Billy Beane, general manager of MLB's Oakland A's and protagonist of Michael Lewis's Moneyball had a problem: how to win in the Major Leagues with a budget that's smaller than that of nearly every other team. Conventional wisdom long held that big name, highly athletic hitters and young pitchers with rocket arms were the ticket to success. But Beane and his staff, buoyed by massive amounts of carefully interpreted statistical data, believed that wins could be had by more affordable methods such as hitters with high on-base percentage and pitchers who get lots of ground outs. Given this information and a tight budget, Beane defied tradition and his own scouting department to build winning teams of young affordable players and inexpensive cast-off veterans.

Lewis was in the room with the A's top management as they spent the summer of 2002 adding and subtracting players and he provides outstanding play-by-play. In the June player draft, Beane acquired nearly every prospect he coveted (few of whom were coveted by other teams) and at the July trading deadline he engaged in a tense battle of nerves to acquire a lefty reliever.

Besides being one of the most insider accounts ever written about baseball, Moneyball is populated with fascinating characters. We meet Jeremy Brown, an overweight college catcher who most teams project to be a 15th round draft pick (Beane takes him in the first). Sidearm pitcher Chad Bradford is plucked from the White Sox triple-A club to be a key set-up man and catcher Scott Hatteberg is rebuilt as a first baseman. But the most interesting character is Beane himself. A speedy athletic can't-miss prospect who somehow missed, Beane reinvents himself as a front-office guru, relying on players completely unlike, say, Billy Beane. Lewis, one of the top non-fiction writers of his era (Liar's Poker, Next), offers highly accessible explanations of baseball stats and his roadmap of Beane's economic approach makes Moneyball an appealing reading experience for business people and sports fans alike. --John Moe, Amazon.com

Fabulous Read!!, 03 Jun 2008
I think all the other reviews say enough so I'll try to keep this short and simple. Even speaking from the perspective of a baseball illiterate limey, I must say that I found this book very very interesting indeed.... and most enjoyable. This was the first book of Michael Lewis' that I read and I have subsequently went on to read a number (not all) of his other works..... all of which have been equally as good. If you are interested in sports and/or the area athlete/player recruitment then this book will more than pique your interest..... some of the best money I have ever invested!!!

Major League Analysis, 04 Apr 2008
Moneyball, by Michael Lewis, takes as its central focus the exploits of the Oakland A's and their svengali general manager Billy Beane. Ignoring conventional baseball wisdom, he and Paul DePodesta have developed a whole new strategy, using the groundbreaking work of the likes of Bill James, for competing in the big leagues on a fraction of the budget of teams like the New York Yankees.

In essence this very readable book can be divided into two distinct styles, the personal and the scientific. When Lewis addresses the history and use of baseball theory, that is to say statistical analysis in the judging of players and games, he creates a sense of an almost academic approach to a national passtime. While this could be utterly confusing to a non baseball fan, to anyone with an interest in the game his discussions come as something of a revelation and can only serve as a starting point to further reading.

But where this book really comes into its own is in the personal stories and psychology of Billy Beane and his team. While it is made abundantly clear that Beane is no ordinary GM, the insight this book provides into the workings of a front office and its relationship with both the playing staff and management is utterly compelling.

All in all, for a baseball fan this is an absolute must read and for everyone else, you are guaranteed to find something of interest.

... you'd really want to love baseball, 14 Nov 2007
While the book has interesting insights into pro sport, it's very American. I found it a struggle.

Not just for baseball fans, 30 Aug 2007
The book is centred around the Oakland A's baseball team, but as someone who had only ever seen one baseball game in his life, it was still a fascinating book. The narrative is about how the team can consistently outperform other teams which have more funds to pay for players etc.. Michael Lewis does not labour the analogy of their approach to other fields, and its left to the reader to think how the same ideas may be applied elsewhere. Even if you have never seen a baseball game you would be able to enjoy this book.

Superb book (better if you understand baseball however), 13 May 2007
This was a great read; fascinating and thought provoking about professional baseball. It's great to see how a team has overcome a lack of financial clout to be able to still compete and to use educated statisticians rather than ex-players who go on hunches and their experience (that they believe to be a global one).

If you don't understand the game however, some of it may pass you by!

Very recommended.

Fabulous Read!!, 03 Jun 2008
I think all the other reviews say enough so I'll try to keep this short and simple. Even speaking from the perspective of a baseball illiterate limey, I must say that I found this book very very interesting indeed.... and most enjoyable. This was the first book of Michael Lewis' that I read and I have subsequently went on to read a number (not all) of his other works..... all of which have been equally as good. If you are interested in sports and/or the area athlete/player recruitment then this book will more than pique your interest..... some of the best money I have ever invested!!!

Major League Analysis, 04 Apr 2008
Moneyball, by Michael Lewis, takes as its central focus the exploits of the Oakland A's and their svengali general manager Billy Beane. Ignoring conventional baseball wisdom, he and Paul DePodesta have developed a whole new strategy, using the groundbreaking work of the likes of Bill James, for competing in the big leagues on a fraction of the budget of teams like the New York Yankees.

In essence this very readable book can be divided into two distinct styles, the personal and the scientific. When Lewis addresses the history and use of baseball theory, that is to say statistical analysis in the judging of players and games, he creates a sense of an almost academic approach to a national passtime. While this could be utterly confusing to a non baseball fan, to anyone with an interest in the game his discussions come as something of a revelation and can only serve as a starting point to further reading.

But where this book really comes into its own is in the personal stories and psychology of Billy Beane and his team. While it is made abundantly clear that Beane is no ordinary GM, the insight this book provides into the workings of a front office and its relationship with both the playing staff and management is utterly compelling.

All in all, for a baseball fan this is an absolute must read and for everyone else, you are guaranteed to find something of interest.

... you'd really want to love baseball, 14 Nov 2007
While the book has interesting insights into pro sport, it's very American. I found it a struggle.

Not just for baseball fans, 30 Aug 2007
The book is centred around the Oakland A's baseball team, but as someone who had only ever seen one baseball game in his life, it was still a fascinating book. The narrative is about how the team can consistently outperform other teams which have more funds to pay for players etc.. Michael Lewis does not labour the analogy of their approach to other fields, and its left to the reader to think how the same ideas may be applied elsewhere. Even if you have never seen a baseball game you would be able to enjoy this book.

Superb book (better if you understand baseball however), 13 May 2007
This was a great read; fascinating and thought provoking about professional baseball. It's great to see how a team has overcome a lack of financial clout to be able to still compete and to use educated statisticians rather than ex-players who go on hunches and their experience (that they believe to be a global one).

If you don't understand the game however, some of it may pass you by!

Very recommended.

Brilliant Read, 11 Dec 2008
This book is exceptional. I actually found this book by accident, but I'd like to put it another way, this book found me. Forget those who criticise it for its American sports examples, look beyond that. Apply it to your entire life. This book is simple. It draws on all those great sayings you've heard at some stage in your life. I reccommend you read a chapter of it every morning. Its a brilliant motivator. The only problem is, this read can't go on forever.....

On the head, son, 16 May 2008
Gary Mack's book on the importance of your thinking processes in sport (and by extension in life) has two problems. Firstly, if you don't know American sports in the Nineties then many of the names in his anecdotes will be unfamiliar. Secondly, for those who do know American sports in the Nineties some of the teams he has advised are not exactly stellar. But this just means you need to read with care, and if you don't share the inordinate interest with golfers (or cannot avoid the thought that this is just sport, what about life?) you can go straight to the summary points at the end of each chapter. These are annoyingly smug and even more annoyingly they do seem to work.

Mack uses many of the processes of NLP with an helpful dollop of commonsense. So please don't be put off by the anecdotes concerning unknown but obviously revered athletes. He packs much the same message as an Anthony Robbins book but in much less space.

Not for me, 05 Jan 2007
I play badminton quite a bit and wanted some tips and techniques to help with the way I think about and think while I play the game - I found nothing useful here. Filled with unnecessary anecdotes and clearly geared towards those aiming to or actually competing at a high level, although I'm not sure if it would even be useful for them. Much of the contents seemed 'obvious' to me.

I hope my competitiors dont read this....., 18 Dec 2006
Once you get past the perhaps unfamiliar American sports, anic dotes etc, the message is simple and clear. It's not a cook book full of formulas, but straight to the point. and it does get results.

Not suitable if you are not familiar with American sports..., 23 Aug 2006
...and generally not very good either. When one reads a book that quotes and refers to our sporting heros, it's hard not to be emotionaly affected by the book - you can transfer the messages in the book to memories that you have of your particular sporting heros. When you have no knowledge of the people that are used, the book's real content becomes exposed - which is a collection of uninspiring anecdotes from athletes that I have never heard of.

Fabulous Read!!, 03 Jun 2008
I think all the other reviews say enough so I'll try to keep this short and simple. Even speaking from the perspective of a baseball illiterate limey, I must say that I found this book very very interesting indeed.... and most enjoyable. This was the first book of Michael Lewis' that I read and I have subsequently went on to read a number (not all) of his other works..... all of which have been equally as good. If you are interested in sports and/or the area athlete/player recruitment then this book will more than pique your interest..... some of the best money I have ever invested!!!

Major League Analysis, 04 Apr 2008
Moneyball, by Michael Lewis, takes as its central focus the exploits of the Oakland A's and their svengali general manager Billy Beane. Ignoring conventional baseball wisdom, he and Paul DePodesta have developed a whole new strategy, using the groundbreaking work of the likes of Bill James, for competing in the big leagues on a fraction of the budget of teams like the New York Yankees.

In essence this very readable book can be divided into two distinct styles, the personal and the scientific. When Lewis addresses the history and use of baseball theory, that is to say statistical analysis in the judging of players and games, he creates a sense of an almost academic approach to a national passtime. While this could be utterly confusing to a non baseball fan, to anyone with an interest in the game his discussions come as something of a revelation and can only serve as a starting point to further reading.

But where this book really comes into its own is in the personal stories and psychology of Billy Beane and his team. While it is made abundantly clear that Beane is no ordinary GM, the insight this book provides into the workings of a front office and its relationship with both the playing staff and management is utterly compelling.

All in all, for a baseball fan this is an absolute must read and for everyone else, you are guaranteed to find something of interest.

... you'd really want to love baseball, 14 Nov 2007
While the book has interesting insights into pro sport, it's very American. I found it a struggle.

Not just for baseball fans, 30 Aug 2007
The book is centred around the Oakland A's baseball team, but as someone who had only ever seen one baseball game in his life, it was still a fascinating book. The narrative is about how the team can consistently outperform other teams which have more funds to pay for players etc.. Michael Lewis does not labour the analogy of their approach to other fields, and its left to the reader to think how the same ideas may be applied elsewhere. Even if you have never seen a baseball game you would be able to enjoy this book.

Superb book (better if you understand baseball however), 13 May 2007
This was a great read; fascinating and thought provoking about professional baseball. It's great to see how a team has overcome a lack of financial clout to be able to still compete and to use educated statisticians rather than ex-players who go on hunches and their experience (that they believe to be a global one).

If you don't understand the game however, some of it may pass you by!

Very recommended.

Brilliant Read, 11 Dec 2008
This book is exceptional. I actually found this book by accident, but I'd like to put it another way, this book found me. Forget those who criticise it for its American sports examples, look beyond that. Apply it to your entire life. This book is simple. It draws on all those great sayings you've heard at some stage in your life. I reccommend you read a chapter of it every morning. Its a brilliant motivator. The only problem is, this read can't go on forever.....

On the head, son, 16 May 2008
Gary Mack's book on the importance of your thinking processes in sport (and by extension in life) has two problems. Firstly, if you don't know American sports in the Nineties then many of the names in his anecdotes will be unfamiliar. Secondly, for those who do know American sports in the Nineties some of the teams he has advised are not exactly stellar. But this just means you need to read with care, and if you don't share the inordinate interest with golfers (or cannot avoid the thought that this is just sport, what about life?) you can go straight to the summary points at the end of each chapter. These are annoyingly smug and even more annoyingly they do seem to work.

Mack uses many of the processes of NLP with an helpful dollop of commonsense. So please don't be put off by the anecdotes concerning unknown but obviously revered athletes. He packs much the same message as an Anthony Robbins book but in much less space.

Not for me, 05 Jan 2007
I play badminton quite a bit and wanted some tips and techniques to help with the way I think about and think while I play the game - I found nothing useful here. Filled with unnecessary anecdotes and clearly geared towards those aiming to or actually competing at a high level, although I'm not sure if it would even be useful for them. Much of the contents seemed 'obvious' to me.

I hope my competitiors dont read this....., 18 Dec 2006
Once you get past the perhaps unfamiliar American sports, anic dotes etc, the message is simple and clear. It's not a cook book full of formulas, but straight to the point. and it does get results.

Not suitable if you are not familiar with American sports..., 23 Aug 2006
...and generally not very good either. When one reads a book that quotes and refers to our sporting heros, it's hard not to be emotionaly affected by the book - you can transfer the messages in the book to memories that you have of your particular sporting heros. When you have no knowledge of the people that are used, the book's real content becomes exposed - which is a collection of uninspiring anecdotes from athletes that I have never heard of.



An interesting account of the author's experiences..., 31 Jan 2005
...but that is all it is.

I enjoyed this book but it was not the book I was expecting or hoping for. That said, if Ed Smith had written the book I wanted him to write I suspect that only about 3 people would have read it.

I was hoping for a much more technical analysis of the similarities and differences between baseball and cricket. In this respect the book is quite sparse. The view that the equivalent of a batsman in cricket is the pitcher in baseball is interesting (although never really explored) but quite superficial.

Finally, in the section that discusses which cricketers could have played baseball, Ed Smith omits to mention the one cricketer who could not only have played baseball but been a star. Viv Richards, certainly the best batsman I have ever seen, would have been a fantastic baseball player - good speed, a strong arm, fantastic eye, powerful hitter - I suspect he could have even played shortstop.

Ed Smith gets it right, 20 Aug 2003
Ed Smith's very enjoyable book does a service to both sports - cricket and baseball. As I am a transplanted Yank in England, it helped me understand some of the tactical nuances of test cricket I had not yet penetrated - and it rekindled my nostalgia for baseball.

And it's always refreshing to see a double first at Cambridge put good old Anglo Saxon expressions in writing...

A good intro to the rival for cricket/baseball fans, 11 Jul 2003
Cricket enthusiasts who have watched any baseball will already know that the two sports share a lot more characteristics that simply hitting a ball with a stick. Most obviously, there is a shared obsession with statistics and tradition. This book lists those shared aspects, but also highlights the contrasts in the sports in an interesting and accessible way. It's a shame Smith did not ponder this fact though: the "brash" American sport has far more unwritten rules about behaviour on the pitch and not "showing up" the other side than the English gentleman's game. To show any significant enthusiasm after throwing a strikeout or hitting a home run is asking to be deliberately hit by the ball in the next inning (punishment beatings are an accepted and semi-sanctioned part of the game). In the so-called gentleman's game of cricket the players throw the ball in the air after a catch, shout and scream after a run out or for an lbw decision, and deliberately intimidate, 'bounce' and 'sledge' the opposition players. Baseball is nearly always played in a gentlemanly way, Cricket is (and has always been) brash. Ok, you get the odd punch-up in baseball, but those fights are nearly always because the unwritten rules of gentlemanly conduct have been broken. Nevertheless, Smith's book demonstrates quite clearly that any fan of one sport will almost certainly love the other.

Best introduction to baseball for an Englishman, 08 Nov 2002
First off I must declare a personal interest in this book. Ed Smith's father taught me English at A-level (a B grade, but I don't hold it against him) and Ed himself was a couple of years below me at school. Nevertheless I assure you this book is well worth the read, even from an impartial point of view.

I read it before a recent trip to California which happily coincided with the 2002 World Series - a rare all-Californian affair. Ed's descriptions of being in a World Series team's hometown during the event are very accurate (although sadly I never got to attend a Giants home game I did watch them with some fiercely partisan Giants supporters), not least in conveying quite what baseball means to Americans. Unlike one of the other reviewers I think Ed captured the human ties of the Special Relationship post-September 11 very well - the most evocative moment being when he tells of how the Star Spangled Banner had an unexpectedly emotional impact on him. The book is not just about cricket and baseball, early on Ed admits he bought into European anti-Americanism but as he spends more time understanding Americans through their national game he realises the error of his youthful ways!

Ed manages to bring baseball to life for those of us brought up believing cricket is a man's game whereas baseball is just glorified rounders. By drawing the many parallels between the two national games he achieves this in a way that makes it more accessible to an Englishman.

Promising debut - Better to come?, 03 Sep 2002
If Ed Smith writes a book about the County Cricket circuit, it could well be very good. Where he inhabits home territory in "Playing Hard Ball", the writing is compelling and natural. When he writes of Baseball, (which comprises the majority of the book) his efforts often begin to grind to the uninitiated reader. In seeking to compare and contrast the two games, Smith often tries too hard to find parallels and strains to keep the narrative flowing freely.
There are many deft touches and the scope of his own reading is impressive in a 25 year old pro sportsman. However, there are times when he seems out of his depth, particularly when dealing with Anglo-American feeling post September 11th.
With Simon Hughes now retired to the Analyst's couch, there is definitely a place for a contemporary cricketer to chronicle the domestic game and Ed Smith shows here that he has the skills required.

