• Moneyball

  • The Art of Winning an Unfair Game
  • By: Michael Lewis
  • Narrated by: Michael Lewis
  • Length: 5 hrs and 44 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (1,418 ratings)

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Moneyball  By  cover art

Moneyball

By: Michael Lewis
Narrated by: Michael Lewis
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Publisher's summary

"I wrote this book because I fell in love with a story." But the idea for the book came well before I had good reason to write it - before I had a story to fall in love with. It began, really, with an innocent question: how did one of the poorest teams in baseball, the Oakland Athletics, win so many games?

With these words Michael Lewis launches us into the funniest, smartest, and most contrarian book since, well, since Liar's Poker. Moneyball is a quest for something as elusive as the Holy Grail, something that money apparently can't buy: the secret of success in baseball. The logical places to look would be the front offices of major league teams, and the dugouts. But the real jackpot is a cache of numbers collected over the years by a strange brotherhood of amateur baseball enthusiasts: software engineers, statisticians, Wall Street analysts, lawyers and physics professors.

These numbers prove that the traditional yardsticks of success for players and teams are fatally flawed. This information has been around for years, and nobody paid it any mind. And then came Billy Beane, General Manager of the Oakland Athletics. Billy paid attention to those numbers, and this book records his astonishing experiment in finding and fielding a team that nobody else wanted.

In a narrative full of fabulous characters and brilliant excursions into the unexpected, Michael Lewis shows us how and why the new baseball knowledge works. He also sets up a sly and hilarious morality tale: Big Money, like Goliath, is always supposed to win...how can we not cheer for David?

©2003 Michael Lewis (P)2002 Random House, Inc. Random House Audio, a division of Random House, Inc.

Critic reviews

"The single most influential baseball book ever." (Rob Neyer, Slate)

"Another journalistic tour de force." (Wall Street Journal)

"Engaging, informative, and deliciously contrarian." (Washington Post)

"Lewis's reading is excellent....Not just for baseball fans, this story will impress anyone who understands that the way things are done can always be improved." (AudioFile)

What listeners say about Moneyball

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Wonderful book

Even 15 years later this is a classic. While many of the concepts have long been surpassed by more complex analyses the ideas discussed in this book spurned a revolution.

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    4 out of 5 stars
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Lots of Stats - What did you expect??? :)

I love listening to author read books - it puts the emphasis where he meant it to be!

I enjoyed Moneyball - I listened after I watched the movie. They are different, of course - but I like the explanation of the stats - and how Michael Lewis weaves them in with the personal stories of the people.

My favorite moment is the description of an encounter between Scott Hatteberg and Don Mattingly!

Although I am accountant - you don't have to be a numbers geek to love this look. But being a baseball fan helps! :)

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent book on Baseball Analysis

Opened my eyes to what statistics can show about predicting the real future performance of baseball players and how wrong the old time scouts have been with their stereotypes of who will make a top player. Fascinating.

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Great book!

Great book even for someone who does is not interested in basebal (which is my case).

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good

This was a good book. I liked it very much. Read it yourself; good book.

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    4 out of 5 stars
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A good listen

A well rounded performance by the author. The story is interesting with great detail. Much better than the movie.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Baseball Purity

If you liked the movie and want more read the book and love the purity that are baseball's endless stats and human endeavor.

All the love of baseball in Field of Dreams with the joy in its simplicity.

A great story.

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Best Baseball novel ever

I'd never thought a novel about baseball could be as entertaining and captive as this.

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vintage Michael Lewise

What made the experience of listening to Moneyball the most enjoyable?

I listened to the book a couple of years before the movie came out. The book is much better, funny, and intriguing.

What other book might you compare Moneyball to and why?

other Lewis books

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Get into the mind of a baseball team.

What did you love best about Moneyball?

The story brings you into the psychological part of the game that you never see. I will never look at baseball the same way again. My only regret is that I didn't buy the unabridged version, I never wanted the book to end

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