Tobias J. Moskowitz

Every single chapter in this book is interesting, but some of them are absolutely fascinating. For instance ROUNDING FIRST- Why .299 hitters are so much more rare (and maybe more valuable) than .300 hitters? Or ARE THE CHICAGO CUBS CURSED ? - If not, then why are the Cubs so futile ? And in my opinion, the most fascinating of them all COMFORTS OF HOME- How do conventional explanations for the home field advantage stack up ? The answers will surprise you. Read this book !!!

Freakonomics for sports.

Freakonomics x sports (here's the irony) steroids. This book was delicious for a stat-geek like me. Much of this stuff I had long suspected, but now I have a book to back me up. There's a Gladwellian underlying theme here, but the authors do one better. Where Gladwell peppers a narrative with unsupported-by-research anecdotes, they make claims that they back up with an overwhelming pile of fascinating statistics. Greak dork fun.

I am a fan of some sports but not all. However, if you are interested in any sport, this book is worth a look. After I got the gist of the book (a few chapters in) I admit I skipped to the sections that featured my favorite sports. The ideas posited are engaging and I found myself nodding along with the "usual wisdom," then dropping my jaw when the statistics blew the wisdom out of the water. Definitely Freakonomics for the sports set and that's an ok thing.