The New Yorker
The Oakland Athletics have reached the post-season playoffs three years in a row, even though they spend just one dollar for every three that the New York Yankees spend. Their secret, as Lewis's lively account demonstrates, is not on the field but in the front office, in the shape of the general manager, Billy Beane. Unable to afford the star hires of his big-spending rivals, Beane disdains the received wisdom about what makes a player valuable, and has a passion for neglected statistics that reveal how runs are really scored. Beane's ideas are beginning to attract disciples, most notably at the Boston Red Sox, who nearly lured him away from Oakland over the winter. At the last moment, Beane's loyalty got the better of him; besides, moving to a team with a much larger payroll would have diminished the challenge.
The New York Times
Whether Billy Beane is a prophet or a flash in the pan remains to be seen. In either case, by playing Boswell to Beane's Samuel Johnson, Lewis has given us one of the most enjoyable baseball books in years. — Lawrence S. Ritter
Time
[An] ebullient, invigorating account of how an unconvential general manger named Billy Beane rebuilt the A's, a team with the second lowest payroll in baseball, into a team that won 103 games last year -- as many as the filthy-rich Yankees.
Publishers Weekly
Lewis (Liar's Poker; The New New Thing) examines how in 2002 the Oakland Athletics achieved a spectacular winning record while having the smallest player payroll of any major league baseball team. Given the heavily publicized salaries of players for teams like the Boston Red Sox or New York Yankees, baseball insiders and fans assume that the biggest talents deserve and get the biggest salaries. However, argues Lewis, little-known numbers and statistics matter more. Lewis discusses Bill James and his annual stats newsletter, Baseball Abstract, along with other mathematical analysis of the game. Surprisingly, though, most managers have not paid attention to this research, except for Billy Beane, general manager of the A's and a former player; according to Lewis, "[B]y the beginning of the 2002 season, the Oakland A's, by winning so much with so little, had become something of an embarrassment to Bud Selig and, by extension, Major League Baseball." The team's success is actually a shrewd combination of luck, careful player choices and Beane's first-rate negotiating skills. Beane knows which players are likely to be traded by other teams, and he manages to involve himself even when the trade is unconnected to the A's. " `Trawling' is what he called this activity," writes Lewis. "His constant chatter was a way of keeping tabs on the body of information critical to his trading success." Lewis chronicles Beane's life, focusing on his uncanny ability to find and sign the right players. His descriptive writing allows Beane and the others in the lively cast of baseball characters to come alive. (June) Forecast: Lewis's reputation, along with extensive national promotion, first serial in the New York Times Magazine and a 13-city tour should help the book hit bestseller lists throughout the baseball season. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
Forbes Magazine
One of the best baseball--and management--books out. It chronicles and examines the extraordinary success of the Oakland Athletics' general manager, Billy Beane, who is a colorful mix of genius, discipline and emotion. If you ever come across anyone connected with professional baseball and want to witness an interesting sight, just mention Beane and this book--there will be gurgling, sputtering, angry mutterings. (13 Oct 2003)
—Steve Forbes
Library Journal
How the Oakland Athletics stay on top in baseball without a lot of dough: Norton's biggest book this season. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
A solid piece of iconoclasm: the intriguing tale of Major League baseball's oddfellows—the low-budget but winning Oakland Athletics. Here's the gist, that baseball, from field strategy to player selection, is "better conducted by scientific investigation—hypotheses tested by analysis of historical baseball data—than be reference to the collective wisdom of old baseball men." Not some dry, numbing manipulation of figures, but an inventive examination of statistics, numbers that reveal what the eye refuses to see, thanks to ingrained prejudices. As in most of Lewis's work (The New New Thing, 1999, etc.), a keen intellect is at work, a spry writing style, a facility to communicate the meaning of numbers, an infectious excitement, and a healthy disdain for the aura and power of big bucks. Such is the situation here: The Oakland A's have a budget that would hardly cover the Yankee's chewing tobacco. Their General Manager, Billy Beane, and his band of Harvard-educated assistants, are the heirs of Bill James (of whom there is an excellent portrait here). They creatively use stats to discover unsung talent—gems not so much in the rough as invisible to the overburden of received wisdom—a guy who will get on base despite being shaped like a pear or control the strike zone even if his fastball can't get out of third gear, measuring the measurables to garner fine talent at basement prices. At least for a few seasons, until the talent's worth is common knowledge and off they go to clubs who can pay them millions. And the A's win, and win and win, not yet to a Series victory, but edging closer. The story clicks along with steady momentum, and possesses excellent revelatorypowers. There’s a method to the madness of the Beane staff, and Lewis incisively explains its inspired, heretical common sense. Has Lewis spilled Beane's beans? Maybe so, but considering the mulish dispositions of baseball's scouts and front offices, they'll miss the boat again. First serial to the New York Times Magazine; author tour
Publishers Weekly - Audio
In order to compete in professional baseball, conventional wisdom says a team has to have a solid cash flow and a flawless recruiting program. Oakland A’s general manager Billy Bean took another path to success and built a winning team from a collection of traditionally undervalued players. Scott Brick’s winning performance combines pitch-perfect narration that captures the spirit of Lewis’s text with a knack for reading sports stats, facts, and figures. Brick skillfully navigates an unsteady sea of information to produce a flawless reading that will keep listeners enthralled for hours. They will root for the underdog and gain a solid understanding ofexactly why money can’t always buy a championship. A Norton paperback. (Sept.)
