Moneyball

The Art of Winning an Unfair Game

By: Michael Lewis

Narrated by: Scott Brick

Length: 10 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's summary

Moneyball reveals 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 giant 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.

In a narrative full of fabulous characters and brilliant excursions into the unexpected, 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?

©2004 Michael Lewis (P)2011 Random House

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)

Outstanding book

This is one of the best books about baseball ever and is a "must read" for anyone wishing to understand the game better. It takes the reader/listener into what is actually happening during the games and the season (hint: it is not what most broadcasters blather on about). Michael Lewis manages to make even the most mundane parts of baseball interesting and the interesting parts are riveting! As one reviewer I read put it, it is "bad news bears for MBAs."

With all that said though, the production was disappointing. As others have pointed out it does occasionally repeat sentences (an odd experience that is distracting when you are listening closely). The other problem I had was his mispronunciation of names of baseball players. The names of people are integral to the book and I think it does not do the individuals justice to mispronounce their names. I usually enjoy Scott Brick's narrations but this one was somewhat disappointing.

Overall, though, it is well worth it to listen to or read this book. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in baseball, business or life.

The Necessary Prelude to the 2004 Boston Red Sox

As a Red Sox fan, how did I go so long without reading this title? Certainly everyone knows about Moneyball as "The Oakland A's Book," but its impact to the Red Sox championship run and the state of baseball from this day forward cannot be understated.

At a higher level, this book is a classic conflict between reason/innovation and the old guard/emotions/status quo. We see these conflicts play out in stadiums of all sorts: parenting (vaccinations), politics (global warming), and the like. Author Michael Lewis captures the romance of baseball worderfully with the tales of Jeremy Brown, Chad Bradford and Scott Hatteberg. Brick's narration carries the story well.

After reading, I'm left wondering about my personal sabermetrics: under what conditions does my daughter go to bed early and happy? When am I my most productive at work? When are my wife and I our most content? etc. Perhaps the closest I've read to this type of work is Daniel Kahneman's 'Thinking Fast and Slow.' Ultimately, short of my hiring a team of statisticans to operationalize and analyse my every waking moment, the answers to my wonderings are up in the stars. Thanks Bill James for publishing your Baseball Abstracts. Thanks Billy Beane for not going to work for John Henry. And thanks Michael Lewis for publishing a terrific story.

Riveting!

This book, about baseball and numbers and outside the box thinking, is a must read for anyone but especially anyone intrigued by the game.

A great Baseball book

i had forgotten most of the Billy Bean story. Changed the game. Young players should read this. Ending was weak.

even better than the movie

as with most movies the book was better. You get even more of a sense of what was going on and even more details on the research that went behind some of the moves. The movie was great and I think that the spirit of the book, but it's absolutely worth reading the book too.

movie is better

I think the movie give more drama for this book. But still a good book to read though I fail to finish the first time and finish it after I watch the movie.

Worth Getting

Any additional comments?

Moneyball the movie, is probably the greatest movie ever made about the use of statistics in business. From black jack to high frequency trading, statistics has broad applications in the real world. I am glad it found its way into big time sports. Good to find Michael Lewis book in a audio format.

better than the movie

Would you consider the audio edition of Moneyball to be better than the print version?

just a good book with an inside look at baseball

What other book might you compare Moneyball to and why?

again...no opinion

Which character – as performed by Scott Brick – was your favorite?

billy bean

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

?????

Any additional comments?

good book...especially if you are a sports/baseball fan.

Sports, Stats, Psychology & Underdogs. Great read.

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes, all of them. Because I enjoyed it and they should too.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Billy Bean is the man.

What about Scott Brick’s performance did you like?

He nailed it.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Brad Pitt.

Phenomenal

This book is fantastic. The counter-intuitive nature of finding value is as applicable as described in this book about baseball as it is in virtually any area of life. The fear of doing something different and being thought a fool or laughed at prevents most of us from doing anything different.

Moneyball is an account of how GM Billy Beane of the Oakland A's implements a system for methodically taking advantage of the status quo and praying on the weaknesses of other powerful, high dollar teams has applications to many aspects of our lives. He is able to do so precisely because he does not care what others think. The reasons for why he is unaffected by the opinions of others is one of the more interesting aspects of the book.

What Michael Lewis describes in this account of finding under-valued assets in ball players is done in a way that is as inspiring as it is informative. Additionally, the entertainment value is dramatically enhanced because Lewis always finds the humor and emphasizes it to great effect.