Moneyball

The Art of Winning an Unfair Game

By: Michael Lewis

Narrated by: Michael Lewis

Length: 5 hrs and 44 mins

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)

70% Baseball 30% Sociology

For a baseball lover, especially a Stat Man, and particulaly for an Oakland A's fan, this book is a dream come true, a five-star holy book.

For the rest of us, it's OK. I gave it four stars because it is well-written and humorous at times. Sometimes I find myself hoping the A's win the game he's talking about, and I don't even like baseball much. Heck, I'm from Houston and didn't hardly watch any of the World Series this year.

I got this book hoping to hear about the money side of the sport, the odds and some analysis of what makes some teams win and some lose. And I got that between innings.

In some ways it's a social study, in other ways it's a sport's guy's book, in other ways it's a story about people, odds and money. And a good one at that.

I'd have given it five stars if I was a baseball fan. Since I'm not, I was hoping for less baseball talk and more sociology.

Great Story, Great Narration

This is phenomenal book about life and daring to be different that uses the vehicle of baseball to tell it's story. I would recommend this (audio) book to anyone!

Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game

Great the best book I have heard or read this year.

Money Ball is Rich

This was a great book on the East Bay Boys and their fearless leader, Billy B! While the Moneyball debate rages on (does it really work or not?) the data continues to pile in and lend its support to Billy's mad methods. As a fan of the game I was instantly drawn in to the drama of this book and the many play-by-play descriptions that were thrown in. The vivid pictures combined with the insights on the more recent history of baseball makes this book a fun and engaging read (listen). Whether you love the A's or not (and I do) this book has so much baseball in it, -- if you're a fan -- you must read it!

Best Baseball novel ever

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

Baseball Fans

Great listening if you are a baseball fan. Definitely worth it.

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

Great Listening for Baseball Fans

Great Listening for Baseball Fans, but especially great if you are an Oakland A's fan - like myself. Chronicles part of the 2002 A's season and draft - but more importantly goes over the science of baseball stats and personal stories of select players. It kept me entertained & awake for the 7 hour drive from San Diego to the Bay Area.

Open your eyes...

If you listen to this book with an open mind it should open you up to a world of objective thinking in sports. It's no fluke what A's General Manager Billy Beane has done with a puny payroll. Michael Lewis has a tremendous ability to describe mundane topics in such a way as to make them exciting. Because of this, Moneyball is a great book for anyone with the slightest interest in either sports or business. Highly recommended read (or listen).

Interesting and entertaining

If you are a baseball fan then it is interesting to listen to how the Oakland A's and Billy Bean were able to beat the sytem and take a low income team to the top. If you are a Yankee fan(I am not) or another big market team beware that they are out to bash your team's spending for top-notch players. I am also interested in statistics and this book tells how the A's realigned baseball statistics to think about what really matters when looking for talent. The author is highly biased or is perhaps a newbie to baseball as he seems completely taken by Bean's style and touts it as the only real truth. There are a dozen different philosophies and this is a really interesting look at one of the newer ones. Definitely worth the purchase. I love the little behind-the-scenes stories about some of the popular players. Good book.