About this title: In major league baseball the biggest wallet is supposed to win: rich teams spend four times as much on talent as poor teams. However, over the past four years, the Oakland Athletics, a major league team with a minor league payroll, have had one of the best records. Last year, their superstar, Jason Giambi, went to the superrich Yankees. It hasn't made any difference to Oakland: their fabulous season included an American League record for consecutive victories. Billy Beene, general manager of the Athletics, is putting into practice on the field revolutionary principles garnered from geek ...
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Description: Good. Former Library book. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Acceptable. Book is in good reading condition. Cover has wear at edges and corners. Spine has wear at edges. Dust jacket has some wear. read more
Edition: Reprint.
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, New York, New York
Date Published: 2004
ISBN-13:9780393324815ISBN:0393324818
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Lightly creased spine. A nice copy. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 316 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc
Date Published: 2003
ISBN-13:9780393324815ISBN:0393324818
Description: Paperback. Not Pretty. Some Staining/Wrinkling; Frayed Corners. SKU: 23394048 All orders shipped within 1 business day. 14 day money back guarantee ISBN: 9780393324815 Not Pretty. Some Staining/Wrinkling; Frayed Corners. SKU: 23394048 All orders shipped within 1 business day. 14 day money back guarantee. read more
Description: Good. 0393057658 Hardcover with moderate shelf-wear, rubbing, fraying, tears, fading, chipping and bumping to dust jacket cover, board edges, corners, and spine. Binding is tight and square. Inside pages are free from underlining, note taking, and/or highlighting. Book is in stock and ready to ship same or next business day. Select Expedited shipping and receive your book within 3-5 business days. Buy with confidence! Please leave feedback after your purchase. It helps other buyers know we are ... read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Date Published: 2004
ISBN-13:9780393324815ISBN:0393324818
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. Backpack wear to book; Edge wear, tip of corners, slightly upturned for about the first 30 pages. Writing on first advertisment page. Minimal highlighting. I saw just three. Fast confirm and shipping! ! ! Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 316 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
"I'm a few years late in checking this book out.. It just got to the point that I felt that I understood everything about it just from hearing it referenced so heavily. Constantly.
And, in a sense, I don't mind that I was so behind the times on it. Reading this book now, in 2009, as everything in baseball has changed so much, it seemed to make even more sense. The players that are discussed the most in this book, Kevin Youkilis and Nick Swisher, are now highly valued members of the two most-gargantuan, money-spending teams in baseball. It seems like Billy Beene understood their value early on, and then everyone else did. But now that everyone else has adjusted, it's interesting to see how the A's have tried to respond to their guys moving to other, now-successful teams (the Blue Jays, Red Sox, and Dodgers, for instance).
I like the idea that there is an undervalued quality to the game that varies from time to time or era to era. I'd love to see someone do this for football now... The kick-off returner?"
"I'm sure this book would have more stars for someone else (like Josh) who knows more about sports, specifically baseball and also likes numbers.
This book has many facets
- a logical, statistical analysis of baseball : appeals to the mathematcians, and those who love logic (me) - a narrative focused on an insider's look at baseball : appeals to anyone who likes to get behind the scenes and see how things really work (me) - play by play descriptions of crucial baseball games : appeals to ... not me. I had to concentrate really hard to picture what they were talking about, which took more energy than I was willing to put in - character descriptions of quirky baseball players : amusing and interesting to get inside the heads of professional baseball players - lots and lots of references to famous people that I have never heard of, and lots of baseball jargon that I don't know (and I spend a lot of time with a guy who loves baseball, so I have learned quite a bit)
At any rate, I enjoyed the book, and learned quite a bit, but I had to skim a bit too to get through some particularly technical or detailed sections that I just wasn't interested enough to follow. I think a love of at least 3 of the 5 facets above is a necessity to appreciate this book."
"Major league baseball is not fair. There is no salary cap like there is in the nfl, nba, and nhl. Therefore, one would assume that the teams with the most money to spend would be the best teams. This book is about a team that was able to succeed while having one of the lowest payrolls. The Oakland A's were able to succeed in baseball by using statistics to pick which players would be the most productive. Smart guys that had never actually played baseball were able to determine which players would be the most effective.
I have always enjoyed statistics. I liked math as a kid and I loved reading the statistics on the back of my sports cards. Of course, fantasy football came along and my love of stats reached a new level. I became engrossed in the stats I would find on the internet. It's fun to compare players and decide which ones are best for your team. That's exactly what the managers of the Oakland A's were doing, except their team was no fantasy. They looked past the simple stats and uncovered which stats were truly important. The traditional baseball scouts and managers were just guessing at which players would be most productive. With their complex statistical analysis, the A's were able to field a winning team with productive players that were overlooked by those teams using traditional analysis. Therefore, they didn't have to pay a lot of money for these players.
I enjoyed the statistics talk but I was also able to identify with the personal stories of some of the managers and players in the book. The general manager of the A's, Billy Beane, was a former baseball player who didn't have much success in the major league. But, he was viewed as one of the most talented high school players ever. He had huge potential, but he couldn't overcome his insecurities to succeed. He thought too much, instead of just playing baseball with the amazing talent he had.
Reducing the game of baseball to numbers may seem rather unromantic, but I found it to be fascinating. Ultimately, everything in the universe can be explained through numbers. We, as humans, don't want to see that. We want to read a great story. Well, Moneyball isn't just about the stats. The author tells a story about people that were underestimated or had failed somehow in their lives. They were underdogs, but they found success. It's what makes sports endearing to us."
""I understood about one in four words of Moneyball, and it's still the best and most engrossing sports book I've read for years. If you know anything about baseball, you will enjoy it four times as much as I did, which means that you might explode." Nick Hornby, The Believer
How did it ever take me so long to get to this? The Oakland A's are my team + I followed them fervently in the early 00s, the era that Moneyball describes = explosion.
In addition to spontaneous combustion, this book also makes me want to study more statistics. I know that Moneyball was written for a popular audience, but it would have benefited from more statistics. However talented a writer Lewis is, using words to describe numbers can only go so far to describe the revolutionary methodology that the Oakland A's and Billy Beane employed to win in the baseball market."
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