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

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The Only Rule Is It Has to Work

By: Ben Lindbergh, Sam Miller
Narrated by: Kirby Heyborne, John Pruden
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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

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Fascinating Baseball Insights • Engaging Human Drama • Quality Narrators • Unique Analytical Perspective

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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

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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.

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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

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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

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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.

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