November 2003 Archives

This was an interesting book. I do watch sports games on TV, but I am not much of a baseball fan. I try to keep track of the playoff results, but that's about it.

Michael Lewis's initial question for this book was how a team like Oakland Athletics, whose payrolls have been one of the lowest in the league, win so many games and perform well during the regular seasons consistently. The answer lies in, as Mr. Lewis explains in the book, Billy Beane, the GM of A's, Paul DePodesta, his assistant manager, and an actual application of the "New Baseball Knowledge," which is based on detailed statistics.

Although this book may be biased toward the A's since, after all, this book was written after Mr. Lewis spent a lot of time with the team over the course of a year, he makes a very convincing argument that looking for and utilizing a better understanding of the game, often times defying the "common sense," works in the real world of professional baseball.

The truth is that the payroll of the A's is among the bottom five or six. The highest paying team has about 3~4 times the budget. Yet, they've been winning more games than any other teams. This seems to prove that their statistics-based approach works for the regular season with many games.

The only thing is the playoffs and the world series. And most people only cares for and remembers the world series, and the A's has consistently lost their first playoff series although they made the playoff every year.

In the book, Mr. Beane seems to conclude that it's a crap-shoot when it comes to the playoffs due to its limited number of games (and I do agree with him somewhat). But without the playoffs of a world series of some sort, the game (or the season) won't be as exciting and appealing to the general public.

Maybe really good athletic players can adapt to put the statistics in their favor for a short period. Maybe their confidence (or others' lack of it) is the key in the post season games. Probably there's something more to it than just getting on the base.

For whatever the reason, if you are in anyway interested in the game of baseball, you will find this book very enjoyable.