Basically it goes like this: In the late 70's baseball nerds (and legends) like Bill James decided that maybe there were better ways to draft and trade players than "clutch" and looks and feelings. Baseball is a highly superstitious sport, and no one in a position of power had ever been willing to concede that there might be ways to predict good players based on what they've already done. I know this sounds crazy, especially in a game like baseball, where someone can tell you the number of left-handed strike outs in Yankee Stadium on Tuesdays in even-numbered years. AND YET. When Billy Beane of the Oakland A's went ahead in 2000 and bought cheap players with amazing stats (because they were all he could afford) and promptly started winning 100+ games a season, everyone told him he was wrong, because he wasn't bunting or stealing. (Bunting and stealing, it turns out, don't statistically help you win.)
Hilariously, the book also takes a couple of great shots at Joe Morgan, the worst baseball announcer on earth. (I am sad every day that fire joe morgan shut down.) Joe Morgan, for example, kept complaining that Billy Beane had written such an egocentric book about himself, even after being told repeatedly that the book wasn't written by Beane. Baseball managers in general actually bragged about not having read it or understood it. Except, I must grudgingly admit, the Red Sox, who hired a stats nerd for their GM and then won the World Series twice after an 86 year drought.
The book is hilarious and readable and will make you shout repeatedly BUT WHY DO YOU DO THAT IF IT DOESN'T WORK? And these stats gave us Nate Silver! So, so, so interesting. Also, infuriating, but hey.
Grade: A
Originally posted 2009
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