Is a winning professional team the team that spend the most money? Can you measure something objectively when it has been measured subjectively over many decades?

Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis

Two reasons I read this book:

1. This book was adapted to a movie, and it was so good.
2. It was part of the free book lending program for Kindle and Amazon Prime customer.

In the movie, the story focused on Oakland A's general manager Billy Beane. The book is more than that, it has stories of different people surrounding Beane.

When I started reading this book, I felt it was dull because the pace of the story did not go as fast as the movie. However, it really got me reading it every night very quickly. The explanation of how moneyball works, the obstacles that Billy Beane had to go through to make moneyball works, and the stories of people involved during the moneyball process were all fascinating.

The stories of people I was talking about were Paul DePodesta, Scott Hatteberg, and Chad Bradford. They all had really good stories behind them during the historical 20 winning streak of the Oakland A's. The movie did not put many minutes on them, but if you read the book, you will find their stories very interesting.

Since the moneyball book published, more professional team, including the NBA and the NFL runs as a business more than a club house. A decade old habit take time to change, but it is changing. It's no more just looking at sport player by their body appearance, but also their psychological mind set and their "work" in statistic.

A winning team in professional sports are no longer the team that spent the most, the people running a professional team front office are not just retired players.

It's always inspiring to read about the people who disrupt their industry, especially when they were the under dog. (In Billy Beane's case, he ran the team with the lowest budget) It's great to root for the under dog, I guess it's part of the fun to watch sports.