The book I read throughout the first quarter was Moneyball by Michael Lewis. After high school my current dream is to be a professional sports agent, this book gave me insight into the business side of Major League Baseball. Throughout the book, Lewis shows the advancement of the Oakland A's from mediocrity to championship contenders with a team whose payroll was much smaller than the opposition's. The book provides insight into the previous world of baseball and what baseball was destined to become through the analysis of advanced statistics. The main character, Oakland A's General Manager, Billy Beane radically changed the criteria of potential players. The book states prior to Billy Beane's shift players were judged on their bodies and their potential to become stars. Players had to look the part of the ideal baseball player and prove to the old scouts that they possessed the physical attributes to play in the majors. The shift was brought about with Harvard educated statistician, Paul DePodesta, who used baseball statistics to evaluate prospects. The eye test of scouts and simple batting average was replaced by sabermetrics( the applying of statistical analysis to evaluate the performance of individuals).The 301 page book shows how deeper analysis reaps greater rewards than the superficial and grossly expensive alternative. This approach was adapted on a league wide scale and has since been replicated in all other professional sports.
The book was interesting because it showed who Billy Bean was prior to becoming the General Manager of the Oakland A's. Beane was a top MLB prospect in high school who was debating between the big leagues and college. He ultimately chose the big league was bounced to the minors and had short periods of play in the big leagues, never becoming the superstar the old scouts envisioned him becoming. This failure in Beane's life led to his revolutionary succes as a general manager. It pushed him to go against the grain and change how prospect evaluation was handled.
Baron Barajas
I really want to read this book. I honestly only thought that there was a movie about this team. I find baseball's reliance on statistics very interesting, and I've wondered why some teams refuse to make changes that aren't based on numbers. Reading Moneyball will probably give me a more detailed narrative as to why this is.
ReplyDeleteLike Emily, I also found myself to become interested in this novel when the movie came out. But like others, I wanted to get the full insight about it through the novel before I went to see the movie. Based on your description of the novel, it draws me more towards it, especially since I am also interested in the managing of sports and all that encompasses the workings of sports teams. Overall, I would love to also get more of an insight on these questions as well.
ReplyDeleteIt's really great that you chose a book that was similar to a career that you want to have in the future. It'll give you a great insight of what goes on and what you'll experience following a career like this. While reading the summary, I found the plot intriguing about the life of Billy Beane and the stuggles he went through to find success.
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