Astroball

The New Way to Win It All

By: Ben Reiter

Narrated by: Ben Reiter

Length: 7 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's summary

New York Times best seller

The inside story of the Houston Astros, whose relentless innovation took them from the worst team in baseball to the World Series in 2017 and 2019

“Reiter’s superb narrative of how the team got there provides powerful insights into how organizations - not just baseball clubs - work best.” (The Wall Street Journal)

Astroball picks up where Michael Lewis’s acclaimed Moneyball leaves off, telling the thrilling story of a championship team that pushed both the sport and business of baseball to the next level.

In 2014, the Astros were the worst baseball team in half a century, but just three years later they defied critics to win a stunning World Series. In this book, Ben Reiter shows how the Astros built a system that avoided the stats-versus-scouts divide by giving the human factor a key role in their decision-making.

Sitting at the nexus of sports, business, and innovation, Astroball is the story of the next wave of thinking in baseball and beyond, at once a remarkable underdog tale and a fascinating look at the cutting edge of evaluating and optimizing human potential.

©2018 Ben Reiter (P)2018 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“Reiter’s superb narrative of how the team got there provides powerful insights into how organizations - not just baseball clubs - work best.” (Wall Street Journal)

"Colorful...Astroball plays like a giant crossword puzzle as pieces of the team are slotted in leading up to the franchise's historic moment." (USA Today)

"Astroball is the baseball book of the year, essential for baseball executives at every level, accessible and fun for fans." (Star Tribune)

Great inside view of the whole process.

Lots of history and details. Lots of insights into the management and players. Good pace.

Great Baseball Insight

This is a great book whether you are a Astros fan or one of the other 29 MLB clubs. It details the long process that it took Jeff Luhnow (the General Manager) and company to rebuild a struggling Astros club and win the World Series 5 years later.

This is a great book for MLB teams that are going through a rebuild who hopes don't look good. It shows the long process of rebuilding the Astros farm system that was ranked dead last in 2010 to being the best in 2014 by the draft or trading veterans for prospects.

Great Book!

This an amazing book, I will let my freinds know about it and I plan on reading it again.

Great insight to the Astros and analytics but...

Performance is awful. Read as if he’s in a hurry and “phoning it in”. B-

Tribute to the 2017 WS Champs

A great read going into the postseason. Inspiring for anyone who respects those who persevere. Have your kids read this. These gentlemen are role models. I ate up this book in a day. The lessons learned by Luhnow and Mejdal as recounted by the author and the impact of Carlos Beltran on every aspect mentioned getting to the World Series were my favorite parts. It’s not just a sports book. Houston teachers, read this to your students and have a discussion. Use real people, living examples of how to become smarter, have discipline, develop confidence. This book contains this.

Great story!

I’m not even an Astros fan, but what a story! Casual fans didn’t know MOST of the story surrounding the 2017 WS

Data Science + (extra magic) = 2017 World Champs*

Very informative about the impact of Data Science in professional baseball. However, hard not to cringe about the success of the Astros 2017 season given what we know now.

Best business book of the year?

This Book was recommended to me as “best business book I’ve read this year”. I couldn’t wrap my head around how a book about baseball could be a business book. Turned out to be a great listen. In these days of analytics and artificial intelligence it’s great to learn that a team which may go down in history as one of the best teams ever was a result of using the analytics along with the human influence that just can’t be quantified by the “nerd cave”. Reiter explains the unconscious bias that existed in scouts, but how their input was important to the equation. So yes, this is very much a business book. Human Resources decisions that led to a very successful team.

GREAT!!!

great story behind one of the best teams in mlb history. easy to listen to and follow, even if you don't support the Astros and root for an inferior franchise. my only complaint is that the book is too short and the author kinda just skimmed right over the world series. he spent almost as much time, if not more, discussing trivial players from other teams, as he did the 7 game series. otherwise, it's a great book

I can’t believe

It took me this long to listen to this. I’m a huge Astros fan. But a bigger fan of baseball itself. Thank you for this book.