Baseball Crank recently finished reading an advance copy of The Mind of Bill James: How a Complete Outsider Changed Baseball, by Scott Gray, due in stores March 14.
The book is a sort of biography of James, mixing in details about his life with a sprawling look at his thinking on many subjects. I enjoyed the book, and if you are either a certified Bill James fanatic or want an introduction to what the fuss is all about, it’s worth a read. But the book had three fundamental problems.The first problem is that Gray is on well-plowed ground here. Michael Lewis’ Moneyball, released in 2003, put James’ story in the context of the implementation of his ideas by the Oakland A’s. Alan Schwarz’ The Numbers Game, released in 2004, told James’ story again, this time in the context of a historical review of baseball statistics and analysis and their devotees. …