Fools Rush Inn: More Detours on the Way to Conventional Wisdom

by Bill James

Overview

In this second collection of recent articles (the first was Solid Fool's Gold), groundbreaking sabermetrician and baseball historian Bill James takes his unique way of looking at the world and applies it to topics as diverse as the major league players who went out on top, whether ground ball pitchers are as good (or as bad) as people think, do hitters like Yasiel Puig have hot hand streaks (they do) and why (that's a different question), and do teams have tough stretches and soft patches in their schedules (they do) and how to mention them. Along the way, James takes several detours to discuss his views on classical music, fiction versus non-fiction, keeping will animals in captivity, conservatives and liberals, and several other things that interest or offend him. He even includes a couple of his favorite old baseball stories and a new way to summarize something's or someone's history in exactly 10-25-50-100-200-500 words.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780879466138
Publisher:	ACTA Sports
Publication date:	05/05/2014
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	188
File size:	5 MB

About the Author

Named one of the most influential people in the world by Time Magazine, Bill James changed the way we view baseball forever using, what he termed, sabermetrics which scientifically analyzes and studies baseball through statistical data. A historian, statistician, and writer, he has written over two dozen books. He is currently the Senior Baseball Operations Advisor for the Boston Red Sox.

Table of Contents

Introwledgements 7

Dividing Baseball History into Eras 11

Classical Sport 23

Big Game Pitchers 27

Going Out On Top 77

Let Me Offend You 81

Hot Hand Streaks 83

The Analogy of the Fisherman 87

Jumping the Fictional Shark 99

Mindless Education 103

The Standards of a Hall of Fame Manager 107

The Liberal Coach and the Conservative Athlete 135

The 300-Win Pool 145

The Zanesville Animal Massacre 157

Tough Stretches and Soft Patches 159

Experiment in Summary 163

Yaz and Billy 169

Opinions, Philosophy and Ideas 181

Couple of Great Old Baseball Stories 183