Fabulous Read!!, 03 Jun 2008
I think all the other reviews say enough so I'll try to keep this short and simple. Even speaking from the perspective of a baseball illiterate limey, I must say that I found this book very very interesting indeed.... and most enjoyable. This was the first book of Michael Lewis' that I read and I have subsequently went on to read a number (not all) of his other works..... all of which have been equally as good. If you are interested in sports and/or the area athlete/player recruitment then this book will more than pique your interest..... some of the best money I have ever invested!!!

Major League Analysis, 04 Apr 2008
Moneyball, by Michael Lewis, takes as its central focus the exploits of the Oakland A's and their svengali general manager Billy Beane. Ignoring conventional baseball wisdom, he and Paul DePodesta have developed a whole new strategy, using the groundbreaking work of the likes of Bill James, for competing in the big leagues on a fraction of the budget of teams like the New York Yankees.

In essence this very readable book can be divided into two distinct styles, the personal and the scientific. When Lewis addresses the history and use of baseball theory, that is to say statistical analysis in the judging of players and games, he creates a sense of an almost academic approach to a national passtime. While this could be utterly confusing to a non baseball fan, to anyone with an interest in the game his discussions come as something of a revelation and can only serve as a starting point to further reading.

But where this book really comes into its own is in the personal stories and psychology of Billy Beane and his team. While it is made abundantly clear that Beane is no ordinary GM, the insight this book provides into the workings of a front office and its relationship with both the playing staff and management is utterly compelling.

All in all, for a baseball fan this is an absolute must read and for everyone else, you are guaranteed to find something of interest.

... you'd really want to love baseball, 14 Nov 2007
While the book has interesting insights into pro sport, it's very American. I found it a struggle.

Not just for baseball fans, 30 Aug 2007
The book is centred around the Oakland A's baseball team, but as someone who had only ever seen one baseball game in his life, it was still a fascinating book. The narrative is about how the team can consistently outperform other teams which have more funds to pay for players etc.. Michael Lewis does not labour the analogy of their approach to other fields, and its left to the reader to think how the same ideas may be applied elsewhere. Even if you have never seen a baseball game you would be able to enjoy this book.

Superb book (better if you understand baseball however), 13 May 2007
This was a great read; fascinating and thought provoking about professional baseball. It's great to see how a team has overcome a lack of financial clout to be able to still compete and to use educated statisticians rather than ex-players who go on hunches and their experience (that they believe to be a global one).

If you don't understand the game however, some of it may pass you by!

Very recommended.

Brilliant Read, 11 Dec 2008
This book is exceptional. I actually found this book by accident, but I'd like to put it another way, this book found me. Forget those who criticise it for its American sports examples, look beyond that. Apply it to your entire life. This book is simple. It draws on all those great sayings you've heard at some stage in your life. I reccommend you read a chapter of it every morning. Its a brilliant motivator. The only problem is, this read can't go on forever.....

On the head, son, 16 May 2008
Gary Mack's book on the importance of your thinking processes in sport (and by extension in life) has two problems. Firstly, if you don't know American sports in the Nineties then many of the names in his anecdotes will be unfamiliar. Secondly, for those who do know American sports in the Nineties some of the teams he has advised are not exactly stellar. But this just means you need to read with care, and if you don't share the inordinate interest with golfers (or cannot avoid the thought that this is just sport, what about life?) you can go straight to the summary points at the end of each chapter. These are annoyingly smug and even more annoyingly they do seem to work.

Mack uses many of the processes of NLP with an helpful dollop of commonsense. So please don't be put off by the anecdotes concerning unknown but obviously revered athletes. He packs much the same message as an Anthony Robbins book but in much less space.

Not for me, 05 Jan 2007
I play badminton quite a bit and wanted some tips and techniques to help with the way I think about and think while I play the game - I found nothing useful here. Filled with unnecessary anecdotes and clearly geared towards those aiming to or actually competing at a high level, although I'm not sure if it would even be useful for them. Much of the contents seemed 'obvious' to me.

I hope my competitiors dont read this....., 18 Dec 2006
Once you get past the perhaps unfamiliar American sports, anic dotes etc, the message is simple and clear. It's not a cook book full of formulas, but straight to the point. and it does get results.

Not suitable if you are not familiar with American sports..., 23 Aug 2006
...and generally not very good either. When one reads a book that quotes and refers to our sporting heros, it's hard not to be emotionaly affected by the book - you can transfer the messages in the book to memories that you have of your particular sporting heros. When you have no knowledge of the people that are used, the book's real content becomes exposed - which is a collection of uninspiring anecdotes from athletes that I have never heard of.



An interesting account of the author's experiences..., 31 Jan 2005
...but that is all it is.

I enjoyed this book but it was not the book I was expecting or hoping for. That said, if Ed Smith had written the book I wanted him to write I suspect that only about 3 people would have read it.

I was hoping for a much more technical analysis of the similarities and differences between baseball and cricket. In this respect the book is quite sparse. The view that the equivalent of a batsman in cricket is the pitcher in baseball is interesting (although never really explored) but quite superficial.

Finally, in the section that discusses which cricketers could have played baseball, Ed Smith omits to mention the one cricketer who could not only have played baseball but been a star. Viv Richards, certainly the best batsman I have ever seen, would have been a fantastic baseball player - good speed, a strong arm, fantastic eye, powerful hitter - I suspect he could have even played shortstop.

Ed Smith gets it right, 20 Aug 2003
Ed Smith's very enjoyable book does a service to both sports - cricket and baseball. As I am a transplanted Yank in England, it helped me understand some of the tactical nuances of test cricket I had not yet penetrated - and it rekindled my nostalgia for baseball.

And it's always refreshing to see a double first at Cambridge put good old Anglo Saxon expressions in writing...

A good intro to the rival for cricket/baseball fans, 11 Jul 2003
Cricket enthusiasts who have watched any baseball will already know that the two sports share a lot more characteristics that simply hitting a ball with a stick. Most obviously, there is a shared obsession with statistics and tradition. This book lists those shared aspects, but also highlights the contrasts in the sports in an interesting and accessible way. It's a shame Smith did not ponder this fact though: the "brash" American sport has far more unwritten rules about behaviour on the pitch and not "showing up" the other side than the English gentleman's game. To show any significant enthusiasm after throwing a strikeout or hitting a home run is asking to be deliberately hit by the ball in the next inning (punishment beatings are an accepted and semi-sanctioned part of the game). In the so-called gentleman's game of cricket the players throw the ball in the air after a catch, shout and scream after a run out or for an lbw decision, and deliberately intimidate, 'bounce' and 'sledge' the opposition players. Baseball is nearly always played in a gentlemanly way, Cricket is (and has always been) brash. Ok, you get the odd punch-up in baseball, but those fights are nearly always because the unwritten rules of gentlemanly conduct have been broken. Nevertheless, Smith's book demonstrates quite clearly that any fan of one sport will almost certainly love the other.

Best introduction to baseball for an Englishman, 08 Nov 2002
First off I must declare a personal interest in this book. Ed Smith's father taught me English at A-level (a B grade, but I don't hold it against him) and Ed himself was a couple of years below me at school. Nevertheless I assure you this book is well worth the read, even from an impartial point of view.

I read it before a recent trip to California which happily coincided with the 2002 World Series - a rare all-Californian affair. Ed's descriptions of being in a World Series team's hometown during the event are very accurate (although sadly I never got to attend a Giants home game I did watch them with some fiercely partisan Giants supporters), not least in conveying quite what baseball means to Americans. Unlike one of the other reviewers I think Ed captured the human ties of the Special Relationship post-September 11 very well - the most evocative moment being when he tells of how the Star Spangled Banner had an unexpectedly emotional impact on him. The book is not just about cricket and baseball, early on Ed admits he bought into European anti-Americanism but as he spends more time understanding Americans through their national game he realises the error of his youthful ways!

Ed manages to bring baseball to life for those of us brought up believing cricket is a man's game whereas baseball is just glorified rounders. By drawing the many parallels between the two national games he achieves this in a way that makes it more accessible to an Englishman.

Promising debut - Better to come?, 03 Sep 2002
If Ed Smith writes a book about the County Cricket circuit, it could well be very good. Where he inhabits home territory in "Playing Hard Ball", the writing is compelling and natural. When he writes of Baseball, (which comprises the majority of the book) his efforts often begin to grind to the uninitiated reader. In seeking to compare and contrast the two games, Smith often tries too hard to find parallels and strains to keep the narrative flowing freely.
There are many deft touches and the scope of his own reading is impressive in a 25 year old pro sportsman. However, there are times when he seems out of his depth, particularly when dealing with Anglo-American feeling post September 11th.
With Simon Hughes now retired to the Analyst's couch, there is definitely a place for a contemporary cricketer to chronicle the domestic game and Ed Smith shows here that he has the skills required.

