Cover of The Baseball Economist: The Real Game Exposed

The Baseball Economist: The Real Game Exposed

Freakonomicsmeets Moneyballin this provocative expose of baseball's most fiercely debated controversies and some of its oldest, most dearly held mythsexplained through the language of numbers and cool cash.Two hot topics team up in The Baseball Economist, and the result is a refreshing, clear- eyed survey of a playing field that has changed radically in recent years. Utilizing the latest economic methods and statistical analysis, writer, economics professor, and popular blogger J. C. Bradbury dissects burning baseball topics with his original Sabernomic perspective, such as:

Read more

Did steroids have nothingto do with the recent home run records? Incredibly, Bradbury's research, reviewed by Stanford economists, reveals steroids had little statistical significance.

Is the big-city versus small-city competition really lopsided? Bradbury shows why the Marlins and Indians are likely to dominate big-city franchises in the coming years.

Which players are ridiculously overvalued? Bradbury lists all players by team with their revenue value to the team listed in dollarsincluding a dishonor role of those players with negative values.

Is major league baseball a monopoly that can't govern itself? Bradbury sets out what rules the owners really need to play by, and what the players' union should be doing.

Does it help to lobby for balls and strikes? How would Babe Ruth perform in today's game? And who killed all the left-handed catchers, anyway? The Baseball Economistknows.

Providing far more than a mere collection of numbers, Bradbury shines the light of his economic thinking on baseball, exposing the power of tradeoffs, competition, and incentives. Statistics alone aren't enough anymore. Fans, fantasy buffs, and players, as well as coaches at all levels who want to grasp what is really happening on the field today and in the coming years, will use and enjoy Bradbury's brilliant new understanding of the national pastime.

Audience
adult

Click a tag to see books like this one that share it. Point at it (on a phone, tap it) for less of it instead.

Read it? Sign in to help tag it.

Liked The Baseball Economist: The Real Game Exposed? Here’s where I’d start.

These suit anyone who liked The Baseball Economist: The Real Game Exposed. Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.

  1. Fair Ball: A Fan's Case for Baseball Shares baseball, sports, nonfiction
  2. The Cheater's Guide to Baseball Shares baseball, sports, nonfiction
  3. Baseball Between the Numbers: Why Everything You Know About the Game Is Wrong Shares baseball, sports, nonfiction
  4. The Lords of the Realm Shares baseball, sports, nonfiction

“People who read The Baseball Economist: The Real Game Exposed tend to reach for these next.”

  1. The Book: Playing the Percentages in Baseball
  2. Mostly Harmless Econometrics: An Empiricist's Companion
  3. The Physics of Baseball
  4. The Numbers Game: Baseball's Lifelong Fascination with Statistics

“If you want more of the same (economics about sports), start with these.”

  1. Stumbling on Wins: Two Economists Expose the Pitfalls on the Road to Victory in Professional Sports
  2. Circus Maximus: The Economic Gamble Behind Hosting the Olympics and the World Cup
  3. National Pastime: How Americans Play Baseball and the Rest of the World Plays Soccer
  4. Soccernomics

“If it was the baseball that hooked you, try one of these.”

  1. The Thinking Fan's Guide to Baseball
  2. The Ultimate Baseball Road-Trip: A Fan's Guide to Major League Stadiums
  3. Out of My League: The Classic Hilarious Account of an Amateur's Ordeal in Professional Baseball
  4. Prophet of the Sandlots: Journeys with a Major League Scout

“These start from a similar idea, even if they go somewhere else with it.”

  1. Baseball Hacks: Tips & Tools for Analyzing and Winning with Statistics
  2. Brooks: The Biography of Brooks Robinson
  3. Born to Play: My Life In the Game
  4. Long Shot