{"product_id":"the-numbers-game-baseballs-lifelong-fascination-with-statistics-9780312322236","title":"The Numbers Game: Baseball's Lifelong Fascination with Statistics","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Numbers Game\u003c\/i\u003e is the first-ever history of baseball statistics - the keeping of them, the study of them, the people who devised them, the cultural phenomenon of them, from 1845 until today.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMost baseball fans, players and even team executives assume that the National Pastime's infatuation with statistics is simply a byproduct of the information age, a phenomenon that blossomed only after the arrival of Bill James and computers in the 1980s. They couldn't be more wrong. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn this unprecedented new book, Alan Schwarz - whom bestselling \u003ci\u003eMoneyball\u003c\/i\u003e author Michael Lewis calls \"one of today's best baseball journalists\" - provides the first-ever history of baseball statistics, showing how baseball and its numbers have been inseparable ever since the pastime's birth in 1845. He tells the history of this obsession through the lives of the people who felt it most: Henry Chadwick, the 19th-century writer who invented the first box score and harped endlessly about which statistics mattered and which did not; Allan Roth, Branch Rickey's right-hand numbers man with the late-1940s Brooklyn Dodgers; Earnshaw Cook, a scientist and Manhattan Project veteran who retired to pursue inventing the perfect baseball statistic; John Dewan, a former Strat-O-Matic maven who built STATS Inc. into a multimillion-dollar powerhouse for statistics over the Internet; and dozens more. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAlmost every baseball fan for 150 years has been drawn to the game by its statistics, whether through newspaper box scores, the backs of Topps baseball cards, \u003ci\u003eThe Baseball Encyclopedia\u003c\/i\u003e, or fantasy leagues. Today's most ardent stat scientists, known as \"sabermetricians,\" spend hundreds of hours coming up with new ways to capture the game in numbers, and engage in holy wars over which statistics are best. Some of these men--and women --are even being hired by major league teams to bring an understanding of statistics to a sport that for so long shunned it. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eTaken together, Schwarz paints a history not just of baseball statistics, but of the soul of the sport itself. \u003ci\u003eThe Numbers Game\u003c\/i\u003e will be an invaluable part of any fan's library and go down as one of the sport's classic books.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Alan Schwarz\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e St. Martin's Griffin\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 05\/02\/2005\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 288\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.75lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.40h x 5.50w x 0.90d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780312322236\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e 07\/24\/2005 pg. 24\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eIngram Advance\u003c\/i\u003e 05\/01\/2005 pg. 140\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAlan Schwarz\u003c\/b\u003e is the Senior Writer of \u003ci\u003eBaseball America\u003c\/i\u003e magazine, a weekly columnist for ESPN.com, and a frequent contributor to \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e. His work has appeared in \u003ci\u003eNewsweek\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Wall Street Journal\u003c\/i\u003e, and more than a dozen other national publications. He lives in Manhattan.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThis title is not returnable\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"booksdeli.com","offers":[{"title":"Alan Schwarz \/ Paperback \/ English","offer_id":47598652096669,"sku":"9780312322236","price":39.4,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0619\/5648\/9373\/files\/img_2bd52f38-6cb0-43d3-95f5-a7140564a04e.jpg?v=1769517196","url":"https:\/\/booksdeli.com\/products\/the-numbers-game-baseballs-lifelong-fascination-with-statistics-9780312322236","provider":"booksdeli.com","version":"1.0","type":"link"}