Book review. This month's entry - The Mind of Bill James or How a Complete Outsider Changed Baseball.
After my last reivew, I vowed that I would no longer read almost every baseball book that came along. And I was tempted to ignore this book as well. I had a feeling that the book would try to give Bill James credit for everything from Sabermetrics, to Billy Beane and Moneyball, to the 3 run Home Run. But it turned out to be a solid look at the life and work of Bill James. In fact there was a lot of effort to debunk that James was responsible for creating focus on a number of items.
There also was quite a bit written about James that was unflattering. Nothing in particular worth mentioning, just that he can be a bit grumpy.
No real specifics to get into. A solid book.
RIP Little Man
ReplyDeletehttp://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2635348
I don't watch much TV other than baseball and when I do it is on TIVO and I FF through commercials, so my wife raises a good point when she asks "Why are they showing a commercial telling you to watch the playoffs while you are watching the playoffs?"
ReplyDeleteX, that sounds like a Catch 22.....quirky nonsense on Fox. We're used to it by now.
ReplyDeleteI think it has less to do with the need to advertise as it does with the fact that they couldn't sell all of their slots so they needed fill.
ReplyDeleteEither way - it is stupid. I would think Fox would be more inclined to advertise Prison Break or Whose your Mommy.
ReplyDeleteWhich reminds on another front - why the hell are they using Ellen Degeneres in an ad for AMEX during the World Series? Geniuses.
And what is going on with 24? No ads? No new season? I know they have a new season coming up.
Really: no new shows to overexpose? No Prison Break (2005)? No House (2004)? No Skin (2003)? Poor Bill Simmons has nothing to write about!
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