Book Review

I have to let you know that I'm reading this book called Moneyball by Michael Lewis. The book is great although I'm only half way through it. Remember how I said I was stuck in McCarren Airport for half a day? Well, I had some time on my hands and bought the book at one of the little airport shops. Needless to say, I couldn't put the book down and am now on the second half of the book. If you didn't know, the book is about a guy named Billy Beane. Billy is the GM of the Oakland A's baseball team. You're thinking wow, a book about the slowest sport in America, yay. But the book is infinitely more interesting than that. It's about how Billy is an amazing GM with a huge disadvantage in the big money world of sports. It's about how a guy can take true data and numbers, apply it to a world that is inundated with "gut feeling" and it's own set of urban myths and false beliefs. And, as a result, Billy ends up showing an uncanny ability to battle the big money teams like the Yankees (whose payroll of one or two players is sometimes greater than that of the entire A's roster). Really, the book is as much a commentary on life and how people fail to apply real information to a problem as opposed to just using "common, everyday" knowledge that really isn't knowledge at all. And in many cases this accepted knowledge is flat out wrong. Trust me, if you can't stand sports but are a true learner, this book will still be very interesting. It's less about sports and more about how people can be wrong so often for so long because they don't want to apply true knowledge or science to their situation. Great book (so far).