, they won 97 games and a playoff series. Kettmann has written a worthy biography of a compelling figure, but the author's desire to produce his own version of Moneyball has caused him to overstate his case.

Kirkus Reviews