GQ - Daniel Riley
"Rarely has the lesson of a book...had such an enormous impact....[Moneyball] showcase[s] Lewis’s great gift of finding the perfect characters and narratives to animate big, complex ideas that have been hiding in plain sight."
New York Times Book Review
"One of the most enjoyable baseball books in years."
New York Times - Janet Maslin
"Lewis has hit another one out of the park…You need know absolutely nothing about baseball to appreciate the wit, snap, economy and incisiveness of [Lewis's] thoughts about it."
Baseball America
"You have to read Moneyball.... Amazing anecdotes... an entertaining, enlightening read."
Weekly Standard - Mark Gerson
"Moneyball is the best business book Lewis has written. It may be the best business book anyone has written."
The Believer - Nick Hornby
"I understood about one in four words of Moneyball, and it's still the best and most engrossing sports book I've read in years. If you know anything about baseball, you will enjoy it four times as much as I did, which means that you might explode."
Literary Hub - Charles Yu
"It’s a sports story that’s actually a business story that’s also a story about preconceptions. Plus, Michael Lewis’s writing is so clear, readable, and highly entertaining."
Newsweek
"Anyone who cares about baseball must read Moneyball."
Wall Street Journal - Richard J. Tofel
"A journalistic tour de force."
Slate - Rob Neyer
"The single most influential baseball book ever."
Lawrence S. Ritter
"By playing Boswell to Beane's Samuel Johnson, Lewis has given us one of the most enjoyable baseball books in years."
Time - Lev Grossman
"Ebullient, invigorating…Provides plenty of action, both numerical and athletic, on the field and in the draft-day war room."
San Jose Mercury News
"An extraordinary job of reporting and writing."
People
"The best book of the year, [Moneyball] already feels like the most influential book on sports ever written. If you're a baseball fan, Moneyball is a must."
Garry Trudeau
"Michael Lewis's beautiful obsession with the idea of value has once again yielded gold…Moneyball explains baseball's startling new insight; that for all our dreams of blasts to the bleachers, the sport's hidden glory lies in not getting out."
Washington Post
"Engaging, informative, and deliciously contrarian."
Wall Street Journal
"Another journalistic tour de force."
Time
"Ebullient, invigorating... provides plenty of action, both numerical and athletic, on the field and in the draft-day war room."
New York Observer
Stunning....[Lewis's] explanations of the science of baseball...are spellbinding.
Weekly Standard
May be the best book ever written on business.
The New York Times Book Review
One of the most enjoyable baseball books in years.
Baseball America Editors
You have to read Moneyball...Amazing anecdotes...an entertaining, enlightening read.”
OCT/NOV 03 - AudioFile
Before Bill James, baseball junkies, even those selecting players, were relegated to assessing players and teams using only mundane statistics. Then, the Oakland Athletics, under General Manager Billy Beane, adopted James’s radical methods--and philosophy--with dramatic success. Michael Lewis tells the surprisingly fascinating story behind the success of the A’s, whose choices of players were often derided by other teams. Lewis’s reading is excellent; he loves the story and the people, and the joy he experienced writing MONEYBALL comes through as clearly as any fastball. Not just for baseball fans, this story will impress anyone who understands that the way things are done can always be improved, even the seemingly subjective process of picking star athletes. D.J.S. © AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine
