How You Should Spend the Baseball Off-Season

Guest blogger and co-host of Waiver Wired’s Ducks on the Pond podcast Nick Sweeney has read both Moneyball and Three Nights in August and wanted to share what he knows with our reading public. We’re hoping that Sweens continues reading sports books and writes reviews of them for us, so keep an eye out for more to come…

If you know me, you know I’m that guy who says you should read the book before you watch the movie. I’m also that guy who plays his fantasy baseball team like a man possessed. I’m also an avid reader, and I’m thinking this off-season, after you wonder how Mike Trout got the MVP, how the Mets could get rid of a pitcher like R.A. Dickey, and try to understand why this last World Series between the Giants and the Tigers was one of the least watched in recently history, you should pick up a book. Two actually: Moneyball by Michael Lewis, and 3 Nights in August by Buzz Bissinger.

Yes, that Moneyball. The last movie before Jonah Hill got skinny. And yes, that Buzz Bissinger, who did us all a great service in writing Friday Night Lights. Go out and pick them up now.

Most baseball fans know about Moneyball, more or less. Either they agree with the new philosophy or don’t, they’ve seen the movie or they haven’t, or they’ve wondered why a movie made about statistics was a contender in the Oscars. The book talks about the changing financial landscape of baseball, the “adapt or die” attitudes small market teams have to make in order to win, and how players should and shouldn’t be evaluated. It talks about Bill James and the importance of a run and why bunting is strategic suicide. Some names pop up, recently retired players like Mike Sweeney and Miguel Tejada, well known players now like Kevin Youklis and Carlos Pena, and unknowns like Kirk Saarloos and Jeremy Brown. Make no mistake, this isn’t about the passion of playing a game, it’s about winning.