• About Me
  • Doctor Who Marathon
  • Favorites
  • Archives
  • Contact Me
Recent Posts
  • The Five Doctors February 27, 2023
  • The King’s Demons February 26, 2023
  • Enlightenment February 24, 2023
  • Terminus February 20, 2023
  • Mawdryn Undead February 16, 2023
Skip to content
A Cup of JoeA Cup of Joe

Observations, rants, and musings by Joe Siegler.

  • About Me
  • Doctor Who Marathon
  • Favorites
  • Archives
  • Contact Me
    • Book Review

Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game Book Review

  • byJoe Siegler
  • Posted on December 10, 2003December 14, 2022
  • 2 minute read
0
0
0

Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game
by Michael Lewis

I finished this book in December of 2003. I’ve had it on my pile of books to read since the start of the 2003 season. I take too long to read books – probably because my pile to read is massive! :) Anyway…

This book was billed as some major expose on the inner workings and mind of Billy Beane – General Manager of the Oakland A’s, and how he continues to make things work with no money against teams (mostly the Yankees) with significantly larger budgets. And for the most part, that’s what it did.

Did I enjoy this? Absolutely yes – I totally enjoyed parts of it (the draft day stuff, Beane’s behaviour in the park). But other parts bored me. For some reason we got an entire chapter on how A’s pitcher Chad Bradford grew up as a kid. That’s fine and all, but I don’t see how that was germaine to the book. I also was a bit bored about Beane’s time in the minors and what his life was like as a player. Yeah, I understand it’s background to why he does what he does now, but quite frankly, it bored me.

But once the book got out of that, it was wonderful! Lots of insight into how a major league general manager’s mind works – or at least Beane’s. I agree there’s something to sabremetrics (sp?) and it certainly seems to work for him. What I took away from this is that he seemed a bit naieve to think his way is the only way to do things, though. Running has it’s uses. I get the impression that if he could, Beane would have every run scored on a bases loaded walk. :)

However, that’s a lot of nitpicking on my part – the book is an enjoyable read. Provided you enjoy the “business” of baseball. If you don’t enjoy the biz side of the sport, you probably wouldn’t enjoy this book.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Donate

Why is this here?

Me


Follow @JoeSiegler
Archives by Date
Featured Posts
  • Shadow Warrior Turns 20
    • May 13, 2017
  • Happy Trails, Duke Nukem!
    • December 31, 2015
  • My Story of 3D Realms / Apogee Part III
    • November 2, 2020
Me


Follow @JoeSiegler
Donate
Why am I asking? I don't have any advertisements on this site anymore. I used to, but removed them. You can read why here. Please consider donating.

Twitter Feed
Archives
Created with Wordpress. Using ShadeGarden Theme by Dany Duchaine | Mastodon.
Swim, Swim, Hungry!