Nonfiction – Sports (Released May, 2003)
Bottom Line: Read it.
Link to this book on Amazon

Plot Summary:
The story of how Billy Beane and his underdog Oakland A’s recruited underrated players and won titles ahead of much richer teams.

My Thoughts:
I never watch baseball and this is the only baseball book you’ll probably ever see on this site. But Lewis has yet again made a drab (at least I think so!) topic exceptionally interesting by looking at it from a contrarian perspective.

Moneyball is similar to Freakonomics in that it turns conventional baseball wisdom on its head. And it really focuses on the business side of baseball – how to build a winning team with little money and how to effectively recruit players. I loved the focus on recruiting – how to spot talent and how to use statistics to determine what factors make a successful player. Luckily for Billy Beane, many of the factors he discovered are different from what most big league teams covet, making them relatively cheap.

Lewis writes with his usual sarcastic humor, making Moneyball appealing to baseball fans and non-baseball fans alike.