A review by jeffphilly
Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael Lewis

5.0

A must read for all baseball fans. This book will really make you think about baseball in a radically new way. Specifically, in regards to which players should be drafted and in what positions they should be put on the field. Scouts need to get accept the idea of picking particular individuals even though those players do not "look like what a baseball player is supposed to look like." It's time that scouts, general managers, and the like look past and deeper than the batting average statistic. Rather than focus so much on batting average, they need look at the on base percentage. Billy Beane was not successful in the ultimate goal of winning the World Series with the Oakland Athletics. However, he was unbelievably successful at compiling a roster of misfit toys that nobody else in all of baseball wanted. Those misfit toys took the Oakland Athletics to a place no one would have predicted them going. The Playoffs. On top of that, he did it on a budget. A very strict budget. I found that one of the things this book did was provide an insider's look at how deals are done in professional sports. I gather that the author was present for many of the interactions in this book, he would have to be, but still it's tough to say how accurate it is in that regard. One last thing about this book is that it will make you laugh. Those funny interactions occur within the Oakland management and management from other teams. Again those interactions are witnessed by the author and he reports them in the book.