The Cardinals Way
How One Team Embraced Tradition and Moneyball at the Same Time
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
The Cardinals Way presents an inside look at the St. Louis Cardinals, a team that has emerged as the model organization in the MLB through developing young talent and embracing analytics.
The St. Louis Cardinals have experienced the kind of success that is rare in baseball. Regarded by many as the premier organization in Major League Baseball, they not only win, but do so with an apparently bottomless pool of talent, one that is mostly homegrown.
Despite years of phenomenal achievements, including going to the World Series in 2004 and again in 2006, the Cardinals reinvented themselves using the "Cardinal Way," a term that has come to represent many things to fans, media, and other organizations, from an ironclad code of conduct to the team's cutting-edge use of statistic and analytics, and a farm system that has transformed baseball.
Baseball journalist Howard Megdal takes fans behind the scenes and off the field, interviewing dozens of key players within the Cardinals organization, including owner Bill DeWitt and the former general manager John Mozeliak. Megdal reveals how the players are assessed and groomed using an unrivaled player development system that has created a franchise that is the envy of the baseball world.
In the spirit of Moneyball, The Cardinals Way tells an in-depth, fascinating story about a consistently good franchise, the business of sports in the twenty-first century and a team that has learned how to level the playing field, turning in season after successful season.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this dry overview aimed strictly at die-hard fans of the St. Louis Cardinals, veteran sportswriter Megdal (Taking the Field) lauds the team's ability to adapt while it holds on to the past's good stuff. The Cardinals were an early proponent of using analytics even employing baseball outsiders for that task which was not universally embraced by executives. At the same time, they retained the services of coach George Kissell, whose commonsense lessons seeped throughout the organization and touched lives for 68 years. And the Cardinals still rely on scouts, those road warriors of the past, for insight into the baseball stars of tomorrow. Megdal enjoys terrific access to Cardinals management, talking extensively to owner Bill DeWitt, current general manager John Mozeliak, and analytics whiz Jeff Luhnow (now with the resurgent Houston Astros). Unfortunately, his flavorless, rigid approach setup, lengthy quote, repeat leaves no room for anecdotes, descriptive scenes, or a deeper understanding of what goes into making a baseball machine. Serious Cardinals fans will savor this glowing insider take on their beloved organization, but most other readers will find the book bland and tiresome.
