tag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-03:244784 packbat packbat 2010-08-28T02:17:27Z tag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-03:244784:290101 2010-08-28T02:17:27Z 2010-08-28T02:17:27Z "For Free" - Joni Mitchell giddy public 1 I wish this was a proper review, but the book came out a good seven years ago - long enough for this to be awfully old news regardless.<br /><br />I. <strong>Love</strong>. <i>Moneyball</i>.<br /><br />I would say this, if I were cynical and funny: <i>Moneyball</i> is, ironically enough, a story about how storytelling is deceptive. But it's not true. There is a hint of that feeling when I read it - the story is <em>such</em> a good story that I'd want to believe it if the entire book was lies from cover to cover, and the book <em>does</em> warn against dreaming and making up expectations based on merely what you see - but I would do Michael Lewis an injustice if I said that. The man worked his butt off <em>getting it right</em>, and that dedication shows.<br /><br />What is the material? Well, <i>Moneyball</i> is, perhaps, the perfect underdog story: a story about a baseball team (the Oakland Athletics) with a financial payroll tinier than almost any other in a sport where the richest teams spend many multiples more than the poorest ... that sets out to <em>win</em>, with a determination and intelligence that is an inspiration to behold. <i>Moneyball</i> is also a layman's introduction to that intelligence which, long ignored by the very people who would most benefit from it, finally found its instantiation in the Oakland A's: sabermetrics. And <i>Moneyball</i> is a story of this intelligence on this team reaching out to rescue an oddball collection of <em>underrated players</em> and give them the chance to give a bloody eye to the entire baseball establishment that didn't see how good they were.<br /><br />And it's a story of how such a thing should ever happen - how mistakes were made and perpetuated and compounded upon, and how the visions found when that fog of confusion was pierced could take so long and strange a journey to where they deserved to play out: on the diamond.<br /><br />It's a business book, a sociology lesson, a baseball story, and a hell of a good read. A nearer approach to perfection in nonfiction is rarely seen.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=packbat&ditemid=290101" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> comments