The Numbers Game: Baseball's Lifelong Fascination with Statistics

The best overview of the development of baseball statistics and statistical analysis (Palmer & Thorn's Hidden Game is a fairly close second; can't think of a third). Really needs an update to cover the Retrosheet, fielding, and Pitch F/X revolutions, which have taken things in unexpected directions. And of course Tango et al's The Book and the Prospectus book Baseball Between the Numbers would deserve mention in that update.

Begins at the beginning, with the New York game's box scores and Henry Chadwick's long reign as baseball's preeminent statistician and commentator. Touches at least briefly on most of the 20th century baseball statistical efforts, both official and unofficial. Al Munro Elias gets a chapter, which moves into the show more modern era and Seymour Siwoff's long Elias Bureau incumbency. Bill James, of course, gets his due, as do Pete Palmer and John Thorn. Many lesser efforts are mentioned; my biggest surprise was learning that Harland Mills is quite famous for his computer industry career. Late in the book is a lot of discussion about how sabermetrics has moved into baseball's front offices, not without controversy and not without problems.

The section on Project Scoresheet is a gem of fairly reporting things the participants all had strong feelings about. This discussion moves into a long portrait of the various agencies working to improve the available statistical universe, of how they've evolved in the recent past, and how their rivalries have affected their outlooks.

There's not a lot of actual statisitics in this book, though nearly everyone's contributions are accurately described. One chapter is devoted to the perpetual clutch hitting controversy.

The book ends with a sketch of Dave Smith (who turns out to be a friend of Siwoff), and of Smith's Retrosheet project. An appropriate ending, methinks, since Retrosheet is driving much of what we've learned over the past few years.

This review has also been published on a dabbler's journal. show less

According to Susan, a book about the history of baseball statistics "must be really boring," But I found it readable and enjoyable. There are generations of appealing geeks - most of them with no connection to baseball at all, and a lot of them military - who put their mind to finding new baseball statistics, and more importantly the right baseball statistics. It's a good follow-up to Bill James and Moneyball. Plus, it's just fascinating. I never knew that statistics just weren't kept, and all the effort needed to collect them and/or reconstruct them later on.

Would probably rate this as one of the best baseball books I've ever read. Absolutely fascinating look into the history of baseball stats. Who would have thought that numbers would not only be interesting, but reveal so much about the game?

Whether you are a sabermetrician or just a dyed in the wool baseball lover, this book is fascinating. It is the story of the development of statistics with which to analyze baseball games. Normally I am not a numbers person, and this is not exactly a by-the-numbers book. It is more a historical look at statistics, why the baseball measures we've become familiar with came into common use, and how baseball statistics influence the game we all love. A great read.

Great book on the history of statistics in baseball. A must-read for any sabr-head, but anyone who enjoys math, history, or baseball would like this one too.

Baseball, Statistics