The cubs way the zen of building the best team in baseball and breaking the curse by tom verducci senior baseball writer for sports illustrated is 375 pages of leadership management savvy page turning drama and behind the scenes sports innovations are you trying to change the culture in your organization imagine arriving as president of cubs baseball operations in 2012 and enduring a 101 loss season keeping fans engaged during the building process then hiring a new manager in . Tom verducci is senior writer at sports illustrated and a regular commentator on fox baseball broadcasts he published the cubs way the zen of building the best team in baseball and breaking the curse earlier this spring it is a very good read so good that i would call it a must read for any serious fan of the chicago cubs and a very highly recommended read for other baseball fans. The cubs way the zen of building the best team in baseball and breaking the curse by tom verducci at one point in the cubs way one of the teams coaches takes 162 baseballs and lays them end to end along a baseline separated by seven bats one baseball of course for each game on the schedule over the course of seven months and then for october extra baseballs for the postseason . The cubs way the zen of building the best team in baseball and breaking the curse by tom verducci crown archetype penguin random house 28 376 pages. In the cubs way the zen of building the best team in baseball and breaking the curse tom verducci of sports illustrated and fox sports recounts in entertaining fashion not only how the cubs won their first world series title in 108 years but also how theo epstein and his team built the north siders from lovable losers into one of major league baseballs best organizations in five years in doing so he teaches us about both the men who played the game and the men who hired them