Reviews
I've never been too interested in baseball, but then again, this ain't your typical baseball book. The compelling story of a former MLB player turned general manager, one of the first to do so, and transform a poor, failing team to playoff contenders in one of inspiration and courage. Challenging the status quo, questioning how things are done at a first principles level, is what I most enjoyed about this book.
Great economics book with superb story telling. Michael Lewis writes about baseball's inefficient market with a classic "David x Goliath" plot, which is Billy Beane, and his scientific experiment, against MLB rich franchises. Also presenting the players involved in Bill's experiment and their true underdog stories. However, I would highly advise that the reader possesses some previous knowledge in baseball, otherwise it might be a tough read.
before reading this i had practically *zero* baseball knowledge, so for me this book was really difficult to understand at first (the learning curve was steep and involved a lot of google / youtube videos / dumb questions to boyfriend who played a lot of baseball as a kid). that being said, this was such a fun read! i felt so invested in the lives and careers of these players, managers, and fans. it may seem like just a silly little game but the stakes are real for these people, and i get the hype now!
** spoiler alert ** Baseball ⚾ players arbitrage? No worries, we've got you covered! Billy storyline tells you that even you don't have wealthiest group, you can still win on streaks, with few tricks hidden in the 🪣 bucket, literally win unfair game, you just need seek other way around to play arbitrage out of the field ;) ≥There was the bias of everyone who played the game to generalize wildly from his own experience, or an inclination to be overly influenced by a player’s most recent performance forgetting that the most recent performance does not make the player. ≥What do you do with your $40 million to avoid mortifying defeat? ≥The joy of rooting for David is that, while you do not know what to expect, you stand at least a chance of being inspired. ≥To make juicy trades at this period of the year, the trick was to persuade other teams to buy his guys for more than they were worth and sell their guys for less than they were worth. It was something he had done very effectively for some years now. ≥This trick worked because the bad teams lost hope and with loss of confidence came an urge to cut costs, which led to the dumping of players. ≥You can always recover from not signing a player, but you may never recover from the signing a player at the wrong price. ≥Although his approach to the market for baseball players was unsystematic, it was incredibly efficient. ≥Billy did not have the intention of watching his team make history. To him, it was just another game, and he did not watch matches because they provide him with subjective emotion, and that can be counterproductive. ≥so all he could think of was to exploit the grotesque market inefficiency by trading himself. His timing was about perfect. ≥He would only be one more general manager among many who were celebrated for a day, then forgotten. ≥He transformed the lives of ballplayers whose hidden virtues the world wouldn't have seen otherwise. And now, those players who had been on the receiving end of the idea kept busy returning the favor.
A really fun, well-written book that blends personal narrative with baseball gameplay and statistics and history all into one lovely smorgasbord. I learned a lot about baseball, especially the importance of on-base percentage. If you're interested in underdogs, baseball or professional sports more generally you'll enjoy this influential book.
I just hit "want to read" on this by mistake and realized I must have read it way before I started using Goodreads. The upshot: it's the story of how math nerds changed the way baseball operates, and of old-guard vs new-guard, and of how to exploit a flaw in the system if you happen to be the first person to spot said flaw. I only followed baseball closely for a few years, which fell just a few after Moneyball became a *thing*, so for me it was the interesting story of how a lot of names I recognized as aging superstars (Giambi, for example) reached that status in the first place. A+ read for math and/or baseball nerds.
Love books. Love baseball. Love books about baseball. It may have required the added motivation/inspiration of my brother getting a job with the Astros, but I finally finished this! Moneyball is well written, interesting, and informative. Non-fiction done right!
jkl
Love the movie so I had to read the book. It was more detailed and went in on some of the actual statistics.
All about building a better baseball team with less money. Ho hum.
This book was okay. Reads a bit dated now since so many other teams caught up to what Billy Beane had in mind. I say had in mind because I can applaud his approach to keeping an eye on OPS before everyone else did, but can't say that I agree that stealing bases and sacrifice bunts aren't worth the risk. Billy seems like someone I would not want to work for. But that's just a personal note.
Compelling book. I’m sure the charts and figures would be even more compelling in print, but the audiobook was exactly what I needed today.