Essential, for many reasons, 30 Apr 2008
Christy Mathewson's 1912 book 'Pitching in a Pinch' was baseball's first 'inside view' of the game in which - and without attracting any criticism - Mathewson openly discussed the drinking habits of his contemporaries. On Amazon right now you can buy Jose Canseco's 'Juiced' and 'Vindicated: Big Names, Big Liars...etc.' Heck, one New York Times bestseller published in 2004 was subtitled 'A season of Brawling, Boozing, Bimbo chasing, and Championship Baseball with...the Rowdiest Team Ever to Put on a New York Uniform'. Those kinds of exposes of the ugly underbelly of professional baseball - each more lurid than the last - are ten-a-penny now. So why should an author and former ballplayer who wrote a similar book over 30 years ago still be considered an outcast today by many within baseball?

Jim Bouton is an aesthete, an irreverent intellectual set adrift in a culture of Neanderthals and conformers. He is also a pitcher suffering from some inner doubts about his 'stuff' and perhaps facing up to the fact that he's over the hill and having to rely upon the guile of his knuckleball rather than the power of his erstwhile fastball to break back into The Show - which in this case takes the form of the fledgling Seattle Pilots team in their expansion (and indeed only) season. Ball Four is a diary which tells about his efforts to make it back to the big leagues and the personalities and ingrained prejudices he had to overcome to do so.

So why is Bouton so ostracised by many of the baseball fraternity decades after he published a book which did nothing more than give an even handed, honest and detailed account of his 1969 season? After all, as I have already explained, in the intervening years since Ball Four was published many baseball people have published their own inside stories and exposes. Indeed, even some of Jim Bouton's 'victims' have since traded on their nefarious reputations to a far greater extent than Bouton portrayed...yet still despise him for it. So why?

The answer is that, somewhere in the 90 years between Mathewson and Boomer Wells, baseball, and the perception of baseball, changed from being a game played by "shysters, con men, drunks and outright thieves" (Bill James) from which the public stayed away in their droves, to become instead increasingly big business for players, managers and, especially, owners. The paying public wanted a National Pastime which represented their ideals - fair play, clean-cut teams of wholesome athletes, heroes. And so as the game grew more lucrative, and as the importance of the sport's public image also grew, so did the impetus for the baseball establishment to perpetuate and protect that 'peanuts and crackerjack' image, and consequently all that money.

Enter Jim Bouton - Deviant, Knuckleballer and Whistleblower.

Bouton's unforgivable crime was that he was the FIRST to break baseball's greatest taboo - the mantra which sustained and upheld the Establishment's public veneer and which was actually inscribed on a board in the Pilots' club house, the gist of which ran "whatever happens [on the road/in the clubhouse/in the team] stays [on the road/in the clubhouse/in the team]." What he illustrated in his wry day-to-day observations and disarming musings in Ball Four is a shambles; an ugly catalogue of petty small mindedness, hopeless disorganisation, inconsistency and hypocrisy at al levels of the game. The old guard of coaches, owners, managers and scouts were thoughtless, inept, duplicitous and reactionary - relying upon the kind of foundless received wisdom which was exploded so brilliantly by Billy Beane in Moneyball. The players were factional, puerile, perverted and racist.

As Bouton explains very eloquently in a postscript to Ball Four, subcultures like that of professional ballplayers need a set of shared values, they need to conform, and it helps strengthen and confirm this set of values if they can identify and focus upon a 'deviant'. Bouton was already eyed with suspicion by his peers - he did not conform, did not trot out the meaningless, trite jock sayings at the appropriate times, did not go along with the juvenile, macho cliques, was capable of independent thought, was not a 'Good Ol' Boy', did not toe the line. Even worse, he wasn't coming off a 20-win season but instead was on the fringes of the bullpen and struggling with his delivery. So he was already an ideal candidate on which to hang the deviant tag. His publishing of Ball Four confirmed that all of those prejudices projected onto the pariah Jim Bouton by his teammates for their own sakes were justified...weren't they? No, because everything Bouton says in Ball Four is right, and needed saying.

OK, he wrote the diary in secret without the knowledge of most of the people whose stupidity it exposes and so maybe betrayed their trust in a way. Also, the Seattle Pilots were probably an extreme example of the state of baseball in the late 60s (Bouton was traded to the Astros during Ball Four and found them far more professional and progressive). But the picture it revealed to the fans for the first time as it peeled back that facade of the Nation's Pastime really show that not only the book's ignorant and indignant cast deserved to be shown for what they were - but Baseball (big 'B') deserved it too....even needed it!


Gets funnier every time you read it, 14 May 2007
I must admit, the first time I read it I didn't understand the baseball speak and therefore took me a while to get into it, but as I got more into the game via Channel 5 etc the better the book got! I've read it 4 times now (normally at the beginning of each baseball season) and it just gets funnier and funnier. Bouton's wit is superb. I can pick this book up anytime, anyday, go to a random page and I know I will laugh out loud.

The Greatest Baseball Book Ever Written, 18 Aug 1999
As far as I'm concerned, Ball Four is easily the best baseball book out there. I've read about 45 baseball books and nothing compares to Bouton's masterpiece. I've read this book four times and it still hasn't gotten old yet. I'm sure I'll read it at least ten more times and I doubt that I will ever get tired of it.

What makes Ball Four better than any other baseball book is that it allows its readers to see the game from a player's perspective. Never has a book given such an up-close, in-the-locker-room look at baseball. Of course, Bouton himself is brilliant. I love his sarcasm and his biting wit. Ball Four might have been a pretty good book even if it had been written by a poor writer; Bouton, though, is an excellent storyteller and his attitude is what shapes the book. If you consider yourself a fan of the game, you will buy Ball Four immediately. It has given me great joy time and time again.

Bouton's memoirs read like a hilarious novel., 08 Aug 1999
He writes honestly about what it is like to be the outsider. Which is why this book created such an uproar in 1970. Marginal relief pitchers can not give the public the low down on Mickey Mantle, or give the bird to Commissioner Kuhn.

Baseball needs someone today to give us the real story. I still come back to this book after 10 years. It is refreshing in its innocence. Would Sammy Sosa pop a greenie? Do the Montreal Expos go "beaver shooting" while in Toronto? Certainly there must be a manager today who tells his team to "Pound back the ol'Budweiser like Joe Schultz. Say that its so.

This book will be read by baseball fans in 2075--as much as Fred Talbot must hate to hear it.

It's evolved into almost a history book, 12 Jul 1999
The amazing thing about reading Ball Four now, almost 30 years after it was first published, is how the game of baseball has changed. Bouton's book is almost a time capsule, illustrating what it was like when players didn't control the game and political correctness wasn't even a term. We need another Jim Bouton to describe life in baseball today. Do the Yankees still shoot beaver? Do players even worry anymore about getting back $600 apartment deposits if they're traded? Have greenies given way to andro? Even if a new Bouton surfaced, he couldn't be any funnier than the original. The image that never fails to crack me up is the one of Joe Pepitone giving a guy a hotfoot while being the victim of a hotfoot himself. Has Ken Griffey Jr. ever given anyone a hot foot? Does he even know what it is?

Fabulous Read!!, 03 Jun 2008
I think all the other reviews say enough so I'll try to keep this short and simple. Even speaking from the perspective of a baseball illiterate limey, I must say that I found this book very very interesting indeed.... and most enjoyable. This was the first book of Michael Lewis' that I read and I have subsequently went on to read a number (not all) of his other works..... all of which have been equally as good. If you are interested in sports and/or the area athlete/player recruitment then this book will more than pique your interest..... some of the best money I have ever invested!!!

Major League Analysis, 04 Apr 2008
Moneyball, by Michael Lewis, takes as its central focus the exploits of the Oakland A's and their svengali general manager Billy Beane. Ignoring conventional baseball wisdom, he and Paul DePodesta have developed a whole new strategy, using the groundbreaking work of the likes of Bill James, for competing in the big leagues on a fraction of the budget of teams like the New York Yankees.

In essence this very readable book can be divided into two distinct styles, the personal and the scientific. When Lewis addresses the history and use of baseball theory, that is to say statistical analysis in the judging of players and games, he creates a sense of an almost academic approach to a national passtime. While this could be utterly confusing to a non baseball fan, to anyone with an interest in the game his discussions come as something of a revelation and can only serve as a starting point to further reading.

But where this book really comes into its own is in the personal stories and psychology of Billy Beane and his team. While it is made abundantly clear that Beane is no ordinary GM, the insight this book provides into the workings of a front office and its relationship with both the playing staff and management is utterly compelling.

All in all, for a baseball fan this is an absolute must read and for everyone else, you are guaranteed to find something of interest.

... you'd really want to love baseball, 14 Nov 2007
While the book has interesting insights into pro sport, it's very American. I found it a struggle.

