The Only Rule Is It Has to Work Audiobook By Ben Lindbergh, Sam Miller cover art

The Only Rule Is It Has to Work

Our Wild Experiment Building a New Kind of Baseball Team

 Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 months free
Try for $0.00
Offer ends July 31, 2025 at 11:59PM PT.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 3 months. Cancel anytime.

The Only Rule Is It Has to Work

By: Ben Lindbergh, Sam Miller
Narrated by: Kirby Heyborne, John Pruden
Try for $0.00

$0.00/mo. after 3 months. Offer ends July 31, 2025 at 11:59PM PT. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $15.47

Buy for $15.47

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use, License, and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel

It's the ultimate in fantasy baseball: You get to pick the roster, set the lineup, and decide on strategies - with real players, in a real ballpark, in a real playoff race. That's what baseball analysts Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller got to do when an independent minor-league team in California, the Sonoma Stompers, offered them the chance to run its baseball operations according to the most advanced statistics.

We tag along as Lindbergh and Miller apply their number-crunching insights to all aspects of assembling and running a team, following one cardinal rule for judging each innovation they try: It has to work. We meet colorful figures like general manager Theo Fightmaster and boundary-breakers like the first openly gay player in professional baseball. Even José Canseco makes a cameo appearance.

Will their knowledge of numbers help Lindbergh and Miller bring the Stompers a championship, or will they fall on their faces? Will the team have a competitive advantage or is the sport's folk wisdom true after all? Will the players attract the attention of big-league scouts, or are they on a fast track to oblivion?

©2016 Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller (P)2016 Tantor Baseball & Softball Mathematics Sports

Critic reviews

"[F]un, breezy, and moving read." (Jonah Keri, author of Up, Up, and Away)

Featured Article: The Best Baseball Audiobooks of All Time


Ask any baseball fan and they'll tell you: some of their favorite sounds can only be heard at the ballpark—the smooth, satisfying pop of a catcher’s glove as a pitch hits its mark; the crack of a bat as it tears into a fastball, explosive and hopeful, drawing the crowd to their feet. Our list, a roundup of outstanding baseball audiobooks, offers a glimmer of that same ballpark magic with just a few of the greatest stories from our national pastime.

Featured Article The Best Baseball Audiobooks of All Time
Fascinating Baseball Experiment • Compelling Human Drama • Quality Narrators • Insightful Analytical Perspective
Highly rated for:
All stars
Most relevant  
While it's a little disorienting to hear not-Ben and not-Sam reading their words, the narrators are quality and the story is great.

A must-listen for fans of Effectively Wild

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
From some of the great story tellers in media comes the story of what happens with the rubber theory of stats and optimal decisions meets the hard road of the actual landscape of baseball. Couldn't put it down.

My favorite baseball book ever.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This book is a engaging, inside look at a couple of stat-heads trying to run a low level minor league baseball team. Highly recommended!

Great True Story for Fantasy Baseball Addicts

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The use of 2 narrators was a great choice. I don't know exactly what I was expecting, but this was more a story about challenges and lessons learned than baseball statistics. I recommend this to even a casual baseball fan.

Great listen, even for non stat heads

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Great listen for baseball fans and non fans alike.
Fast enjoyable listen for the summer months.

Great listen for baseball fans and non fans alike.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Any additional comments?

This is a great story about two statheads running a minor league ball club. There's only one small problem.

The two narrators and the audio engineers HAVE NEVER WATCHED A BASEBALL GAME IN THEIR LIVES.

On one occasion, they pronounced Vin Scully as Vin SCOLLY. On another, they pronounced Whitey Herzog as WHITNEY Herzog. They're both in the Hall of Fame.It's a great book and a good performance, but the occasional pronunciation snafus take away from the experience.

Narrarators have never watched baseball. Ever!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Not just for "stat years," but anyone who loves the game of Baseball, or just a compelling, well written story.

What an awesome book

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The authors' quest to change a team has surprising relevance to social and business matters.

Introspective analysis of a season

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

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

I do recommend and have recommended this book to friends and family who have deep interests in baseball. Not only for stat-heads because although this book starts out from that perspective it ends up being about much more than that.

Any additional comments?

This book details what happens when baseball analytics and sabermetrics are applied to real live people not just numbers on a spreadsheet. In order for strategies to work, players have to buy in to them, and even when they do the strategies do not always work.

It provides perspective of what independent baseball players go through to achieve their dreams. The owner, manager, team, league, town, location, the player's family and alternative career plans all have surprising impacts.

I enjoyed this book not only from a strategy and analytical aspect, but especially from a real world angle. It provided insights into a part of baseball I would otherwise be completely ignorant of, and left me with a new found appreciation for independent baseball leagues.

Something more than numbers

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Really enjoyed reading this and getting more background into Effectively Wild. Very good to see the experiment and wish it lasted longer

Ben & Sam Forever!!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews