The following read today, takes a look at amazing stories of success in baseball that go against the odds. This is a quick read that engages you whether you’re a baseball fan or not.
Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael Lewis
Billy Beane, the protagonist of Michael Lewis's book Moneyball and general manager of the MLB's Oakland A's, faced a challenge: how to succeed in the Major Leagues while operating on a budget that was significantly smaller than that of practically every other team.
For a very long time, it was believed that big-name, extremely athletic pitchers and hitters were the key to success. However, Beane and his staff believed that more affordable strategies, like using hitters with high on-base percentages and pitchers who get lots of ground outs, could produce victories.
This belief was supported by vast amounts of carefully interpreted statistical data. With this knowledge and a limited budget, Beane bucked convention and his own scouting staff to put together winning teams with young, inexpensive players and cheap castoff veterans.
Lewis delivers excellent play-by-play since he was present when the A's top management spent the summer of 2002 adding and removing players from the team. Beane virtually got every prospect he wanted in the June player draft (few of whom were sought after by other teams), and at the July trading deadline, he engaged in a tight nerve-wracking struggle to land a lefty reliever.
Moneyball is not only one of the most insider baseball narratives ever published, but it also features an intriguing cast of characters. We meet Jeremy Brown, a college catcher projected by most teams to go in the 15th round of the draft who is overweight (Beane takes him in the first).
Chad Bradford, a sidearm pitcher, is selected from the White Sox triple-A team to serve as a crucial setup man, while Scott Hatteberg, a catcher, is converted into a first baseman. But Beane himself is the most intriguing figure. Beane reinvents himself as a front-office guru, relying on players who are completely unlike, say, Billy Beane.
Beane was a quick, athletic can't miss prospect who somehow missed. The very readable explanations of baseball statistics provided by Lewis, one of the best nonfiction writers of his generation (Liar's Poker, The New New Thing), plus his outline of Beane's economic strategy make Moneyball an enjoyable read for both businesspeople and sports enthusiasts.
Ballpark: Baseball in the American City by Paul Goldberger
Paul Goldberger demonstrates the close connection between American cities and their national pastime, tracing its origins to the earliest corrals of the mid-1800s (Union Grounds in Brooklyn was a "saloon in the open air"), to the much-lamented parks of the early 1900s (Detroit's Tiger Stadium, Cincinnati's Palace of the Fans).
The earliest ballparks evoked Victorian society in the accommodations — bleachers for the riff raff, grandstands for the middle class — while the "concrete donuts" of the 1950s and 1960s made clear television's hold on the public's attention and the new need for stadiums that could also accommodate football. More recent ballparks, like Baltimore's Camden Yards, like the Camden Yards in Baltimore, reveal the manifestations of a changing society.
All throughout, Goldberger demonstrates how baseball's history—including its rise alongside the development of the railway system, the beginnings of the American and National Leagues, and the first stolen base—reveals crucial architectural, material, engineering, and site requirements and requirements that influenced the design of our most cherished stadiums.
An intriguing, vivacious hymn to the Edens that lie at the center of our cities, where aspirations are as boundless as the outfields.
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