The Baseball Economist: The Real Game Exposed and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle. Learn more

Vous voulez voir cette page en français ? Cliquez ici.


or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
or
Amazon Prime Free Trial required. Sign up when you check out. Learn More
More Buying Choices
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
Publisher: learn how customers can search inside this book.
Start reading The Baseball Economist: The Real Game Exposed on your Kindle in under a minute.

Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.

The Baseball Economist: The Real Game Exposed [Paperback]

J.C. Bradbury (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
List Price: CDN$ 20.00
Price: CDN$ 14.44 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over CDN$ 25. Details
You Save: CDN$ 5.56 (28%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
Only 1 left in stock (more on the way).
Ships from and sold by Amazon.ca. Gift-wrap available.
Want it delivered Tuesday, May 28? Choose One-Day Shipping at checkout.

Formats

 Amazon Price New from Used from
Kindle Edition --   CDN $13.99 --
Hardcover CDN $24.80   -- --
Paperback CDN $14.44   -- --

Book Description

Release Date: Feb 26 2008
Freakonomics meets Moneyball in this provocative exposé of baseball?s most fiercely debated controversies and some of its oldest, most dearly held myths

Providing far more than a mere collection of numbers, economics professor and popular blogger J.C. Bradbury, shines the light of his economic thinking on baseball, exposing the power of tradeoffs, competition, and incentives. Utilizing his own ?sabernomic? approach, Bradbury dissects baseball topics such as:
? Did steroids have nothing to do with the recent homerun records? Incredibly, Bradbury?s research reveals steroids probably had little impact.
? Which players are ridiculously overvalued? Bradbury lists all players by team with their revenue value to the team listed in dollars?including a dishonor role of those players with negative values?updated in paperback to include the 2007 season.
? Does it help to lobby for balls and strikes?

Statistics alone aren?t enough anymore. This is a refreshing, lucid, and powerful read for fans, fantasy buffs, and players?as well as coaches at all levels?who want to know what is really happening on the field.

Frequently Bought Together

Customers buy this book with Baseball Between the Numbers: Why Everything You Know About the Game Is Wrong by Jonah Keri Paperback CDN$ 15.88

The Baseball Economist: The Real Game Exposed + Baseball Between the Numbers: Why Everything You Know About the Game Is Wrong
Price For Both: CDN$ 30.32

Show availability and shipping details

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Product Details

Product Description

From Publishers Weekly

Subjecting recent baseball debates to plentiful regression analyses, Kennesaw State economist Bradbury gamely fuses our national pastime and the "dismal science" somewhat in the spirit of Steven Levitt (Freakonomics), Michael Lewis (Moneyball) and Bill James (Baseball Between the Numbers). Like the latter, Bradbury offers a front-office perspective on labor (that's the players), salaries, managerial influence, steroids, market size and the like. Like a scrappy role player, Bradbury's enthusiasm is evident (he's a Braves supporter); he offers a chapter on managers' ability to work the umps ("it appears that most managers don't seem to have any real impact in arguing balls and strikes") and investigates top pitching coach Leo Mazzone's contributions. A blogger at his Web site sabernomics.com (a play on the acronym SABR, the Society for American Baseball Research), Bradbury, while not forging new ground, shines in the closing chapters, in which he convincingly bucks the conventional wisdom that Major League Baseball behaves like a monopoly. While the numbers crunched are more of the Financial Times than the box score kind, the issues the book deals with are those discussed in many a barroom. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

Bradbury would be the first guy to tell you that baseball fans are the most statistically minded sports fans out there. And he should know: he is an economics professor and a baseball addict (and a popular blogger, too). Here, he tackles some of the game's most cherished truisms and controversies. Is being left-handed really a disadvantage for a catcher? What role, really, do steroids play in being a home-run king? (You may be surprised at the answer.) How can we effectively evaluate a player's value to his team? Ball fans may be shocked at how relevant economics is to their favorite game, and economists may find an exciting new application for their specialty. Like John Allen Paulos, author of such "popular math" books as A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper (1995), Bradbury writes with a smooth, accessible style and makes the tricky game of numbers seem both straightforward and exciting. Like Bill James' Abstracts (2003), this volume could become essential reading for baseball fans. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?

› Explore similar items

Customer Reviews

5 star
0
4 star
1
3 star
0
2 star
0
1 star
0
4.0 out of 5 stars
1 review
4.0 out of 5 stars
Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars Packed with details. Oct 13 2008
By Robert M. Quinn
Format:Paperback
Definitely a fan of this book! If you're heavily into the 'numbers' aspect of the game, it's sure not to disappoint. A caveat, it's VERY economics based, right into graphs, charts, etc. Very detailed. Some was over my head, but incredible detail.
Was this review helpful to you?
Yes
No
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com: 3.9 out of 5 stars  19 reviews
18 of 18 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars An economist writes about baseball Jun 2 2007
By King Yao - Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
Bradbury is an associate professor of Economics. He wrote this book with an economists' viewpoint on baseball. He may have gone too in-depths in economics for some people's taste, but being an economics major in college, I enjoyed it and re-learned a few concepts. He covers some topics that have were previously discussed by folks like Bill James, Voros McCracken, Michael Lewis and Jay Gould (and gives them due credit). Topics that were new to me that I found interesting included the effect of "protection" by the on-deck hitter, managers lobbying for balls and strikes, and the baseball monopoly.

I enjoyed this book and I recommend it to baseball fans that are not afraid of charts, numbers and economic concepts. I would be the first in line to buy his second book if Bradbury expands his economic analysis and writing into other sports.
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Very interesting look at baseball from a unique perspective April 10 2007
By Joy Avery - Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
Very accessible, very interesting look at baseball. Bradbury tackles both high-profile issues in baseball (steroids, spending disparity amongst teams) as well as ideas you might not have even considered. (What can we learn from trends in hit batsmen?) I recommend this book to baseball fans with an interest in learning more about the inner-workings of the game as well as economists with even a passing interest in the sport.
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars Inquiring Minds Wander from This Book Aug 25 2007
By Paul Bohannon - Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
I work with economic theorists all the time, but I am not going to tell you this is a good book. Pieces of it are. Bradbury dwells on the steriods issue, prattling on and on about the lack of evidence. Yet, no where does he accept the challenge of studying the relative performances of the individuals to determine the effect of steriods. Rather, he just says it has never been proven. He even blurs the distinction of taking steriods for performance reasons vs. health reasons (and he never considers the differences in the steriods themselves!)

Some of his economic observations are interesting, those where he really studies the game and statistics. I, for one, can find other, more rewarding but boring books to give me a Saturday afternoon snooze. And Bradbury should stick to his statistical analysis of the game (where he excels), not the policy points (where he only debates under the ruse of economic theories).
Search Customer Reviews
Only search this product's reviews

    Your Shopping Cart is empty.

    Give it purpose—fill it with books, DVDs, clothes, electronics, and more.

    If you already have an account, sign in.

    View Cart (0 items)

      Listmania!

      Create a Listmania! list

      Look for similar items by category

      Feedback

      Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

      Amazon.ca Privacy Statement Amazon.ca Shipping Information Amazon.ca Returns & Exchanges