Just before the 2002 season opens, the Oakland Athletics must relinquish their three most prominent (and expensive) players and are written off by just about everyone...but then come roaring back to challenge the American League record for consecutive wins.
How did one of the poorest teams in baseball win so many games?
What these numbers prove is that the traditional yardsticks of success for players and teams are fatally flawed. Even the box score misleads us by ignoring the crucial importance of the humble base-on-balls.
This information had been around for years, and nobody inside Major League Baseball paid it any mind. And then came Billy Beane, general manager of the Oakland Athletics. He paid attention to those numbers (with the second-lowest payroll in baseball at his disposal, he had to) to conduct an astonishing experiment in finding and fielding a team that nobody else wanted. Moneyball, paperback, written by Michael Lewis, the #1 National Bestseller.
