Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game

“I wrote this book because I fell in love with a story” (xi). Thus begins the preface to Moneyball. Michael Lewis explains that he became intrigued with the fact that several underdog teams in Major League Baseball began having so much success. In baseball, money talks, and the amount of money available for team salaries is unequal across the league. That means richer teams like the New York Yankees can buy the best players. Thus, they should dominate win-loss records and championships. However, some teams, in particular the Oakland Athletics (or “A’s”), have had remarkable success despite their relative lack of spending power. Lewis finds that the source of this success is the Oakland A’s general manager, Billy Beane, who applied new methods of statistical analysis in order to get the most talent he could with the limited resources available to him.

The first chapter tells the story of Billy Beane’s success in sports up through high school. He was a natural athlete who excelled at baseball, football, and basketball. By the time he was a junior in high school, he stood six feet four inches, weighed 180 pounds, and “could beat anyone at anything” (6). Already in high school, he attracted scouts from many major league clubs, who recognized his talent and wanted to get him on their teams.