Monday, September 26, 2011

Book Review: Moneyball

Coming soon to a theater near you. Starring Brad Pitt.

Moneyball is about an unlikely success: how the cash strapped Oakland A's baseball team found ways to win without the ability to afford highly priced skills. One simply must find players with unusual and overlooked talents. One does this by identifying talents that no-one else can see - a tough business in a 100-year old game that few thought held any more secrets.

Those people were wrong. Baseball did have secrets. And these were ferreted out by Bill James, an eccentric and charming former night watchman from Kansas. Famed business writer Michael Lewis (Liar's Poker) tackles the subject of how the Oakland A's turned baseball shibboleths on their head by using these unconventional insights gleaned from reams of statistical data.

For Moneyball is a story about how insight into statistics can uncover hidden patterns and exploit the holes in conventional wisdom. The A's used new data that redefined critical aspects of the game and what made a good player effective. And then they found these stealth players whose contributions to the game had been hidden in history.

Even if you're not a baseball fan, it's very important to realize that things are not always what they seem. It's also a great way for people to learn to think about the behavior of numbers and stats - even if they're not about baseball.

2 comments:

Eric said...

Mr. Allan,

I'm enjoying your blog. Your presentation in Dr. Charles' class yesterday was enlightening. I'm happy to discover I have access to these immense databases as a student. Thanks for your informative talk.

-- Eric

Charles Allan said...

Thank you Eric! Social media is a great way to get library information out there.