Moneyball: The Art of Winning an
Unfair Game
By Michael Lewis
No one writes more insightfully about people and money than Michael Lewis. In
books like Liar’s Poker (which focused on the bond markets) and The New,
New Thing (the Internet), Lewis has profiled a succession of brilliant, outsized
personalities who have transformed the way "value" is calculated in
their respective fields. Here, Lewis turns his gaze to baseball, building his
story around Oakland Athletics General Manager Billy Beane. Following Beane through
the 2002 Major League Baseball draft and season, Lewis documents how a new generation
of executives, inspired by baseball writer Bill James, is using statistical analysis
to challenge many of the game’s most smug and cherished assumptions. These
range from the unexamined notion that bunting and stealing improve a team’s
chances of winning (they don’t) to the claim that "he who has the
most money wins" ("he" doesn’t…always). Writing with
intelligence, humor, and insight, Lewis dissects how the second-poorest team
in baseball put James’ theories into practice, winning far more games per
dollar than any other club, including the spendthrift Yankees. Diehard Red Sox
fans can hope that Bill James’ version of moneyball will trump George Steinbrenner’s:
Sox General Manager Theo Epstein is a proponent of James’ theories, team
manager Terry Francona is an alumnus of the Athletics organization, and James
himself is a consultant to the team. Christine Kane
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