Buzz Saw

The Improbable Story of How the Washington Nationals Won the World Series

By: Jesse Dougherty

Narrated by: Angelo Di Loreto

The remarkable story of the 2019 World Series champion Washington Nationals told by the Washington Post writer who followed the team most closely.

By May 2019, the Washington Nationals - owners of baseball’s oldest roster - had one of the worst records in the majors and just a 1.5 percent chance of winning the World Series. Yet by blending an old-school brand of baseball with modern analytics, they managed to sneak into the playoffs and put together the most unlikely postseason run in baseball history. Not only did they beat the Houston Astros, the team with the best regular-season record, to claim the franchise’s first championship - they won all four games in Houston, making them the first club to ever win four road games in a World Series.

"You have a great year, and you can run into a buzz saw," Nationals pitcher Stephen Strasburg told Washington Post beat writer Jesse Dougherty after the team advanced to the World Series. "Maybe this year we’re the buzz saw." Dougherty followed the Nationals more closely than any other writer in America, and in Buzz Saw he recounts the dramatic year in vivid detail, taking listeners inside the dugout, the clubhouse, the front office, and ultimately the championship parade.

Yet he does something more than provide a riveting retelling of the season: He makes the case that while there is indisputable value to Moneyball-style metrics, baseball isn’t just a numbers game. Intangibles like team chemistry, veteran experience, and childlike joy are equally essential to winning. Certainly, no team seemed to have more fun than the Nationals, who adopted the kids’ song "Baby Shark" as their anthem and regularly broke into dugout dance parties. Buzz Saw is just as lively and rollicking - a fitting tribute to one of the most exciting, inspiring teams to ever take the field.

©2020 Jesse Dougherty (P)2020 Simon & Schuster Audio

Awestruck - No Way Around It

You will laugh, you will cheer, and yes, you will cry!

As a baseball fan and a fan of the Washington Nationals, I was so excited for this book. But, I did not think it would be so detailed, so wonderful. If you are a true baseball fan, love the ins and outs of the season (trades, transactions, an inside look), you will LOVE Buzz Saw.

Amazing read👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

An amazing ride full of adventure ups and downs emotional pivots the works!!
A must read or must listen!

Captivating

A fitting tribute to the players and managers who worked and played together to bring home a World Series victory to the whole MD, DC and VA area. Insight into players thoughts and feelings was well described . Enjoyed immensely from start to finish!

Great book, mediocre narration

The book speaks for itself, it’s comprehensive and engaging with well-crafted interviews and anecdotes. The narration is fine, but uninteresting. It’s extremely nitpicky and inconsequential, I know, but a few blatant mistakes like “Joe Pederson” instead of his name, Joc. Or doing a weird shrill tone for a woman’s voice, without ever changing his tone for a man. Just a little off putting, otherwise a decent narration.

Love the subject!

Of course I finished it, but there were a lot of inacuracies. This surprised me. Dougherty could've done a little more research into earlier Nats history.

Great read for baseball fans, but speed up the narrator!

I loved every second of the story, the inside details on how the nats won the world series (spoiler alert). Jesse Dougherty did an amazing job with the writing. But the narrator is slooooooooow. He makes it too dramatic and it drags. Speed it up a bit and it makes the book amazing

I didn’t expect it...

I am a big Nats fan and purchased this book at the urging of a friend. I had honestly felt a little burnt out on memories of the 2019 run; I’ll never tire of the feelings invoked by the “5/24” now tattooed on my right bicep, but I’d begun to yearn for actual baseball in place of a constant stream of long memorized highlights. I did not expect the exhilarating rush of reliving the season through Mr. Dougherty’s eyes and Mr. Di Loreto’s voice. I was transfixed by the behind-the-scenes insights into the year (and more than a little disappointed that Ryan Zimmerman has never happened upon a bar while I was in attendance, but thankful it happened to Pat Corbin), then in tears for most of the final chapters. Kudos to both the author and the talented narrator for fantastic work.

Well-written. Nostalgia overload.

This team was such an important part of my life, as well as my entire family’s. Thanks so much for telling this story.

Okay audio book on the world champs

Audio version of this book was so-so. It was a profile of the 2019 championship season for the Washington Nationals. Good profiles are in the book on manager Dave Martinez and World Series MVP Stephen Strasburg. However, it felt incomplete- it felt like a lot more could be told about the team. Given how soon this was published after the Nationals won the World Series, that seems to be the case. The narration was okay, but slow. I listened at 1.25 setting just to hear him talk at more "normal" pace that I am used to with audiobooks. But overall it was worth a listen

Disappointed

Wrong narrator. Dramatic reading is to distracting, unable to listen to book. It’s really to bad. Had a lot of potential.