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The Cubs way the zen of building the best team in baseball and breaking the curse

It took 108 years, but it really happened. The Chicago Cubs are once again World Series champions. How did a team of untested young players and carefully selected veterans come together to break the longest championship drought in professional sports? Beginning with Theo Epstein's first season...

Full description

Main Author: Verducci, Tom (Author)
Format: Books Print Book
Language: English
Published: New York, NY : Crown Archetype, [2017]
Edition: First edition.
Subjects:
Epstein, Theo, > 1973-
Maddon, Joe, > 1954-
Baseball teams > Management.
Summary: It took 108 years, but it really happened. The Chicago Cubs are once again World Series champions. How did a team of untested young players and carefully selected veterans come together to break the longest championship drought in professional sports? Beginning with Theo Epstein's first season as team president in 2012, sportswriter Tom Verducci shows how Epstein went beyond "Moneyball" thinking when planning the path to a championship. Epstein focused on the mental side of the game as much as the physical, emphasizing chemistry and character as well as statistics. To accomplish his goal, Epstein needed manager Joe Maddon, an eccentric innovator, as his counterweight on the Cubs' bench. A man who encourages themed road trips and a lack of rules to keep his team loose, Maddon mixed New Age thinking with old-school leadership to help his players find their edge. The Cubs Way tells how key players such as Rizzo, Bryant, Schwarber, Russell, Arrieta, and Lester were deftly brought into the organization by Epstein, and guided by Maddon to outperform expectations. From Maddon's game plans to rain-delay pep talks, Verducci provides a previously unseen view from the bench, inside the locker room, and even in the owner's box. This is the World Series unveiled.
Item Description: Includes index of names.
Physical Description: 375 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : color illustrations ; 25 cm
ISBN: 9780804190015
0804190011
Author Notes: Sports writer Tom Verducci was born in East Orange, New Jersey. He received a B. A. in journalism from Penn State University in 1982. He was a sports reporter for Florida Today in Cocoa, Florida for one year. Then he spent 10 years as a sports reporter for Newsday, where he was its national baseball columnist from 1990-1993. He started working at Sports Illustrated in 1993 and also, writes for its online magazine si.com. Currently he is a senior baseball writer for Sports illustrated. He is also a game and studio analyst for FOX Sports and MLB Network for which he has won two Emmy awards. He was named National Sportswriter of the Year in 2014 and 2015. He is the co-writer of The Yankee Years with Joe Torre and the author of The Cubs Way: The Zen of Building the Best Team in Baseball and Breaking the Curse.

(Bowker Author Biography)

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