Moneyball (Movie Tie-in Edition) (Movie Tie-in Editions)

I was quite impressed with this book. I remember when it came out all the baseball commentators haranguing it, but that seems quite unjustified. It's a book about how stupidly some people act due to tradition, how they even work against themselves because they don't understand what's going on. The first quarter of the book is pretty much a biography of Billy Beane. After that it expands into how the theory behind Beane's actions came about, and the affect it had on some of the players. Chapter 9 had me crying from laughing so hard at Beane-the-wheeler-dealer, but it also showed how cold hearted purely business decisions can be. For anyone who wants to know about modern baseball, or to get some tips on evaluating general business practices, this is a good book to start with.

This is my first Michael Lewis book. Looking forward to reading others. Anybody related in any way to baseball should read this. Economists and statisticians will also find this a fun read. Lewis digs sufficiently deep into how the A's GM instills the theory of player value instead of just physicality in an organization that has for many years functioned in the same way, within another organization (MLB) that is as rigid as iron on a freezing day.

I had to read this book for my history of baseball course and I was a little skeptical. I wasn't too keen on reading about the economics of baseball-as much as I love the sport. But this book was awesome! It made me laugh and reminded me why I liked Scott Hatteberg when he used to play for the Red Sox. Haha. (And no, I haven't seen the movie.)