Moneyball

When I was younger I used to read all the time. I remember in 3rd grade just sitting and reading the Magic Tree House books over and over again, they simply never got old. When I hit middle school though this changed. Whether it was because I simply got busier in my life or reading just didn't interest me as much as it previously had, I read a lot less often. This isn't to say that I didn't read at all, as I still would read a book for pleasure every now and then. But like I said, it was a lot less often.

The book I chose to read for this project was Moneyball by Michael Lewis. Moneyball discusses how to, in this modern day and age, win games in baseball without having a large payroll like the Yankees or Red Sox. It follows the story of the Oakland Athletics, in the early 2000's and their revolutionary new GM Billy Beane. Beane had once been a top prospect in baseball although he never succeeded in the majors like he was expected to. He was one of those guys that the scouts all loved, he was big and strong, very fast and athletic, and he was dominating the high school baseball scene. But Beane wasn't used to being challenged and failing, and he found that when he began to play in minor league baseball, things were a lot tougher than they had been for him before. He never adapted and spent the rest of his career as a journeyman 4th outfielder for 4 different teams. Even after he retired, scouts would look and him and see Hall of Fame potential, but Beane was never able to cash in on his natural talent.

When he became the general manager of the A's, Billy Beane was forced to work with a very small payroll but was still expected to compete with the best teams in baseball. Beane therefore developed a completely new strategy, previously unheard of in baseball. Whereas before the top prospects had always been the athletes, the guys who looked like they could be great ballplayers, Beane began to measure players on their statistics instead. This took me to the end of chapter 3 of the book.

I chose this book because I was interested in baseball and I had just seen the movie Moneyball a few weeks earlier.

When reading this book I like to read either a chapter or 2 at a time. It's not really one of those books that makes you want to read it all at once, but rather that you'd want to read over a few weeks.

This book reminds me a lot of The Blind Side, which is also by Michael Lewis. It discussed football from a more analytical standpoint, while also mixing in a good story. This book is very similar but with baseball.

Picture Citation: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/c/cd/Moneyballsbn.jpg/200px-Moneyballsbn.jpg