This Time Let's Not Eat the Bones: Bill James Without the Numbers

by Bill James

This Time Let's Not Eat the Bill James Without the Bill This Time Let's Not Eat the Bill James Without the FIRST First Edition, 2nd Printing. Not price-clipped. Published by Villard, 1989. Octavo. Hardcover. Book is like new. Dust jacket is like new. Seller 354586 Sports

Genres: Baseball, Sports, Nonfiction

489 pages, Hardcover

First published April 8, 1989

About the author

George William “Bill” James (born October 5, 1949, in Holton, Kansas) is a baseball writer, historian, and statistician whose work has been widely influential. Since 1977, James has written more than two dozen books devoted to baseball history and statistics. His approach, which he termed sabermetrics in reference to the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR), scientifically analyzes and studies baseball, often through the use of statistical data, in an attempt to determine why teams win and lose. His Baseball Abstract books in the 1980s are the modern predecessor to websites using sabermetrics such as Baseball Prospectus and Baseball Primer (now Baseball Think Factory).

In 2006, Time named him in the Time 100 as one of the most influential people in the world. He is currently a Senior Advisor on Baseball Operations for the Boston Red Sox. In 2010, Bill James was inducted into the Irish American Baseball Hall of Fame.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_James

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

In 1989 this was certainly a Five Star book. It’s obviously dated now in regards to players, team dynamics, and so forth to the degree that it probably ranks a three at best for those that keep up with the sport. And, I suppose, it garners a zero for those who don’t. As I’m chronically behind the times (I got verbally accosted just the other night for admitting that I’ve never seen Blade Runner, as “ALL architect’s love Blade Runner!” apparently…) I see no reason to evaluate this based on contemporary relevance. For my part, James’s essays cover a span of time that saw me transition from a MLB city kid sorting through thousands of baseball cards to an aloof, uninterested teen living in a rural outpost that Baseball forgot (or one that forgot baseball existed as the case may be). So this was something of a long overdue exercise in catching up to 1990.

That being said, there’s much that still must be poignant to the profession as it exists today. His account of arbitration structure and intent, the impossible situation with Minor League baseball organizations and their host cities/towns - the 1990’s surge in fun and cutesy new stadiums notwithstanding – and, generally, the value and limitations of statistics in telling a/the story. As something of a (mostly) statistic-free synopsis to his once annual Baseball Abstract, this is a “Best Of” encyclopedia that probably wasn’t read cover-to-cover much even back in the day. But, as I seem to have acquired a viral strain of procrastination in relation to some other stuff I should be reading, I decided to stick with it after an introductory reading about how the Houston Astros are an “acquired taste” like Russian Film, Jazz, modern sculpture, and fat women.

The pieces oscillate between hilarious (Enos Cabell and the “Dreadful Women” occupying a 1985 World Series bleacher seat who had a voice like a “clarinet with a broken reed, set to the volume of an air horn”) to the relatively dull or obscure (Joe Orsulak?). His previous annual Abstracts were apparently jam-packed with his statistical “sabermetrics” investigating – beyond presumably general statistical developments – curiosities such as whether a player who attended at least one year of junior college will statistically hit more doubles in August on artificial turf against aging left-handers than those who were drafted right out of High School. Obviously I made that one up but not by much. In lieu of traditional footnotes, his concluding chapter covers some of the greatest hits of his (and others’) MythBusters-like pursuits of putting dusty old manager truisms to the statistical test. It’s brief, interesting, and thankfully devoid of all the numbers.

The other parts are well written, clever-yet-serious, and often entertaining. This clearly isn’t for everyone; I suppose one would have to not hate baseball to enjoy this. But really, I’m no serious baseball fanatic. I’m an out-of-town-Astros-fan type of fan. This means I get around to logging into any given game online during the second inning and then give up around the fourth when It’s clear that the team itself has given up. Definitely an acquired taste. The author has worked for my local baseball organization for years and was likely a significant contributor to the team’s 2004 and 2007 World Series championships...or so I read the other day in book about election reform. That’s the type of baseball aficionado I am. If a two-decade dated Bill James can engage the attention of a casual half-asser such as myself, then this must be a good read.

[Tom Stamper · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having read the last three Baseball Abstracts by Bill James I wanted to go back and read the early ones too, but these OOP books are getting cost prohibitive. This is a “Best Of” collection of all the years James wrote the abstract as well as some other piece he wrote for Esquire and even a few new things. The book is great and worthwhile even if some of these ideas have been better worked out since. There are so many topics here that you can read the book straight through or by bits and pieces.

This book is the best way to get the most of James for the least money, but I think I actually enjoyed this material better year by year. I think that's because it reminded of watching those seasons. I wish that Bill James was some sort of Count Dracula that had written these abstracts since 1901 and I was just now finding them. But it's not just the analysis that makes these such great reads. Bill James is not only astute with numbers, he says things in funny ways that make reading him a pleasure.

Here are few Examples:

“The Astros Second Baseman, using the term loosely, is Art Howe. Last year Howe hit extremely well and pivoted on the double play almost as well as Bobby Doerr. Doerr is one of the best pivot men ever but he now sixty-one years old, and he gave up the games years ago when he started pivoting like Art Howe.”

“Ron Kittle is the worst young outfielder I have seen since Greg Luzinski came up. I don't mean to be unkind or anything but when you take a guy out in the late innings and replace him with Tom Paciorek or Jerry Hairston you don't exactly figure he's going to be the one who keeps bringing up defense during salary negotiations.” - (Reacting to Tony Kubek's praise of Ron Kittle's defense in the outfield)

“The difference between Earl Weaver and Gene Mauch is that Ear Weaver believes in platooning as a strategy and Gene Mauch believes in platooning as a religion.”

[David Tybor · Rating 4 out of 5]

The 4-page essay "On Statistics" (1982) is worth 4 stars alone.

Much of the early sabermetric stuff in here holds up! And if you watched a lot of baseball in the 80s you'll get a nice intentional walk down memory lane from Puckett, Pettis, and Amos Otis to Tartabull, Templeton and Frank Tanana.

I loved his takes on pitch counts, exploding salaries, and drugs & computers in the dugout.

Also loved his proposal that batters should have the opportunity to decline a walk. If the whole reason we have balls & bases on balls is so pitchers are forced to throw strikes, why not give the batter a chance to decline the walk and make the pitcher throw to him?

And this is great:

"On The 5-Man Rotation (1983):
1. If I have a 4 man pitching rotation and you are trying to persuade me to switch to a 5 man, what you are saying is that I should take 8 starts away from my best pitcher, 8 away from my 2nd best....and give 32 starts to my 5th best.
2. Before I am going to do that, I want to see some real good evidence that I am going to get something back in exchange for it.
3. I have not seen any such evidence. Ergo,
4. I wouldn't do it."

[R.G. Belsky · Rating 4 out of 5]

The second best Bill James book (next to his Historical Baseball one). Really good stuff from him for the fanatical baseball fan (like me) and not particularly heavy on the numbers/sabermetrics stuff. The only problem is it was written a long time ago and a lot of it is pretty dated now. Still great reading for baseball and Bill James fans...

[Matt Moran · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm sure this was better in 1989 than 2012. But James is the original mad scientist of baseball and this wasn't too dated to keep it from being enjoyable.