Mind Game: How the Boston Red Sox
Got Smart, Won a World Series, and
Created a New Blueprint for Winning
by Baseball Prospectus Team of
Experts
Enjoyable Analysis Of How The Red Sox Took The 2004 World Series
Think You Know Baseball?
Think Again.
The Red Sox finally won a World Series, in a triumph of unconventional
wisdom. They rethought the batting order and committed to Johnny Damon
as lead-off. Saw the talent in David Ortiz that other teams overlooked. Had

the courage to trade one of the game’s top shortstops for the good of the
team. They knocked over the sacred cows of RBIs, sacrifice bunts, the hit-
and-run, and hewed to the new thinking about pitch count—allowing Pedro
Martinez, arguably baseball’s best pitcher ever, to excel. Weaving
statistics, narrative, personalities, and anecdote, Mind Game reveals
exactly how this group of “idiots,” led by Theo Epstein and Terry Francona,
was in fact the smartest team in the league, and revolutionizes the thinking
fan’s understanding of how baseball games are really won and lost.
Personal Review: Mind Game: How the Boston Red Sox Got
Smart, Won a World Series, and Created a New Blueprint for
Winning by Baseball Prospectus Team of Experts
The best thing about reading anything by the team that writes for the
Baseball Prospectus is the wit and humor with which they analyze the
game on the field. They do this well in "Mind Game" and offer a valuable
perspective on how the Theo Epstein led Boston Red Sox was able to
capture the World Series in 2004. As might be expected, statheads that
they are, this team of writers adores another stathead and celebrates the
rise of sabermetrics in baseball management. Epstein is a follower of the
legendary Billy Beane in Oakland, the hero of Michael Lewis's "Moneyball"
(2003), himself a loyal acolyte of the guru of all statheads, Bill James. By
building a team using the statistical measurements advocated by James,
according to editor Steven Goldman and his team of writers, Theo Epstein
made it possible for the Red Sox finally after 86 years to win the World
Series following a series of near misses.
What we learn from this book is that the Red Sox had suffered years of
mismanagement through cronyism, racism, and a host of other "isms."
When the longstanding Yawkey influence was finally purged from the
team's ownership in the early twenty-first century a new clear vision of how
to win took root. Epstein pursued it relentlessly, restructuring the team to
reflect a philosophy built around big innings, on base percentage, power
hitting, and strong defense especially up the middle. Indeed, as the back
cover of this book notes, there are several myths exploded in this book:
* A lineup the strikes out a lot can't be a winner.
* There's no such thing as too much offense.
* Until 2004, the Red Sox were habitual underperformers in the post-
season.
* Teams play better after an emotionally uplifting brawl.
* Mariano Rivera was the best closer in baseball from 1999 to 2003.
There is a large amount of additional conventional wisdom busted in "Mind
Game" as well.
In the end what emerges is an enjoyable, enlightening discussion of how
the Red Sox were able to win it all in 2004. It's a satisfying analysis that
even the non-stathead will find useful.

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