Not just for baseball fans, 30 Aug 2007
The book is centred around the Oakland A's baseball team, but as someone who had only ever seen one baseball game in his life, it was still a fascinating book. The narrative is about how the team can consistently outperform other teams which have more funds to pay for players etc.. Michael Lewis does not labour the analogy of their approach to other fields, and its left to the reader to think how the same ideas may be applied elsewhere. Even if you have never seen a baseball game you would be able to enjoy this book.

Superb book (better if you understand baseball however), 13 May 2007
This was a great read; fascinating and thought provoking about professional baseball. It's great to see how a team has overcome a lack of financial clout to be able to still compete and to use educated statisticians rather than ex-players who go on hunches and their experience (that they believe to be a global one).

If you don't understand the game however, some of it may pass you by!

Very recommended.

Brilliant Read, 11 Dec 2008
This book is exceptional. I actually found this book by accident, but I'd like to put it another way, this book found me. Forget those who criticise it for its American sports examples, look beyond that. Apply it to your entire life. This book is simple. It draws on all those great sayings you've heard at some stage in your life. I reccommend you read a chapter of it every morning. Its a brilliant motivator. The only problem is, this read can't go on forever.....

On the head, son, 16 May 2008
Gary Mack's book on the importance of your thinking processes in sport (and by extension in life) has two problems. Firstly, if you don't know American sports in the Nineties then many of the names in his anecdotes will be unfamiliar. Secondly, for those who do know American sports in the Nineties some of the teams he has advised are not exactly stellar. But this just means you need to read with care, and if you don't share the inordinate interest with golfers (or cannot avoid the thought that this is just sport, what about life?) you can go straight to the summary points at the end of each chapter. These are annoyingly smug and even more annoyingly they do seem to work.

Mack uses many of the processes of NLP with an helpful dollop of commonsense. So please don't be put off by the anecdotes concerning unknown but obviously revered athletes. He packs much the same message as an Anthony Robbins book but in much less space.

Not for me, 05 Jan 2007
I play badminton quite a bit and wanted some tips and techniques to help with the way I think about and think while I play the game - I found nothing useful here. Filled with unnecessary anecdotes and clearly geared towards those aiming to or actually competing at a high level, although I'm not sure if it would even be useful for them. Much of the contents seemed 'obvious' to me.

I hope my competitiors dont read this....., 18 Dec 2006
Once you get past the perhaps unfamiliar American sports, anic dotes etc, the message is simple and clear. It's not a cook book full of formulas, but straight to the point. and it does get results.

Not suitable if you are not familiar with American sports..., 23 Aug 2006
...and generally not very good either. When one reads a book that quotes and refers to our sporting heros, it's hard not to be emotionaly affected by the book - you can transfer the messages in the book to memories that you have of your particular sporting heros. When you have no knowledge of the people that are used, the book's real content becomes exposed - which is a collection of uninspiring anecdotes from athletes that I have never heard of.



An interesting account of the author's experiences..., 31 Jan 2005
...but that is all it is.

I enjoyed this book but it was not the book I was expecting or hoping for. That said, if Ed Smith had written the book I wanted him to write I suspect that only about 3 people would have read it.

I was hoping for a much more technical analysis of the similarities and differences between baseball and cricket. In this respect the book is quite sparse. The view that the equivalent of a batsman in cricket is the pitcher in baseball is interesting (although never really explored) but quite superficial.

Finally, in the section that discusses which cricketers could have played baseball, Ed Smith omits to mention the one cricketer who could not only have played baseball but been a star. Viv Richards, certainly the best batsman I have ever seen, would have been a fantastic baseball player - good speed, a strong arm, fantastic eye, powerful hitter - I suspect he could have even played shortstop.

Ed Smith gets it right, 20 Aug 2003
Ed Smith's very enjoyable book does a service to both sports - cricket and baseball. As I am a transplanted Yank in England, it helped me understand some of the tactical nuances of test cricket I had not yet penetrated - and it rekindled my nostalgia for baseball.

And it's always refreshing to see a double first at Cambridge put good old Anglo Saxon expressions in writing...

A good intro to the rival for cricket/baseball fans, 11 Jul 2003
Cricket enthusiasts who have watched any baseball will already know that the two sports share a lot more characteristics that simply hitting a ball with a stick. Most obviously, there is a shared obsession with statistics and tradition. This book lists those shared aspects, but also highlights the contrasts in the sports in an interesting and accessible way. It's a shame Smith did not ponder this fact though: the "brash" American sport has far more unwritten rules about behaviour on the pitch and not "showing up" the other side than the English gentleman's game. To show any significant enthusiasm after throwing a strikeout or hitting a home run is asking to be deliberately hit by the ball in the next inning (punishment beatings are an accepted and semi-sanctioned part of the game). In the so-called gentleman's game of cricket the players throw the ball in the air after a catch, shout and scream after a run out or for an lbw decision, and deliberately intimidate, 'bounce' and 'sledge' the opposition players. Baseball is nearly always played in a gentlemanly way, Cricket is (and has always been) brash. Ok, you get the odd punch-up in baseball, but those fights are nearly always because the unwritten rules of gentlemanly conduct have been broken. Nevertheless, Smith's book demonstrates quite clearly that any fan of one sport will almost certainly love the other.

Best introduction to baseball for an Englishman, 08 Nov 2002
First off I must declare a personal interest in this book. Ed Smith's father taught me English at A-level (a B grade, but I don't hold it against him) and Ed himself was a couple of years below me at school. Nevertheless I assure you this book is well worth the read, even from an impartial point of view.

I read it before a recent trip to California which happily coincided with the 2002 World Series - a rare all-Californian affair. Ed's descriptions of being in a World Series team's hometown during the event are very accurate (although sadly I never got to attend a Giants home game I did watch them with some fiercely partisan Giants supporters), not least in conveying quite what baseball means to Americans. Unlike one of the other reviewers I think Ed captured the human ties of the Special Relationship post-September 11 very well - the most evocative moment being when he tells of how the Star Spangled Banner had an unexpectedly emotional impact on him. The book is not just about cricket and baseball, early on Ed admits he bought into European anti-Americanism but as he spends more time understanding Americans through their national game he realises the error of his youthful ways!

Ed manages to bring baseball to life for those of us brought up believing cricket is a man's game whereas baseball is just glorified rounders. By drawing the many parallels between the two national games he achieves this in a way that makes it more accessible to an Englishman.

Promising debut - Better to come?, 03 Sep 2002
If Ed Smith writes a book about the County Cricket circuit, it could well be very good. Where he inhabits home territory in "Playing Hard Ball", the writing is compelling and natural. When he writes of Baseball, (which comprises the majority of the book) his efforts often begin to grind to the uninitiated reader. In seeking to compare and contrast the two games, Smith often tries too hard to find parallels and strains to keep the narrative flowing freely.
There are many deft touches and the scope of his own reading is impressive in a 25 year old pro sportsman. However, there are times when he seems out of his depth, particularly when dealing with Anglo-American feeling post September 11th.
With Simon Hughes now retired to the Analyst's couch, there is definitely a place for a contemporary cricketer to chronicle the domestic game and Ed Smith shows here that he has the skills required.

Essential, for many reasons, 30 Apr 2008
Christy Mathewson's 1912 book 'Pitching in a Pinch' was baseball's first 'inside view' of the game in which - and without attracting any criticism - Mathewson openly discussed the drinking habits of his contemporaries. On Amazon right now you can buy Jose Canseco's 'Juiced' and 'Vindicated: Big Names, Big Liars...etc.' Heck, one New York Times bestseller published in 2004 was subtitled 'A season of Brawling, Boozing, Bimbo chasing, and Championship Baseball with...the Rowdiest Team Ever to Put on a New York Uniform'. Those kinds of exposes of the ugly underbelly of professional baseball - each more lurid than the last - are ten-a-penny now. So why should an author and former ballplayer who wrote a similar book over 30 years ago still be considered an outcast today by many within baseball?

Jim Bouton is an aesthete, an irreverent intellectual set adrift in a culture of Neanderthals and conformers. He is also a pitcher suffering from some inner doubts about his 'stuff' and perhaps facing up to the fact that he's over the hill and having to rely upon the guile of his knuckleball rather than the power of his erstwhile fastball to break back into The Show - which in this case takes the form of the fledgling Seattle Pilots team in their expansion (and indeed only) season. Ball Four is a diary which tells about his efforts to make it back to the big leagues and the personalities and ingrained prejudices he had to overcome to do so.

So why is Bouton so ostracised by many of the baseball fraternity decades after he published a book which did nothing more than give an even handed, honest and detailed account of his 1969 season? After all, as I have already explained, in the intervening years since Ball Four was published many baseball people have published their own inside stories and exposes. Indeed, even some of Jim Bouton's 'victims' have since traded on their nefarious reputations to a far greater extent than Bouton portrayed...yet still despise him for it. So why?

