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)

Made me fall in love with baseball again

I listened to this book, and now I can't shut up about it...full of invigorating details, Moneyball confirms the deeply held suspicions most of us have about how to run not just a baseball team, but a business, or maybe a life: that a lot of 'received wisdom' is a lot of crap, and that a maverick who sticks to his guns can do it better than the Old Boys Club. Just knowing that there is a Billy Beane out there, looking for the things that everyone else overlooks, watching out for unappreciated talents and misfits...it's enough to make me start happily scrutinizing the sports page like I haven't done since I was a kid. To anyone that feels undervalued in your job, your life: listen to this book, and listen to the story of Scott Hatteberg.

Fascinating Stuff!

Wow. What a book/audiobook. I remember seeing an interview on Charlie Rose with Michael Lewis and being a baseball (Dodgers) fan I was intrigued. Well, time passed and I signed up for audible and snatched it up as fast as I could. I finished it in less that two days and am looking forward to listening to it again. The author reads the book with the warmth and candor of a good friend. One of the best books I heard/read in quite a while. You don't have to be a statistics nut to get into what is being talked about here.

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.

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.

money

baseball baseball baseball baseball baseball Jeremy brown Giambi billy Beane baseball Scott hatteberg baseball chad Bradford

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! :)

Why you study math to do well in sports

This is a most interesting book of how the use of something you learn in school can be the key to success in professional sports. The book tells the story of how one team (actually one person) used a statistical analysis to predict which players would be the 'best buy' for the team. If you hate math, don't go away - the author provides very little information on how the math is done - only that it is done and how the approach differs from the old baseball scout 'see 'em with your own eyes' method. Makes you wonder why all teams don't do this...the only dissappoint is that if you are more interested in how it is done, there is no hint or references on exactly how they did the analysis-but this aspect is likely too boring for most, but a reference would have been great.

Moneyball

Wow! I have been raving about this book for weeks. This book is perfect for anyone who likes, once liked, or is fanatic about baseball. But is also a great business book. A complete think outside the box, question everything story. This book rankes #1 on my list all time.

Great book!

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

good

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