Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game

A shot to make it big

The book Moneyball is about a professional baseball player, Billy Beane, who was a good player in high school and college. Out of college, he was drafted by Oakland Athletics. Beane decided he wanted to become the General Manager of the A¿s after he had played for them for a few years. As a player, he learned that he did not want to be an actual baseball player; he wanted to be the person who picked the players that would make the team. When he became the General Manager for the Oakland Athletics, he developed a strategy to form a baseball team out of players that other teams did not necessarily want. Beane used players¿ high school and college statistics to choose the good players that he wanted and ones that would sign for less money.
Though there were many parts that I liked and disliked, one of the big things that I liked about this book was that it taught me a new way to look at how baseball players are chosen for a team. It showed me what coaches look for in a strong player and that it¿s not necessarily all talent; it is how many runs they produce, bases they steal. Even though this book is really good, the language is not appropriate for young readers, it contains inappropriate words. The hardest part about this book was understanding all the numbers and formulas he used. Since there were so many numbers, it distracted me from what the book was actually about, how he built the Oakland A¿s. That was the only dislike I really had reading this book. Other than the numbers, the book was really interesting.
I believe the main message in this book is that you don¿t have to be the richest team to get the better players for your team. Even though the Oakland A¿s pay roll was really low compared to the Yankees huge pay roll, the A¿s knew the best way to make a good team without spending a lot of money on players. Beane used player statistics to find who the best players were and ones that would sign for less money.
I would suggest this book to a specific group, people who like baseball and math. This book is all about numbers, probability, playing and managing baseball. It was a great book.

11 out of 13 people found this review helpful.

A Whole New Way of Looking at Baseball Statistics

Moneyball is way more entertaining than it has any right to be. It follows the story of the low-budget Oakland A's and their unorthodox general manager Billy Beane as they use statistics and the scientific method to succeed against teams with much larger payrolls. Lewis is a very entertaining writer, at times laugh out loud funny, who has turned what could have been a very dry subject into a real page turner. I read this in one day, which is unusual for me with non-fiction. Highly recommended, especially in the dead of winter when the beginning of baseball season seems so far away.

10 out of 10 people found this review helpful.

Very enjoyable read for almost anyone

I'm neither a fan of baseball or statistics, but Michael Lewis has the ability to explain both of them in such a compelling way, I couldn't put it down. I read it after watching the movie, and found a much more nuanced chronicle in the book. Well worth the read, especially if you enjoyed the movie.

6 out of 6 people found this review helpful.

As a baseball fan,i loved this book

5 out of 10 people found this review helpful.

Interesting!!!!!

I am not a baseball fan at all, personally, I think the sport is downright boring. However, I throughlly enjoyed this book. It has rekindled my interest in baseball. I know find myself watching games anf paying attengion to stats.

5 out of 7 people found this review helpful.

Great read!

I really like this book. Great for baseball fanatics.

5 out of 7 people found this review helpful.

Great Read!!!

I purchased my nook never having been much of a book reader at 38, but in the hopes of becoming one. This was the 1st book I downloaded and finished it in less than a week. It kept my attention that much and i have been known to have the attention span of a gnat. It's not just a book about baseball, but about business economics, evaluating talent and an individuals character as well. Inviting people to think outside the conventional wisdom. I would recommend it to anybody. Baseball fan or not.

5 out of 7 people found this review helpful.

Thoroughly enjoyable, easy read

This was the best book relating to sports that I've ever read. It gives great insight into how one team (the Oakland A's) used unique decision making to compete against teams with grossly larger payrolls. I especially liked the behind the scenes look it gave to some of the tough evaluations that need to be made by a professional sports team's front office, and the untraditional formulas employed by Billy Beane and his staff to reach them.
While I cant imagine any baseball fan not enjoying this book, I would suggest that it a good read for the nonsports fan as well, as many of the ideas discussed in relation to running a basball team can be correlated to just about any form of businees.

4 out of 5 people found this review helpful.

good Great Learned things about baseball that i would never have known

Amazing

3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

Moneyball

The author got caught up describiNG tHE mind numbiNG statistics used in major league baseball I found myself skipplng pages to get to the part about the players

3 out of 6 people found this review helpful.

Read If You Like Baseball, Math, or Good Books

Baseball, I love. Statistics... I could leave. Lewis somehow makes both halves of this book interesting.

Don't get me wrong, it's not really a book about crunching numbers... it's a story about the science behind a sport, the brains who take that science to the next level, and the brawns who sometimes dogmatically resist them.

A very interesting read.

3 out of 5 people found this review helpful.

Michael Lewis knows Billy Beane

A look at one of the poorest teams in baseball, the Oakland A's, and how their general manager Billy Beane makes them contenders every year. It shows you how they scout, draft, and play the game, only to name a few things. He does things his way, and nobody is going to change that, and he does them well. One of the most criticized books in the baseball world since Ball Four, and a real winner. Lewis is an extraordinary writer who should do sports as much as he does Walstreet. A MUST read.

3 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

Play ball

Good story, well written and an entertaining intro to baseball stats.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Great book

This book teaches you the importance of baseball. Its very emotional and sensative.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Wow

One of the best books iv ever read

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Great book but dont really like baseball

Lol

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

What!

Whoever wrote boring most likely did not read it

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Highly recommend

If your a baseball fan with an outsiders perspective of the game, its a must read. My only concern is that we only received insight to part of who Billy Beane really is.

2 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

Loved it.....

I knew Michael Lewis had written several very good books. I've seen him interviewed and I couldn't wait to read the book before the movie came out. He did a great job of telling the story of how the baseball establishment had totally "dropped the ball" so to speak when it came to evaluating talent and building a team.
I highly recommend this book.

2 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

Eye opening look at baseball

In this book Lewis gives the reader a look inside the art of sabermetrics, a relatively new science surrounding the staistics of baseball, and how it was first adopted by a real team. Perfect summer reading for baseball fans.

2 out of 4 people found this review helpful.