tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33779660.post7049133946440711497..comments2023-12-22T01:47:49.178-05:00Comments on oh you beauty: Book Review: Why England Losenatehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10043601945557998732noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33779660.post-25737603700791103322009-09-07T01:05:12.307-04:002009-09-07T01:05:12.307-04:00To be honest, baseball's probably my least fav...To be honest, baseball's probably my least favorite of any of the major sports, and I don't watch very much although, as with pretty much all sports, I follow the standings and current events. I went to undergrad in DC (and miss the city from time to time), and the Nationals' AAA team is based in my hometown, so I'd love to see them do well, but that's not happening in the near future.<br /><br />However, I have an enormous amount of respect for Bill James and those who've followed him. I immensely enjoy Nate Silver, because he's an incredibly smart stat geek in both politics and sports, and he's almost always right. They and many more, and more importantly the GMs et al who've listened, have changed the sport for the better.<br /><br />Not only do I enjoy stats, being the geek I am, I think numbers help back up opinion/analysis/whatever. You can only see so much by just watching the game, no matter how experienced or clever you are.<br /><br />But they have to be the right numbers. Baseball is the easiest team sport to quantify in this regard. It really is made up of individual moments. Football, being such a team sport, is harder (but Aaron Schatz and <a href="http://www.footballoutsiders.com" rel="nofollow">Football Outsiders</a> do an admirable job). As is basketball, but Daryl Morey with the Rockets (see what Bill Simmons has written about him in the past) is supposedly making strides, and I bet we get more in that line in the near future. Soccer, the ultimate team sport, is a lot harder to quantify.<br /><br />I was hoping this book would attempt to do it in regard to matters on the pitch. But more often than not, the writers use numbers (intelligently, nonetheless) to show things like the aforementioned 'wage spending = better teams' and 'england don't really lose than often and have a consistent international record.'<br /><br />That's far less interesting to me, and not what I hoped for when I got the book. Which is why this review probably comes off as unduly harsh. This is a decent read, Kuper and Szymanski are erudite and intelligent, and a few of the chapters are fun. But I really did hope for more.<br /><br />And yes, Beane is supposedly a soccer fanatic. I keep meaning to look into what he's previously said.natehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10043601945557998732noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33779660.post-43268766761492564282009-09-03T19:31:49.581-04:002009-09-03T19:31:49.581-04:00My goodness, Nate -- I did not know you had a sabe...My goodness, Nate -- I did not know you had a sabermetric inclination. I take it you're a baseball fan? If so, may I ask of whom?<br /><br />Getting this on topic, I'm glad a book like this is coming out. I have to imagine that -- like most American sports -- the traditional stats don't do a very good job of showing a player's true value. And while statistics will never be able to completely capture the value of a player, I'm always curious in a bit more 'sophisticated' analysis. IIRC, hasn't Billy Beane actually given a couple of speeches on the very subject?<br /><br />-KeithAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com