Although in recent years
sabermetrics has become a common way to evaluate baseball players, it has only become so because of the efforts of Billy Beane's, the protagonist of
Moneyball, success as the general manager (salute) of the Oakland Athletics (the A's) around the turn of the century. To summerize, Beane saw flaws in traditional scouting of players, which only valued the tools a player had like power and speed, rather than testing his acumen as a hitter and ability of getting on base. As in all things, but specifically sports, people are wowed by flashy things, seeing the potential that could be, rather than seeing what is actually there. By empirically valuing players, the A's were able to get players that were undervalued by the market, enabling them to compete on a budget. Even within his own organization, Beane had to fight with his scouts over which players they should draft, sometimes not getting his way. It took a long time for others to question traditional thought in baseball, as it does in all other walks of life. It is the people that are able to think about the way things are and decide for themselves if it could be made better that are at the forefront of furthering society in a positive way. However, in baseball the risk is much less. Although Beane desperately wanted to field a competitive team, baseball is still a game. When dealing with issues of society and religion, there can be a greater fear of change. However, even in Orthodox Judaism there is always space for change within the Halakhik system. A general principle in Halakha is Hilkhata Kebasrai, when an earlier authority argues with a later authority, we follow the later authority. Other than where the entire Jewish community has accepted a system, such as the Talmud, since society changes, the Halakha must be malleable to fit the new situation. At the same time, Rabbis do not constantly change the rules. I think this can be seen straight from what happened in
Moneyball. After putting in his new system, Beane was able to draft his perfect player, the player that everyone undervalued, but he believed could become a star, Jeremy Brown. As it turns out Brown did not become a star, playing in just one MLB season. Although the sabermetrics worked out overall and allowed the A's to compete with the teams that spent a lot more money than they did, on many cases the players flamed out, never accomplishing much. Challenging the previous system is shown to be a good practice, but doing so in every case for the sake of challenging does not work out. In important matters, change is good, but it needs to be done with the proper manner and foresight.
Moneyball was also an interesting read because it gave great insight into what truly goes into winning a baseball game. According to sabermetrics, getting on base, along with other factors like slugging percentage, is the most important factor of sucsess. It is not the flashy plays of steals and home runs that are really important, it is the grind, day in and day out that makes a valuable baseball player. This is most certainly true of baseball, which has a long grueling season, but is true of most things. Consistently and relentlessly working at something almost always creates greater things that the one time event.
Moneyball was not only a really fun baseball book, but it also gave great insight into both baseball and life.
