Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game

Lewis, Michael

ISBN 10: 0739308165 ISBN 13: 9780739308165

Publisher: Random House, 2003

Synopsis

Explains how Billy Beene, the general manager of the Oakland Athletics, is using a new kind of thinking to build a successful and winning baseball team without spending enormous sums of money.

About this title

Review:

Billy Beane, general manager of MLB's Oakland A's and protagonist of Michael Lewis's Moneyball had a problem: how to win in the Major Leagues with a budget that's smaller than that of nearly every other team. Conventional wisdom long held that big name, highly athletic hitters and young pitchers with rocket arms were the ticket to success. But Beane and his staff, buoyed by massive amounts of carefully interpreted statistical data, believed that wins could be had by more affordable methods such as hitters with high on-base percentage and pitchers who get lots of ground outs. Given this information and a tight budget, Beane defied tradition and his own scouting department to build winning teams of young affordable players and inexpensive cast-off veterans.

Lewis was in the room with the A's top management as they spent the summer of 2002 adding and subtracting players and he provides outstanding play-by-play. In the June player draft, Beane acquired nearly every prospect he coveted (few of whom were coveted by other teams) and at the July trading deadline he engaged in a tense battle of nerves to acquire a lefty reliever.

Besides being one of the most insider accounts ever written about baseball, Moneyball is populated with fascinating characters. We meet Jeremy Brown, an overweight college catcher who most teams project to be a 15th round draft pick (Beane takes him in the first). Sidearm pitcher Chad Bradford is plucked from the White Sox triple-A club to be a key set-up man and catcher Scott Hatteberg is rebuilt as a first baseman. But the most interesting character is Beane himself. A speedy athletic can't-miss prospect who somehow missed, Beane reinvents himself as a front-office guru, relying on players completely unlike, say, Billy Beane. Lewis, one of the top non-fiction writers of his era (Liar's Poker, Next), offers highly accessible explanations of baseball stats and his roadmap of Beane's economic approach makes Moneyball an appealing reading experience for business people and sports fans alike. --John Moe, Amazon.com

Review:

Moneyball is his grandest tour de force yet. -- Tom Wolfe

Another journalistic tour de force.

Stunning....[Lewis's] explanations of the science of baseball...are spellbinding.

Anyone who cares about baseball "must" read "Moneyball."

[Lewis's] descriptive writing allows Beane and the others in the lively cast of baseball characters to come alive.

Ebullient, invigorating...provides plenty of action, both numerical and athletic, on the field and in the draft-day war room.

You have to read "Moneyball"...Amazing anecdotes...an entertaining, enlightening read.

An extraordinary job of reporting and writing.

Moneyball is his grandest tour de force yet.--Tom Wolfe

The single most influential baseball book ever.--Rob Neyer

Moneyball is his grandest tour de force yet. --Tom Wolfe

You need know absolutely nothing about baseball to appreciate the wit, snap, economy and incisiveness of Lewis's thoughts about it...."Moneyball" moves nimbly between sheer exuberance and strategic wiles. --Janet Maslin

A brilliantly told tale....Michael Lewis's beautiful obsession with the idea of value has once again yielded gold. --Garry Trudeau

The single most influential baseball book ever. --Rob Neyer"

Another journalistic tour de force. "

Anyone who cares about baseball must read Moneyball. "

An extraordinary job of reporting and writing. "

You have to read Moneyball.... Amazing anecdotes... an entertaining, enlightening read. "

Moneyball is [Lewis's] grandest tour de force yet. --Tom Wolfe"

Engaging, informative, and deliciously contrarian.

Ebullient, invigorating... provides plenty of action, both numerical and athletic, on the field and in the draft-day war room.

One of the most enjoyable baseball books in years.

About this edition

• Publisher: Random House
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0739308165
• ISBN 13: 9780739308165
• Binding: Audio CD