SKIPPER

The shifting view from baseball’s hottest seat.

Seasoned baseball reporter Miller takes readers inside front offices, locker rooms, dugouts, and the living rooms of living legends in this intimate and definitive look at where managers now fit in a game transformed. “Managing always has been the industry’s loneliest job,” Miller writes. “It’s just lonely today for different reasons.” The rise—and perhaps tyranny—of analytics, which Miller says “caps a player’s ability by identifying what he doesn’t do well and, instead of teaching and developing those areas, finds a second puzzle piece that simply plugs in to overcome the first player’s shortcomings,” has taken decision-making out of managers’ hands and distributed it across organizations. Little in today’s game escapes the influence of front office economic models and stat-happy baseball ops functions. But winning the numbers game doesn’t always mean winning ballgames, and it’s the manager alone who must step to the plate when collective calls swing and miss. This takes a toll. Like U.S. presidents, Miller points out, baseball managers also “usually look shockingly older at the end of their terms than at the beginning.” Survival demands certain qualities: an ability to flex, a willingness to collaborate with pointy-headed suits, strong leadership, and the kind of knowledge that can help players believe in a mission—and in themselves. This is a book filled with warmth and soul, a credit to the trust Miller has built across years of clubhouse reporting. He spends time in future Hall of Famer Dusty Baker’s vineyard; watches Aaron Boone’s Yankees from the home of Phillies legend Bob Boone, Aaron’s father; and devotes a chapter to four days spent alongside the Dodgers’ Dave Roberts for an “an unprecedented peek inside the day-to-day life of a modern manager.” Miller deploys a light editorial hand and often lets skippers speak seemingly unfiltered for paragraphs at a time. The result is plainspoken, colorful, and deeply insightful—much like this book.

Essential reading for students of the game and aspiring leaders.