Description

---

What happens when three financial industry whiz kids and certified baseball nuts take over an ailing major league franchise and implement the same strategies that fueled their success on Wall Street? In the case of the 2008 Tampa Bay Rays, an American League championship happens - the culmination of one of the greatest turnarounds in baseball history. In The Extra 2%, financial journalist and sportswriter Jonah Keri chronicles the remarkable story of one team's Cinderella journey from divisional doormat to World Series contender. By quantifying the game's intangibles, they were able to deliver to Tampa Bay an American League pennant. This is an informative and entertaining case study for any organization that wants to go from worst to first.

About the Author

---

Jonah Keri is a sports and stock market writer. His take on the issues is influenced by objective analysis and biased Canadianism. Jonah's sports writing has appeared at ESPN.com, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and many others. He is also the editor and co-author of Baseball Between the Numbers, among others. Jonah covers the stock market for Investor's Business Daily, and his podcast is one of the Web's most popular sports podcasts.READER BIO Lloyd James has been narrating since 1996, has recorded over five hundred books in almost every genre, has earned six AudioFile Earphones Awards, and is a two-time nominee for the prestigious Audie Award. Lloyd's background as a performer includes extensive work in classical theater and folk music. He lives in Maryland with his wife and children.

Praise For…

---

"Jonah Keri has given us a fascinating look at how the Tampa Bay (Devil) Rays became winners. The Extra 2% is a captivating book if you love baseball, but it's an even more captivating book if you love success." - Joe Posnanski, senior writer, Sports Illustrated

"The Tampa Bay Rays - with their ma-and-pa-sized budget - have gone head to head with baseball's two superpowers, the Yankees and the Red Sox. In the superb The Extra 2%, Jonah Keri explains how and why in a way that will remind readers of Michael Lewis's Moneyball." - Buster Olney, senior writer, ESPN The Magazine, and author

"All baseball fans ever ask for is hope: hope not only for a season out of their dreams, but also for leaders smart enough and imaginative enough to figure out how to make those dreams reality. In The Extra 2%, Jonah Keri not only presents this blueprint followed to perfection but does so with a brilliant page-turner of a book that will satisfy fans of both baseball and first-rate writing." - Mike Vaccaro, columnist, the New York Post

"There are a million ways to build a World Series team, but no one has ever built one quite like the Wall Street escapees in Tampa Bay. After reading Jonah Keri's brilliant account of the Rays' rise from laugh track to payback, I found myself thinking, 'The heck with Moneyball. Give me Equityball.'" - Jayson Stark, senior writer, ESPN.com

"Tampa Bay winning the American League East ahead of the Yankees and the Red Sox twice in three years is one of the most underappreciated sports accomplishments of the last twenty years. Jonah Keri has written a combination business book and wonderful collection of anecdotes that should allow the reader to easily answer the question 'What was Tampa Bay thinking?' as well as understand how difficult it will always be for a team in that market to open its competitive window for longer than three years at a time." - Peter Gammons, three-time National Sportswriter of the Year