18
Jan/102
Jan/102
The Batter’s Edge: A Year With The Boston Red Sox
In 1991, Major League Baseball was low-tech. Players reviewed their performance on videotape, and computers were not a part of game preparation. Then came The Batter's Edge, a revolutionary computer video system, developed for the Boston Red Sox by Scott Olivieri and his father. The Batter's Edge provided players with instant video access to their at-bats, captured pitcher's tendencies, and changed the way baseball teams used technology. Told in an engaging first-person narra...
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January 18th, 2010
Since my daughter has been living in Boston for the past 10 years, and I get to travel there to visit quite a bit, I have become a rabid Sox fan (but just in the American League; the Phillies are my team in the National!). I love their storied and star-crossed history, and this book gives me new insights into the baseball culture and system. It’s told from the perspective of a fan who gets the “once in a lifetime” job to mingle with the players on his hometown team. There are tremendous locker room scenes, and the players appear to be more human than we really see them when they are just on the field. Even Roger Clemens appears likeable, which is almost amazing! A close read of the book reveals that the writer was not too thrilled with the front office Sox organization, but it’s the old story that familiarity breeds contempt. This is a book all baseball fans, and those who enjoy a well written book, will love! Read it, you won’t be sorry.
January 18th, 2010
I literally could not put this book down. Okay, so im a huge baseball fan and sure, I adore the Red Sox..but the perspective you get from a regular guy on the inside of the very private world of professional sports is enlightening and a joy to read.
Moreover, it describes how and where an organization–through its many quirks–succeeds and fails.
This tome is like a real-life version of something like the “The West Wing”, where you get an inside look at the inner-workings you’re not supossed to see. Mr. Olivieri shows how a team operates beyond the sports pages and delves into the sociology of a pro sports team–how the management, the players and the folks like Olivieri try to keep the team one step ahead of the competition. I felt like the view of this storied franchise was unlike anything I had read or heard of before.
Would love to see a series on this in other facets of life written in such a down-to-earth manner.
The Red sox used cutting edge technology to gain an edge…frankly, tech like this should have been emphaiszed more then, as the current management relies on it.
I would recomend this book to any baseball fan, any sports fan, and to anyone in management who should see how operations function at the fox-hole level operate.