This was a big let down. Parts of it were excerpted in Sports Illustrated and I thought it sounded interesting as it was marketed as a Freakonomics of sports. Rather than interesting or revelatory, it was out right boring and hardly brought anything to the table that my teenage self probably didn’t have some awareness of. The chapter titles and questions they pose are a great hook, here are a couple:

  • Why are .299 hitters rarer than .300 hitters?
  • Are superstars more valuable than a balanced team?
  • Does “icing” work?
  • Are the Chicago Cubs cursed?

Unfortunately, the answers are pretty basic and for the most part are not shocking enough to merit a chapter or even mention in a book. A lot of the chapters are worthy of blog posts not publication and they run that way with regards to length as well. The chapter “Damned Statistics” is 2 pages and explains that statistics can paint any picture one would like and this is most prevalent in sports by using small sample sizes. Wow, no shit. This was all sports centric rather than baseball focused but it pales in comparison to a Bill James publication or a Baseball Prospectus publication. Don’t bother.