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Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game
Moneyball The Art of Winning an Unfair Game
Author: Michael Lewis
The Oakland Athletics have a secret: a winning baseball team is made, not bought. I wrote this book because I fell in love with a story. The story concerned a small group of undervalued professional baseball players and executives, many of whom had been rejected as unfit for the big leagues, who had turned themselves into one of the ...  more »

With these words Michael Lewis launches us into the funniest, smartest, and most contrarian book since, well, since Liar's Poker. Moneyball is a quest for something as elusive as the Holy Grail, something that money apparently can't buy: the secret of success in baseball. The logical places to look would be the front offices of major league teams, and the dugouts, perhaps even in the minds of the players themselves. Lewis mines all these possibilities—his intimate and original portraits of big league ballplayers are alone worth the price of admission—but the real jackpot is a cache of numbers—numbers!—collected over the years by a strange brotherhood of amateur baseball enthusiasts: software engineers, statisticians, Wall Street analysts, lawyers and physics professors.

What these geek numbers show—no, prove—is that the traditional yardsticks of success for players and teams are fatally flawed. Even the box score misleads us by ignoring the crucial importance of the humble base-on-balls. This information has been around for years, and nobody inside Major League Baseball paid it any mind. And then came Billy Beane, General Manager of the Oakland Athletics.

Billy paid attention to those numbers —with the second lowest payroll in baseball at his disposal he had to—and this book records his astonishing experiment in finding and fielding a team that nobody else wanted. Moneyball is a roller coaster ride: before the 2002 season opens, Oakland must relinquish its three most prominent (and expensive) players, is written off by just about everyone, and then comes roaring back to challenge the American League record for consecutive wins.

In a narrative full of fabulous characters and brilliant excursions into the unexpected, Michael Lewis shows us how and why the new baseball knowledge works. He also sets up a sly and hilarious morality tale: Big Money, like Goliath, is always supposed to win...how can we not cheer for David?
ISBN-13: 9780393057652
ISBN-10: 0393057658
Publication Date: 5/10/2003
Pages: 288
Rating:
  • Currently 4.2/5 Stars.
 30

4.2 stars, based on 30 ratings
Publisher: W. W. Norton Company
Book Type: Hardcover
Other Versions: Paperback, Audio CD
Members Wishing: 0
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review

Top Member Book Reviews

reviewed Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game on
Helpful Score: 2
Recently entered the financial services field and this was recommended reading. Good real world example where knowledge is significant factor in success (with a special nod to mathematics and statistics). For aspiring athletes, lots of focus on players that have profound positive impact yet would have traditionally been overlooked for the major leagues. Interesting read.
reviewed Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game on + 39 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
very interesting insight in to a new line of thinking about baseball player evaluation
reviewed Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game on + 3 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
Lewis' ability to weave a story around how people value assets (baseball players, in this case) is fascinating and educational. I highly recommend this.
reviewed Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game on
Helpful Score: 1
I did like this, after seeing the movie, which I though brushed over some of the statistics and thoughts behind this change in baseball, I had to read the book. I found it to be interesting and an enjoyable read, though still did not explain as much as I wanted behind the change pro sports. The analytics that have overtaken all sports.
dhooton avatar reviewed Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game on
Helpful Score: 1
This was a really interesting look into the application of economic techniques to running a baseball team. In order to compete against teams with much more money, Billy Beane, the manager of the small market Oakland A's, began to look at aspects of the game which were undervalued by the majority of MLB.
The ideas in this book have led to a major revolution in how baseball teams are run and is a must read for anyone who wants to understand the inner workings of Major League baseball teams.
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buzzby avatar reviewed Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game on + 6062 more book reviews
Well written book, shows the complexity of Billy Beane and others. I haven't seen the movie, and I suspect I won't because the moviewriters probably made the story saccharine. I'm one that believes that Billy Beane is helping ruin the game.
reviewed Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game on + 2 more book reviews
If you have any interest in baseball, this is a must read! My only criticism is that it didn't get into too much detail on any of the new "advanced" statistics. Hope the upcoming movie can live up to the book it is based on.
goodnightnobody avatar reviewed Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game on + 17 more book reviews
Phenomenal. I can't believe it took me this long to get around to reading it. If you're a true baseball fan, you simply must read this book.

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