 "Great Book, but failed philosoophy" | 2009-09-28 |
| - Reviewed By jojopuppyfish2 |
All the recent reviews state that they are not baseball fans.
The book is well written and has a great mini-story on Bill James.
One problem: The philosophy of Billy Beane hasn't come to fruition.
In fact, in retrospect, it was excellent pitching that made the Oakland As contenders year after year.
During Billy Beane's years as GM, correct me if I'm wrong, but they've won 1 playoff series. |
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 "Riveting stuff..." | 2009-09-11 |
| - Reviewed By User: A2KB3ZF1H88M0W |
| This book is a must-read for baseball fans and non-baseball fans alike. Riveting stuff. An inside look at the sports world that will change the way you look at baseball and sports generally. |
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| "Great for people who like statistics or baseball, in particular" | 2009-09-09 |
| - Reviewed By maylinglai2 |
A well written book that shows how statistic is revolutionizing the age old game of baseball. I enjoyed reading it, as it suggests other broader changes happening as more and more data becomes easily available.
For baseball fans in particular, they will enjoy reading about this fascinating change in the way the game is strategically played. Less of a baseball fan than a geek about how statistics can be deceiving, I greatly enjoyed this book as well.
What was also very interesting was the manner in which statistics, very hard to argue, was not well received. The struggle for change was against the grain. The same is true of so many things that statistics is changing.
I would mention that if you are neither into statistics or baseball, you may not greatly enjoy this book. |
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| "a book you don't need to love baseball to love-just a well-told story" | 2009-08-22 |
| - Reviewed By benvarkent |
I'm not a baseball fan, but Aaron Sorkin is one of my favorite writers. So when I heard that he'd been hired to write a screenplay based on this book, I ordered it from my library, specifically, the unabridged Books On Tape version, a fine reading by Scott Brick.
This is a glorious story of the unconventional triumphing over the typical, and it's easy to see why Columbia wants to turn it into a picture. And why they hired Sorkin. Moneyball is totally a story he can "hit out of the park," his Sports Night was a show you didn't need to love sports to love, either.
Lewis tells his story so well that even a non baseball fan like me can get caught up in the love of the game--at least for the hours I was listening.
Less clear is why Brad Pitt, who is "attached to the project," should star in the film version--nothing against Pitt, but the story I heard doesn't seem to need a popular sex symbol.
In fact, one of the great ideas of the Oakland A's management covered by the book is that they should concentrate on guys who can play, no matter what they look like, not so much on studs who can "sell jeans."
This idea was not exactly loved in big league baseball, so I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that a movie studio hasn't taken it on either... |
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| "Great metaphor" | 2009-08-14 |
| - Reviewed By User: A38IZVTPUJEP40 |
I am not even a baseball fan, but I read this book because it was recommended by Joel Greenblatt, a value investor, in one of his interviews. At first I had no idea why Greenblatt would recommend a book on baseball. What does it have to do with picking stocks? After reading it, I realized that it everything to do with stocks.
Billy Beane, who was a general manager for a baseball team, searched for players the way the best money managers search for stocks. Because he did not depend on scouts, just like great money managers do not depend on analysts, he was able to get players very cheap compared with the traditional methods. In other words, he was able to find inefficiencies in the market for baseball players. Good for him that he did not follow the efficient market theory like many money managers in the investment arena do. He was not only able to win games, but also the team operated with lower expenses because in the end, a baseball team is nothing but a business collecting revenues and incurring expenses. Lewis did a fabulous job writing this book. I loved it.
- Mariusz Skonieczny, author of Why Are We So Clueless about the Stock Market? Learn how to invest your money, how to pick stocks, and how to make money in the stock market |
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| "A fascinating look inside the statistical world of major-league baseball" | 2009-08-13 |
| - Reviewed By jt13310 |
It's pretty amazing, when you think about it, just how much time and money and energy and brain power have been invested in professional sports over the past hundred years or so, and none more than major-league baseball. Tracking and evaluating individual and team statistics has become an entire industry, and it's an established enough industry that it can support heated debates about methodology and best practices. Moneyball is a fascinating peek into that world. It examines some of the arguments and grudges that have sprung up over the years among analysts and baseball insiders, and it somehow manages to do it in a way that will pique the interest of even non-baseball fans.
In 2002, the Oakland Athletics had the second lowest payroll in baseball, yet they managed to acquire more wins than all but one other team. According to conventional baseball wisdom, this was an impossible feat. So how did they do it? Michael Lewis answers this question by telling the story of A's general manager Billy Beane.
Beane, drawing on very unconventional analysis by a baseball scholar named Bill James, believed that winning games depended far less than commonly believed on things like hitters' batting average and fielders' number of errors and relief pitchers' saves. Instead, the most telling indicators of success were things like a batter's ability to get on base with or without a hit and a pitcher's strikeout percentage. Through the course of the 2002 season, Beane's scrappy team won game after game while acquiring players everyone else thought were worthless and emphasizing strategies most other teams scoffed at. It seemed Beane was being proven right.
Of course, not everyone agreed. The 2002 A's were an anomaly, some argued. But the numbers speak for themselves. Even readers with little or no interest in baseball will be intrigued by Lewis's ability to describe and analyze statistical trends. Billy Bean comes off looking like a heroic David fighting against the Goliath of major-league baseball's institutions. Traditional baseball scouts and others who hold fast to supposedly time-tested "truths" about America's favorite game come across as naïve at best and downright foolish at worst. Through it all, the background stories of players--some whom no one but the most ardent baseball fans have ever heard of--add a delightful element of human interest, and the team's ultimate success gives the book an almost epic hero's-journey feel.
One word of caution: baseball is a dangerous sport to become interested in. With 162 games per season, not including the playoffs, loyally following even one team is a time-consuming enterprise. If you're a baseball fan already, Moneyball will make you watch and think about games differently. If you're not a fan, reading this book just might make you one. |
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