Joe Pos: The Ballad of Bill James

The movie did not suck, not at all, that's the wrong word and that's a story for tomorrow. The story for today is how we even got here. It is about a man who is not really in the movie. No actor plays him. He's mentioned in the movie here and there, but only for a a few seconds. Still, without him, there is no Moneyball. There is no Sabermetrics, at least not under that name. Certainly people would still be looking for objective knowledge in baseball -- people were looking long before Bill James and they will look long after.

But without the life's work of Bill James, they sure as heck would not have made a movie out of it.

8 months ago thatshortkid 1 comment 1 recs |

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Thx. A quick story:

Rany, my dermatologist, told me when I met him that Bill James didn’t only teach him how to think about baseball, but how to think. I hadn’t made that connection for myself, but upon reflection it’s so true. The questions that run through my mind are very “different”, and always have been. Reading James since 1980 or so showed me I wasn’t alone in that. And especially made me appreciate baseball in a brand new way.
BTW, Rany the dermatologist, was a co-founder of Baseball Prospectus.

Someday I’ll tell the story of holding Bill James captive on a flight from KC to Chicago, reams of stats-filled pages strewn about, while I harangued him on his Stock Market Baseball game.

Thank you again!

Trying to score runs with Juan Pierre as your leadoff hitter is like trying to suture a wound in a moving car. You might still be successful -- but why make it so hard on yourself?

by Chiburb on Sep 21, 2011 6:28 PM CDT reply actions