Michael Lewis is an engaging storyteller. I came to this book via the film with Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill and I'm glad I read the book. Of course, as with all books, there's more to the story than the film suggests. The book includes the fact that Beane inherited the statistical analysis approach he uses with the Oakland Athletics from his predecessor, Sandy Alderson. The film gives the impression that Beane arrived at it after meeting his assistant GM. However, even though he did not originate the approach Beane was among the early adopters of it and seems to have been willing to fully commit to it. Beane himself is portrayed as a very intense character, often prone to violent outbursts, but still an effective leader.
What I love about this story is that it is about a team faced with what seems like intractable adversity who find a new way to compete. Although I don't believe that statistical analysis alone is as effective as it sometimes seems, I do believe that it is far more valuable than its opponents would contend. Practitioners should take the same warnings as those provided for people looking into the stock market: "past performance is no guarantee of future gains." Once that is understood, the stats are far from meaningless. Baseball, like most forms of conflict and competition, is a fluid situation with innumerable variables at play including luck and chaos. Reality cannot be reduced to numbers, but it can be better understood with the RIGHT numbers.
The profiles of Billy Beane and key Oakland A's players from this period are seen by some readers as digressions, but I experienced them as along the theme of adaptation to adversity and finding new ways to win. Beane did not experience much success as a major league player, but he adapted and went into scouting and then management at which he has been very successful (though not as successful as he would like). The two players most prominently featured are Scott Hatteberg and Chad Bradford, both with very interesting stories. Hatteberg moved from catcher to first base after nerve damage in his elbow. Bradford was a pitcher with an unconventional delivery whose pitching style looked awkward despite his competence at deceiving batters.
Some have criticized this book because the Oakland A's have not performed well in the past couple of years under Beane's continued tenure as GM. That criticism is as absurd as readers of Jim Collins' book *Good to Great* who dismiss his conclusions about successful companies. Both books are about practices and processes that contribute to success. In the case of Moneyball, the rest of the league has been adopting these approaches and they have become less and less of an advantage. Also, the game goes on, and teams are finding new ways to compete. The point is, according to the conventional wisdom of the time, no team with a fraction of the payroll of the NY Yankees should've been able to compete or have similar success to the Yankees, but the A's did. The story is, in a sense, time bound, but the principles about adaptation, being stalwart in the face of those who resist meaningful change, and finding value where others see none (aka market inefficiencies), are all themes Lewis illustrates and develops effectively.
The baseball minutiae can bother some readers, but I found it necessary to the story and it is spread out and well explained by the author. Overall it is a very enjoyable book and, in my opinion, very inspiring stories.
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Top reviews from other countries
N. Tiwari
Review from a non-baseball person ---- it's a good book
Reviewed in Canada on October 19, 2023
