Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael Lewis. Indeed statistics and the valuation of people is a great overview of this book. Lewis is a great storyteller and respected author. Unquestionably he delivers a great story about baseball.
They say “the book is always better than the movie.” This is so very true. If you found the movie’s portrayal of the medieval approach to drafting players, then Lewis book will take you down the rabbit hole of professional baseball.
Lewis addresses the career of Beane from high school. The odd story of Beane playing with Darryl Strawberry (also right out of high school) and Lenny Dykstra could go on forever.
Amazing the Mets saw Beane as the emerging star over Strawberry but did not support Beane’s slumps that all those scouts and coaches should have long scene coming.
Moneyball certainly offers readers a great in-depth view of how Billy hired Paul DePodesta to apply Sabermetrics allowing Beane to ‘count the cards at the blackjack table’ and make the small market team defeat Goliath.
Draft day
Beane was truly playing cards in Vegas. Yet the deck was obviously stacked in favor of the Yankees, Red Sox and other large television market teams. There is no questioning their deep pockets:
You have $40 million to spend on twenty-five baseball players. Your opponent has already spent $126 million on its own twenty-five players, and holds perhaps another $100 million in reserve.
p. 219.
Clearly Beane had to climb a mountain to remake the A’s after the Yankees and RedSox signed his best players following the 2001 season.
Scott Hadderburg and Chad Bradford
Two players, Scott Hatteberg and Chad Bradford have well written stories. The details for each player are amazing in themselves. In Chapter Eight, Scott Hatteberg, Pickin’ Machine, Lewis shares only what can be delivered in print that could stretch the movie past six hours. It would still be worth every penny.
The journey of Chad Bradford, a pitcher’ story somewhat unique but not for the Oakland A’s. Chapter Ten, Anatomy of an Undervalued Pitcher instead reveals the metrics that Bradford was already pitching very well for the Chicago White Sox, yet was sent down to the minors revealed to Beane how Chicago did not understand how statistically talented Bradford would be for the A’s.
20 game winning streak
Chapter Eleven, The Human Element is particularly Lewis near his best. Crafting the A’s biggest achievement in baseball, Lewis is really focusing outside the analytics and into the heads of each player. The human element also provides insight by Lewis to the fortunes of the A’s post seasons. They never advance to the World Series. Yet this chapter is so much more about players and tense moments.
As a result, this book was made into a movie in 2011. Brad Pitt plays Billy Beane, Jonah Hill plays the fictional character Paul DePodesta and Philip Seymour Hoffman plays the A’s manager Art Howe.
In conclusion, Michael is a very talented writer. Above all, I enjoy reading stories from his previous books: The Undoing Project, Flash Boys, and The Big Short. In this situation, like those above, Moneyball is not to be overlooked.
Think Big | Michael Lewis on ‘Moneyball’ and Wall Street
Manufacturing Intellect | Michael Lewis interview on “Moneyball” (2003)
GTB | Moneyball: The Old Guard vs. The New Guard
Anne Thompson |Brad Pitt and Billy Beane talk Moneyball interview