Moneyball – The Art of Winning an Unfair Game - Hardcover

Lewis, Michael

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0393057658 ISBN 13: 9780393057652

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 2003

Synopsis

Lewis, Michael. Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game. New York, Norton, 2003. Octavo. XV, 288 pages. Original Hardcover with original dustjacket in protective collector's mylar. Very good condition with only minor signs of external wear. Michael Monroe Lewis (born October 15, 1960) is an American non-fiction author and financial journalist. His bestselling books include Liar's Poker (1989), The New New Thing (2000), Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game (2003), The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game (2006), Panic (2008), Home Game: An Accidental Guide to Fatherhood (2009), The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine (2010), and Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World (2011). He has also been a contributing editor to Vanity Fair since 2009. His most recent book, Flash Boys, which looked at the high-frequency trading sector of Wall Street, was released in 2014. Lewis described his experiences at Salomon and the evolution of the mortgage-backed bond in Liar's Poker (1989). In The New New Thing (1999), he investigated the then-booming Silicon Valley and discussed obsession with innovation. Four years later, Lewis wrote Moneyball, in which he investigated the success of Billy Beane and the Oakland A's. In August 2007, he wrote an article about catastrophe bonds entitled In Nature's Casino that appeared in The New York Times Magazine. In a 2011 column in The Atlantic, American journalist and sports author Allen Barra takes issue with Lewis's characterization of Major League Baseball in his 2003 book Moneyball. Barra writes: From a historical standpoint, Lewis is, well, way off base. By the end of the 20th century baseball had achieved a greater level of competitive balance than at any time in the game's history... Moneyball doesn't just get the state of present-day baseball wrong; it also misrepresents the history of the sport. (Wikipedia).

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

About this edition

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0393057658
• ISBN 13: 9780393057652
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 304