Reviews

The Book is story of stat guys running an Indy league baseball team but it’s more than that. It guys who retired from the game they loved to be given another chance at playing professional baseball. They ultimate dream was to make the big leagues but most of the guys in the book won’t make it. Great story and you become invested in the team specifically the player like Sean Conroy.

skrrtvonnegut's review

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funny informative lighthearted relaxing

4.0

For a book ostensibly about data and using advanced baseball metrics to build a baseball team, this was an incredibly accessible read, and one that had a ton of heart that I wasn't expecting. In fact, it seems to me that their experiment became less about bending the Sonoma Stompers to the will of their spreadsheet, Ben and Sam seem to adapt just as much to the human element of the game, getting to know the players personally, come to love their idiosyncrasies in ways they didn't expect when the players were merely rows (sorted by column R, of course). This is my favorite type of baseball writing; I love the synthesis of the modern look at the game through its data, "baseball's unseen structure, where the interactions of complex forces lead to wins in ways that are often imperceptible to people who've been watching, playing, and even teaching the game for years," with the more classic "feel" approach. The book was fun, heartfelt, and flew by like a summer breeze over a dirt infield.

patkay85's review

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adventurous emotional hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted fast-paced

4.5

wescovington's review

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4.0

Listened to the audiobook, which was a bit different since I regularly listen to the authors' podcast, but quickly got into the flow of the book.

The book isn't necessarily about sabermetrics, but more about just learning about people and how they interact.