The answer is that, somewhere in the 90 years between Mathewson and Boomer Wells, baseball, and the perception of baseball, changed from being a game played by "shysters, con men, drunks and outright thieves" (Bill James) from which the public stayed away in their droves, to become instead increasingly big business for players, managers and, especially, owners. The paying public wanted a National Pastime which represented their ideals - fair play, clean-cut teams of wholesome athletes, heroes. And so as the game grew more lucrative, and as the importance of the sport's public image also grew, so did the impetus for the baseball establishment to perpetuate and protect that 'peanuts and crackerjack' image, and consequently all that money.

Enter Jim Bouton - Deviant, Knuckleballer and Whistleblower.

Bouton's unforgivable crime was that he was the FIRST to break baseball's greatest taboo - the mantra which sustained and upheld the Establishment's public veneer and which was actually inscribed on a board in the Pilots' club house, the gist of which ran "whatever happens [on the road/in the clubhouse/in the team] stays [on the road/in the clubhouse/in the team]." What he illustrated in his wry day-to-day observations and disarming musings in Ball Four is a shambles; an ugly catalogue of petty small mindedness, hopeless disorganisation, inconsistency and hypocrisy at al levels of the game. The old guard of coaches, owners, managers and scouts were thoughtless, inept, duplicitous and reactionary - relying upon the kind of foundless received wisdom which was exploded so brilliantly by Billy Beane in Moneyball. The players were factional, puerile, perverted and racist.

As Bouton explains very eloquently in a postscript to Ball Four, subcultures like that of professional ballplayers need a set of shared values, they need to conform, and it helps strengthen and confirm this set of values if they can identify and focus upon a 'deviant'. Bouton was already eyed with suspicion by his peers - he did not conform, did not trot out the meaningless, trite jock sayings at the appropriate times, did not go along with the juvenile, macho cliques, was capable of independent thought, was not a 'Good Ol' Boy', did not toe the line. Even worse, he wasn't coming off a 20-win season but instead was on the fringes of the bullpen and struggling with his delivery. So he was already an ideal candidate on which to hang the deviant tag. His publishing of Ball Four confirmed that all of those prejudices projected onto the pariah Jim Bouton by his teammates for their own sakes were justified...weren't they? No, because everything Bouton says in Ball Four is right, and needed saying.

OK, he wrote the diary in secret without the knowledge of most of the people whose stupidity it exposes and so maybe betrayed their trust in a way. Also, the Seattle Pilots were probably an extreme example of the state of baseball in the late 60s (Bouton was traded to the Astros during Ball Four and found them far more professional and progressive). But the picture it revealed to the fans for the first time as it peeled back that facade of the Nation's Pastime really show that not only the book's ignorant and indignant cast deserved to be shown for what they were - but Baseball (big 'B') deserved it too....even needed it!


Gets funnier every time you read it, 14 May 2007
I must admit, the first time I read it I didn't understand the baseball speak and therefore took me a while to get into it, but as I got more into the game via Channel 5 etc the better the book got! I've read it 4 times now (normally at the beginning of each baseball season) and it just gets funnier and funnier. Bouton's wit is superb. I can pick this book up anytime, anyday, go to a random page and I know I will laugh out loud.

The Greatest Baseball Book Ever Written, 18 Aug 1999
As far as I'm concerned, Ball Four is easily the best baseball book out there. I've read about 45 baseball books and nothing compares to Bouton's masterpiece. I've read this book four times and it still hasn't gotten old yet. I'm sure I'll read it at least ten more times and I doubt that I will ever get tired of it.

What makes Ball Four better than any other baseball book is that it allows its readers to see the game from a player's perspective. Never has a book given such an up-close, in-the-locker-room look at baseball. Of course, Bouton himself is brilliant. I love his sarcasm and his biting wit. Ball Four might have been a pretty good book even if it had been written by a poor writer; Bouton, though, is an excellent storyteller and his attitude is what shapes the book. If you consider yourself a fan of the game, you will buy Ball Four immediately. It has given me great joy time and time again.

Bouton's memoirs read like a hilarious novel., 08 Aug 1999
He writes honestly about what it is like to be the outsider. Which is why this book created such an uproar in 1970. Marginal relief pitchers can not give the public the low down on Mickey Mantle, or give the bird to Commissioner Kuhn.

Baseball needs someone today to give us the real story. I still come back to this book after 10 years. It is refreshing in its innocence. Would Sammy Sosa pop a greenie? Do the Montreal Expos go "beaver shooting" while in Toronto? Certainly there must be a manager today who tells his team to "Pound back the ol'Budweiser like Joe Schultz. Say that its so.

This book will be read by baseball fans in 2075--as much as Fred Talbot must hate to hear it.

It's evolved into almost a history book, 12 Jul 1999
The amazing thing about reading Ball Four now, almost 30 years after it was first published, is how the game of baseball has changed. Bouton's book is almost a time capsule, illustrating what it was like when players didn't control the game and political correctness wasn't even a term. We need another Jim Bouton to describe life in baseball today. Do the Yankees still shoot beaver? Do players even worry anymore about getting back $600 apartment deposits if they're traded? Have greenies given way to andro? Even if a new Bouton surfaced, he couldn't be any funnier than the original. The image that never fails to crack me up is the one of Joe Pepitone giving a guy a hotfoot while being the victim of a hotfoot himself. Has Ken Griffey Jr. ever given anyone a hot foot? Does he even know what it is?

I See The Boys Of Summer In Their Ruin..., 12 Dec 2007
Roger Kahn has long been hailed as the greatest American sports writer and after reading 'The Boys Of Summer' it is easy to see why. The book is divided into two main parts, with interludes and memoriums to fallen ball players filling the gaps.
Part one describes growing up in Brooklyn, within shouting distance of the no longer existing Ebbets Field, home of the no longer existing Brooklyn Dodgers. It starts with Kahn's family life and his early years in journalism which culminates in him being appointed to cover the Dodgers for two years, the team he has supported and obsessed about all his young life.
Starting his dream job, he follows the Dodgers from Miami, for Spring training to the World Series in both seasons making long lasting friendships with players that he knew fanatically as a regular at Ebbets Field and then as complex people each with differing philosophies, tastes, beliefs and anxieties.
The list of Dodger's in those two seasons include Jackie Robinson, the first black player to play Major League, the team slugger,'Duke' Snider, the greatest glove the game ever saw in 3rd baseman Billy Cox, Preacher Roe - the spit ball specialist, Erskine - the pitcher and master of the overhand curve, Campy - the catcher and winner of 3 straight MVPs, Black -the first black pitcher to win a World Series game and of course the short stop and captain, the late great Pee Wee Reese.
The second part of the book, sees Kahn tracking down The Boys of Summer, now retired from the game and living very different lives in different parts of the States. These stories are probably even stronger. I have read the book 3 times now and on the 3rd read I started at part 2 to soak in all the charateristics of these men and then finished with part 1, reading baout them in their sporting prime.
It has everything a great sports books needs: passion, soul and a true understanding of the game and the people both within it and outside it. Great sporting achievements are very difficult to put into words, but Kahn does it so well you end up rooting for both the team and him.
It is a story of a very diffrent time and almost a different world, but all avid sports fans who realise that the games we watch and the games we play are a passion, addiction and a love beyond the reaches of intellect and reason will love it forever.

Simon Rance, author of The FC Nantes Experiment.

Why baseball is more than just a game..., 26 Apr 2002
Some sports lend themselves to quality writing. In the UK the finest prose is almost always devoted to cricket. Perhaps it's the slow pace,allowing contemplation, punctuated by bursts of intense action, or its historical link to some pastoral England which may or may not have existed. . Baseball is similarly blessed in the USA,and Kahn's book with its thoughtful ,insightful and moving style, its unashamed and autobiographical content, and its warts and all description of the struggles of black athletes for acceptance in 1950s America, is outstanding. Its greatest triumph, though, is the obvious love and respect that the author has not only for the game but also those flawed and complex characters who played it. The book glows with this warmth, as it follows the mixed fortunes of the 1950s Brooklyn Dodgers some 20 years later.

A sad story, brilliantly written., 13 Feb 2001
This is a very sad story of how fate conspired to rob a team of the success they deserved and then dealt so cruelly with many of the players in their later lives. The story of the seasons Kahn spent with the team is absorbing. The stories of his meetings with them many years later are moving. The book is brilliantly written. It is about sport but more about the struggles of mankind. An undoubted 5 stars.

Very dissapointing, 01 Jan 1999
If you are expecting an insightful potrait of baseball in 1950's Brooklyn look elsewhere. What this book delivers instead is a re-heated version of "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man." The author is so self-absorbed that any baseball lore one may find in the book must be washed down with a large dose of his syrupy personal saga. Along the way Kahn manages to drain all the vitality out of baseball and replace it with warm tapioca pudding.

A deeply moving story of the Jackie Robinson Dodgers, 30 Dec 1998
There's no sugarcoating of the Jackie Robinson Dodgers in this story. We see them in full, pioneers, bigots, fathers and husbands.

The way that they have survived the changes in their lives says far more about their character than any penny-ante poem or polemic. Kahn lived and worked with these men for two years, and his achievement is that he makes us feel that we knew them as well as he did.

Fabulous Read!!, 03 Jun 2008
I think all the other reviews say enough so I'll try to keep this short and simple. Even speaking from the perspective of a baseball illiterate limey, I must say that I found this book very very interesting indeed.... and most enjoyable. This was the first book of Michael Lewis' that I read and I have subsequently went on to read a number (not all) of his other works..... all of which have been equally as good. If you are interested in sports and/or the area athlete/player recruitment then this book will more than pique your interest..... some of the best money I have ever invested!!!

Major League Analysis, 04 Apr 2008
Moneyball, by Michael Lewis, takes as its central focus the exploits of the Oakland A's and their svengali general manager Billy Beane. Ignoring conventional baseball wisdom, he and Paul DePodesta have developed a whole new strategy, using the groundbreaking work of the likes of Bill James, for competing in the big leagues on a fraction of the budget of teams like the New York Yankees.

In essence this very readable book can be divided into two distinct styles, the personal and the scientific. When Lewis addresses the history and use of baseball theory, that is to say statistical analysis in the judging of players and games, he creates a sense of an almost academic approach to a national passtime. While this could be utterly confusing to a non baseball fan, to anyone with an interest in the game his discussions come as something of a revelation and can only serve as a starting point to further reading.

But where this book really comes into its own is in the personal stories and psychology of Billy Beane and his team. While it is made abundantly clear that Beane is no ordinary GM, the insight this book provides into the workings of a front office and its relationship with both the playing staff and management is utterly compelling.

All in all, for a baseball fan this is an absolute must read and for everyone else, you are guaranteed to find something of interest.

... you'd really want to love baseball, 14 Nov 2007
While the book has interesting insights into pro sport, it's very American. I found it a struggle.

Not just for baseball fans, 30 Aug 2007
The book is centred around the Oakland A's baseball team, but as someone who had only ever seen one baseball game in his life, it was still a fascinating book. The narrative is about how the team can consistently outperform other teams which have more funds to pay for players etc.. Michael Lewis does not labour the analogy of their approach to other fields, and its left to the reader to think how the same ideas may be applied elsewhere. Even if you have never seen a baseball game you would be able to enjoy this book.

Superb book (better if you understand baseball however), 13 May 2007
This was a great read; fascinating and thought provoking about professional baseball. It's great to see how a team has overcome a lack of financial clout to be able to still compete and to use educated statisticians rather than ex-players who go on hunches and their experience (that they believe to be a global one).

If you don't understand the game however, some of it may pass you by!

Very recommended.

Brilliant Read, 11 Dec 2008
This book is exceptional. I actually found this book by accident, but I'd like to put it another way, this book found me. Forget those who criticise it for its American sports examples, look beyond that. Apply it to your entire life. This book is simple. It draws on all those great sayings you've heard at some stage in your life. I reccommend you read a chapter of it every morning. Its a brilliant motivator. The only problem is, this read can't go on forever.....

On the head, son, 16 May 2008
Gary Mack's book on the importance of your thinking processes in sport (and by extension in life) has two problems. Firstly, if you don't know American sports in the Nineties then many of the names in his anecdotes will be unfamiliar. Secondly, for those who do know American sports in the Nineties some of the teams he has advised are not exactly stellar. But this just means you need to read with care, and if you don't share the inordinate interest with golfers (or cannot avoid the thought that this is just sport, what about life?) you can go straight to the summary points at the end of each chapter. These are annoyingly smug and even more annoyingly they do seem to work.

Mack uses many of the processes of NLP with an helpful dollop of commonsense. So please don't be put off by the anecdotes concerning unknown but obviously revered athletes. He packs much the same message as an Anthony Robbins book but in much less space.

Not for me, 05 Jan 2007
I play badminton quite a bit and wanted some tips and techniques to help with the way I think about and think while I play the game - I found nothing useful here. Filled with unnecessary anecdotes and clearly geared towards those aiming to or actually competing at a high level, although I'm not sure if it would even be useful for them. Much of the contents seemed 'obvious' to me.

I hope my competitiors dont read this....., 18 Dec 2006
Once you get past the perhaps unfamiliar American sports, anic dotes etc, the message is simple and clear. It's not a cook book full of formulas, but straight to the point. and it does get results.

Not suitable if you are not familiar with American sports..., 23 Aug 2006
...and generally not very good either. When one reads a book that quotes and refers to our sporting heros, it's hard not to be emotionaly affected by the book - you can transfer the messages in the book to memories that you have of your particular sporting heros. When you have no knowledge of the people that are used, the book's real content becomes exposed - which is a collection of uninspiring anecdotes from athletes that I have never heard of.



An interesting account of the author's experiences..., 31 Jan 2005
...but that is all it is.

I enjoyed this book but it was not the book I was expecting or hoping for. That said, if Ed Smith had written the book I wanted him to write I suspect that only about 3 people would have read it.

I was hoping for a much more technical analysis of the similarities and differences between baseball and cricket. In this respect the book is quite sparse. The view that the equivalent of a batsman in cricket is the pitcher in baseball is interesting (although never really explored) but quite superficial.

Finally, in the section that discusses which cricketers could have played baseball, Ed Smith omits to mention the one cricketer who could not only have played baseball but been a star. Viv Richards, certainly the best batsman I have ever seen, would have been a fantastic baseball player - good speed, a strong arm, fantastic eye, powerful hitter - I suspect he could have even played shortstop.

Ed Smith gets it right, 20 Aug 2003
Ed Smith's very enjoyable book does a service to both sports - cricket and baseball. As I am a transplanted Yank in England, it helped me understand some of the tactical nuances of test cricket I had not yet penetrated - and it rekindled my nostalgia for baseball.

And it's always refreshing to see a double first at Cambridge put good old Anglo Saxon expressions in writing...

A good intro to the rival for cricket/baseball fans, 11 Jul 2003
Cricket enthusiasts who have watched any baseball will already know that the two sports share a lot more characteristics that simply hitting a ball with a stick. Most obviously, there is a shared obsession with statistics and tradition. This book lists those shared aspects, but also highlights the contrasts in the sports in an interesting and accessible way. It's a shame Smith did not ponder this fact though: the "brash" American sport has far more unwritten rules about behaviour on the pitch and not "showing up" the other side than the English gentleman's game. To show any significant enthusiasm after throwing a strikeout or hitting a home run is asking to be deliberately hit by the ball in the next inning (punishment beatings are an accepted and semi-sanctioned part of the game). In the so-called gentleman's game of cricket the players throw the ball in the air after a catch, shout and scream after a run out or for an lbw decision, and deliberately intimidate, 'bounce' and 'sledge' the opposition players. Baseball is nearly always played in a gentlemanly way, Cricket is (and has always been) brash. Ok, you get the odd punch-up in baseball, but those fights are nearly always because the unwritten rules of gentlemanly conduct have been broken. Nevertheless, Smith's book demonstrates quite clearly that any fan of one sport will almost certainly love the other.

Best introduction to baseball for an Englishman, 08 Nov 2002
First off I must declare a personal interest in this book. Ed Smith's father taught me English at A-level (a B grade, but I don't hold it against him) and Ed himself was a couple of years below me at school. Nevertheless I assure you this book is well worth the read, even from an impartial point of view.

I read it before a recent trip to California which happily coincided with the 2002 World Series - a rare all-Californian affair. Ed's descriptions of being in a World Series team's hometown during the event are very accurate (although sadly I never got to attend a Giants home game I did watch them with some fiercely partisan Giants supporters), not least in conveying quite what baseball means to Americans. Unlike one of the other reviewers I think Ed captured the human ties of the Special Relationship post-September 11 very well - the most evocative moment being when he tells of how the Star Spangled Banner had an unexpectedly emotional impact on him. The book is not just about cricket and baseball, early on Ed admits he bought into European anti-Americanism but as he spends more time understanding Americans through their national game he realises the error of his youthful ways!

Ed manages to bring baseball to life for those of us brought up believing cricket is a man's game whereas baseball is just glorified rounders. By drawing the many parallels between the two national games he achieves this in a way that makes it more accessible to an Englishman.

Promising debut - Better to come?, 03 Sep 2002
If Ed Smith writes a book about the County Cricket circuit, it could well be very good. Where he inhabits home territory in "Playing Hard Ball", the writing is compelling and natural. When he writes of Baseball, (which comprises the majority of the book) his efforts often begin to grind to the uninitiated reader. In seeking to compare and contrast the two games, Smith often tries too hard to find parallels and strains to keep the narrative flowing freely.
There are many deft touches and the scope of his own reading is impressive in a 25 year old pro sportsman. However, there are times when he seems out of his depth, particularly when dealing with Anglo-American feeling post September 11th.
With Simon Hughes now retired to the Analyst's couch, there is definitely a place for a contemporary cricketer to chronicle the domestic game and Ed Smith shows here that he has the skills required.

Essential, for many reasons, 30 Apr 2008
Christy Mathewson's 1912 book 'Pitching in a Pinch' was baseball's first 'inside view' of the game in which - and without attracting any criticism - Mathewson openly discussed the drinking habits of his contemporaries. On Amazon right now you can buy Jose Canseco's 'Juiced' and 'Vindicated: Big Names, Big Liars...etc.' Heck, one New York Times bestseller published in 2004 was subtitled 'A season of Brawling, Boozing, Bimbo chasing, and Championship Baseball with...the Rowdiest Team Ever to Put on a New York Uniform'. Those kinds of exposes of the ugly underbelly of professional baseball - each more lurid than the last - are ten-a-penny now. So why should an author and former ballplayer who wrote a similar book over 30 years ago still be considered an outcast today by many within baseball?

Jim Bouton is an aesthete, an irreverent intellectual set adrift in a culture of Neanderthals and conformers. He is also a pitcher suffering from some inner doubts about his 'stuff' and perhaps facing up to the fact that he's over the hill and having to rely upon the guile of his knuckleball rather than the power of his erstwhile fastball to break back into The Show - which in this case takes the form of the fledgling Seattle Pilots team in their expansion (and indeed only) season. Ball Four is a diary which tells about his efforts to make it back to the big leagues and the personalities and ingrained prejudices he had to overcome to do so.

So why is Bouton so ostracised by many of the baseball fraternity decades after he published a book which did nothing more than give an even handed, honest and detailed account of his 1969 season? After all, as I have already explained, in the intervening years since Ball Four was published many baseball people have published their own inside stories and exposes. Indeed, even some of Jim Bouton's 'victims' have since traded on their nefarious reputations to a far greater extent than Bouton portrayed...yet still despise him for it. So why?

The answer is that, somewhere in the 90 years between Mathewson and Boomer Wells, baseball, and the perception of baseball, changed from being a game played by "shysters, con men, drunks and outright thieves" (Bill James) from which the public stayed away in their droves, to become instead increasingly big business for players, managers and, especially, owners. The paying public wanted a National Pastime which represented their ideals - fair play, clean-cut teams of wholesome athletes, heroes. And so as the game grew more lucrative, and as the importance of the sport's public image also grew, so did the impetus for the baseball establishment to perpetuate and protect that 'peanuts and crackerjack' image, and consequently all that money.

Enter Jim Bouton - Deviant, Knuckleballer and Whistleblower.

Bouton's unforgivable crime was that he was the FIRST to break baseball's greatest taboo - the mantra which sustained and upheld the Establishment's public veneer and which was actually inscribed on a board in the Pilots' club house, the gist of which ran "whatever happens [on the road/in the clubhouse/in the team] stays [on the road/in the clubhouse/in the team]." What he illustrated in his wry day-to-day observations and disarming musings in Ball Four is a shambles; an ugly catalogue of petty small mindedness, hopeless disorganisation, inconsistency and hypocrisy at al levels of the game. The old guard of coaches, owners, managers and scouts were thoughtless, inept, duplicitous and reactionary - relying upon the kind of foundless received wisdom which was exploded so brilliantly by Billy Beane in Moneyball. The players were factional, puerile, perverted and racist.

As Bouton explains very eloquently in a postscript to Ball Four, subcultures like that of professional ballplayers need a set of shared values, they need to conform, and it helps strengthen and confirm this set of values if they can identify and focus upon a 'deviant'. Bouton was already eyed with suspicion by his peers - he did not conform, did not trot out the meaningless, trite jock sayings at the appropriate times, did not go along with the juvenile, macho cliques, was capable of independent thought, was not a 'Good Ol' Boy', did not toe the line. Even worse, he wasn't coming off a 20-win season but instead was on the fringes of the bullpen and struggling with his delivery. So he was already an ideal candidate on which to hang the deviant tag. His publishing of Ball Four confirmed that all of those prejudices projected onto the pariah Jim Bouton by his teammates for their own sakes were justified...weren't they? No, because everything Bouton says in Ball Four is right, and needed saying.

OK, he wrote the diary in secret without the knowledge of most of the people whose stupidity it exposes and so maybe betrayed their trust in a way. Also, the Seattle Pilots were probably an extreme example of the state of baseball in the late 60s (Bouton was traded to the Astros during Ball Four and found them far more professional and progressive). But the picture it revealed to the fans for the first time as it peeled back that facade of the Nation's Pastime really show that not only the book's ignorant and indignant cast deserved to be shown for what they were - but Baseball (big 'B') deserved it too....even needed it!


Gets funnier every time you read it, 14 May 2007
I must admit, the first time I read it I didn't understand the baseball speak and therefore took me a while to get into it, but as I got more into the game via Channel 5 etc the better the book got! I've read it 4 times now (normally at the beginning of each baseball season) and it just gets funnier and funnier. Bouton's wit is superb. I can pick this book up anytime, anyday, go to a random page and I know I will laugh out loud.

The Greatest Baseball Book Ever Written, 18 Aug 1999
As far as I'm concerned, Ball Four is easily the best baseball book out there. I've read about 45 baseball books and nothing compares to Bouton's masterpiece. I've read this book four times and it still hasn't gotten old yet. I'm sure I'll read it at least ten more times and I doubt that I will ever get tired of it.

What makes Ball Four better than any other baseball book is that it allows its readers to see the game from a player's perspective. Never has a book given such an up-close, in-the-locker-room look at baseball. Of course, Bouton himself is brilliant. I love his sarcasm and his biting wit. Ball Four might have been a pretty good book even if it had been written by a poor writer; Bouton, though, is an excellent storyteller and his attitude is what shapes the book. If you consider yourself a fan of the game, you will buy Ball Four immediately. It has given me great joy time and time again.

Bouton's memoirs read like a hilarious novel., 08 Aug 1999
He writes honestly about what it is like to be the outsider. Which is why this book created such an uproar in 1970. Marginal relief pitchers can not give the public the low down on Mickey Mantle, or give the bird to Commissioner Kuhn.

Baseball needs someone today to give us the real story. I still come back to this book after 10 years. It is refreshing in its innocence. Would Sammy Sosa pop a greenie? Do the Montreal Expos go "beaver shooting" while in Toronto? Certainly there must be a manager today who tells his team to "Pound back the ol'Budweiser like Joe Schultz. Say that its so.

This book will be read by baseball fans in 2075--as much as Fred Talbot must hate to hear it.

It's evolved into almost a history book, 12 Jul 1999
The amazing thing about reading Ball Four now, almost 30 years after it was first published, is how the game of baseball has changed. Bouton's book is almost a time capsule, illustrating what it was like when players didn't control the game and political correctness wasn't even a term. We need another Jim Bouton to describe life in baseball today. Do the Yankees still shoot beaver? Do players even worry anymore about getting back $600 apartment deposits if they're traded? Have greenies given way to andro? Even if a new Bouton surfaced, he couldn't be any funnier than the original. The image that never fails to crack me up is the one of Joe Pepitone giving a guy a hotfoot while being the victim of a hotfoot himself. Has Ken Griffey Jr. ever given anyone a hot foot? Does he even know what it is?

I See The Boys Of Summer In Their Ruin..., 12 Dec 2007
Roger Kahn has long been hailed as the greatest American sports writer and after reading 'The Boys Of Summer' it is easy to see why. The book is divided into two main parts, with interludes and memoriums to fallen ball players filling the gaps.
Part one describes growing up in Brooklyn, within shouting distance of the no longer existing Ebbets Field, home of the no longer existing Brooklyn Dodgers. It starts with Kahn's family life and his early years in journalism which culminates in him being appointed to cover the Dodgers for two years, the team he has supported and obsessed about all his young life.
Starting his dream job, he follows the Dodgers from Miami, for Spring training to the World Series in both seasons making long lasting friendships with players that he knew fanatically as a regular at Ebbets Field and then as complex people each with differing philosophies, tastes, beliefs and anxieties.
The list of Dodger's in those two seasons include Jackie Robinson, the first black player to play Major League, the team slugger,'Duke' Snider, the greatest glove the game ever saw in 3rd baseman Billy Cox, Preacher Roe - the spit ball specialist, Erskine - the pitcher and master of the overhand curve, Campy - the catcher and winner of 3 straight MVPs, Black -the first black pitcher to win a World Series game and of course the short stop and captain, the late great Pee Wee Reese.
The second part of the book, sees Kahn tracking down The Boys of Summer