Winning Fixes Everything...Or Does It?
Today, we examine Evan Drelich’s new book “Winning Fixes Everything," specifically how it presents an avalanche of evidence in opposition to the book title's titular theory.
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Pregame Pepper - Book Buzz
Leading Off
The Great Man Theory Of Leadership Has No Place in Baseball
By Tani Levitt
It is almost too on-the-nose for a book about the corporatization of Major League Baseball to open with an anecdote about a mid-level employee getting fired. That the employee in question is also the author of the book underscores the simple fact that the consolidation of power and furthering of capital interests outlined in Winning Fixes Everything pervades every sector of industry.
Winning Fixes Everything [Harper Collins], Evan Drelich’s new book, is a comprehensive review of his reporting on the broken culture in the Houston Astros front office over the past decade. Drelich draws on reporting on MLB and the Astros from his time with the Houston Chronicle, The Athletic, and other publications.
After purchasing the Astros in 2011, Jim Crane overhauled their front office, replacing baseball lifers with ivy-educated MBAs from the worlds of management consulting and investment banking, most notably in future team president Jeff Luhnow.
Over the course of a decade, the Luhnow front office would lead the Astros on a process of protracted losing and cost-cutting, in hopes of winning a World Series on the back of homegrown talent. The single-minded approach led to sustained success, beginning in 2015, and a World Series title in 2017. It also led the Astros to the conclusion that in the franchise’s rebirth, “feelings would be hurt; people would be unhappy. What great empire was built other-wise?”
Feelings indeed were hurt. Many within the Astros organization were sidelined, and to win, the Astros took advantage of an extensive sign-stealing operation during their World Series winning campaign.
The ubiquity of Drelich’s reporting on the subject since he moved to Houston in 2013 has made him one of the most important reporters in the baseball world, and, at first glance, one might think the memory of Drelich’s many breaking reports on the Astros organization would be enough to remember the scope of the Astros misdeeds, but the sheer volume of deep reporting and anecdotes about the corporate culture in Houston make Winning Fixes Everything a must-read for baseball fans and consulting skeptics alike.
The question posed by the book’s title, itself a quote from Luhnow, is not whether winning fixes everything, but for whom does winning fix things? Winning a World Series is the one spot of overlap in the Venn diagram of player, manager, front office, and fan interests.
But who does the process of reaching that moment of consensus benefit? By telling the story from the perspective of ownership and senior leadership, Drelich shows how the Astros front office never considered the interest of their prospects and fans.
In one instance, Jim Crane played hardball with DirectTV over the broadcasting rights for the Astros, costing many fans the chance to watch their hometown team. In another, Luhnow admits to spending little time in the locker room for fear of building personal connections with players he knew he wanted to cut.
Given this tone-deaf approach, it should then come as no surprise that Astros leadership bristled at Drelich’s reporting. Meeting with Drelich in 2014, the Astros owner told him that he’d “be very reluctant to continue to visit with you if we continue to get negative information on the team, because I don’t think it does us any good.”
The book’s eleventh chapter, “McKinsey at the Bat” is the most concrete reminder that the Astros borrowed from a larger playbook. The first third of the book is dedicated to the recruitment of ivy-educated, management consulting, and investment banking types to the Astros front office, and the stories Drelich shares of power struggles are reminiscent of a Devil Wear’s Prada-esque work environment.
“When McKinsey Comes to Town: The Hidden Influence of the World’s Most Powerful Consulting Firm,” the seminal book on the inner workings of the management consultancy giant, details a “culture of secrecy” that serves to insulate the cutthroat culture and methods of protecting vested interests from outside investigation, just as the Astros brain trust tried to insulate themselves from outside inspection.
After winning the 2017 World Series title, Luhnow and Co. could point to the title as validation for their single-minded approach. And yet, one wonders, without the sign-stealing, would the Astros have won their title. And in that world, would fans have rallied around Crane and Luhnow when the cheating was revealed?
To undertake the tank and emerge with nothing but empty promises is a guarantee of ostracization from the game. The Astros knew this, and it is the reason manager A.J. Hinch did not take the job until 2014 when the Astros were on the cusp of success, rather than in 2012 when they were tanking. “If [Hinch] took the Houston job and didn’t win quickly,” writes Drelich, “his managerial record would be so poor that he might not get another chance.”
Without the 2017 title, perhaps this book would not have been necessary, but the Astros won in 2017, shady dealings and all, and we will never know that world.
At the end of the book, Drelich patiently walks us through the finger-pointing in the fallout of Luhnow’s firing. Who is to blame for the broken culture? For the cheating? For the countless firings? For the attacks on reporters’ integrity? For the ruined careers of overworked staffers and players who bore the brunt of the callous mismanagement that defined the Luhnow era?
It should come as no surprise that nobody felt they were to blame. As Drelich lays out throughout the book, each member of the front office felt themselves to be the Great Man™ who would disrupt the Astros and baseball, and lead the franchise to glory. And a Great Man™ doesn’t take the fall.
Does winning fix everything? It depends on who you ask. Luhnow and countless others from the front office and playing staff are no longer with the Astros, and some aren’t even in baseball anymore. Yet, as Drelich notes, “three massive scandals—discrimination, war profiteering, and cheating—have, somehow, befallen Jim Crane’s companies” and he’s still there. McKinsey, the company he looked to for his chosen administrator, has faced similar allegations across the world, and they’re doing just fine as well.
Does winning fix everything? It depends on who you are.
Tani Levitt is a freelance journalist and podcaster. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, Slam, the Forward, and many other places. You can find him goofing off on Twitter and Instagram @HateItOrLevitt.