| The Wisdom of Bill James | ||
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It has come to my attention that there are a great number of intelligent,
literate people, some of whom even like baseball, who aren't aware of
who Bill James is. To me, this is somewhat criminal, since I think of him
as the greatest sportswriter (if that is, indeed, what he is) who's taken
pen to paper...or finger to keyboard. I'm a gigantic baseball fan, of
course, but that isn't what makes his work so inspirational to me. I realize
that it sounds ridiculous to many to speak of writing about baseball in that
sense, but baseball's long been a vehicle for some wonderful writers: Roger
Angell, Thomas Boswell, Ira Berkow, W.P. Kinsella. Mostly, though, baseball
writing has revolved around an emotional attachment to the game -- the sort of
attachment that made a success of "Field of Dreams."
Bill James, however, doesn't write in that manner. Most of his books are fueled by statistics. They can be technical. And, in that sense, many people miss the boat in picking up an old copy of the Baseball Abstract, stopped cold by looking at what Keith Moreland hit against left-handers. But his books are no more about the statistics than a drive through the San Joaquin Valley is about petrol. They're a necessary means to an end, but it's the end that is, in fact, the focus. People who do "real" social science should be so directed. And yet, reading Bill James is not boring or monotonous, nor is it akin to reading a brilliant, but strictly articulated argument. His voice is one that you'd recognize in your day-to-day life, but couched in an environment of tremendous honesty, insight, and intelligence. To allow you to judge for yourself, I've made three articles of his available here: Inside Out Perspective from the 1984 Baseball Abstract is perhaps the one thing he's written that's referred to most by other people in the field. It isn't anything particularly technical, but he does say some interesting things regarding methodology. His discussion of the Oakland A's in the same '84 Abstract should be required reading for anyone who's using a computer for research purposes. It amazed me, in rereading the article, how many issues that are still relevant that he brings up. You Don't Say is from the 1986 Baseball Abstract. In short, he debunks a basic myth about sport that one hears endlessly. |
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