I know there are others that do this diary, but it's what came to mind for me this morning. We all need a weekend diversion from health care and wignuttery and Henry Louis Gates and whatever else is bothering us this weekend.
So what am I reading - I'm reading Moneyball right now by Michael Lewis.
Moneyball is about the Oakland A's and the new way of looking at Baseball statistics and building a team.
Lewis is also the other of Blind Side - about recent NFL draft pick Michael Oher - who I called the feel good story of the 2009 NFL draft
I've become a big baseball fan over the last few years and had heard a lot about Moneyball. Then last year I read Blind Side about Michael Oher. Lewis is a great storyteller and so far there are some great stories in Moneyball about the general manager Billy Beane and writer Bill James and players Nick Swisher and Jeremy Brown. I'm about halfway through so don't ruin it for me. I've heard there is a movie coming out with Brad Pitt in 2010. Well so says Wikipedia.
What's great about Moneyball for me is that it offers a lot of background on how teams evaluate players. I've always been a big baseball statistics fan. I remember as a kid reading the box scores always looking for the batting average and the homerun leaders. But I was also interested in other stats such as on base percentage and slugging percentage and game winning rbi's. I'm not sure why MLB does not measure GWRBI's anymore. To me that was a great measure of whom was clutch. Although I'm sure that I will be told that it is flawed.
Anyways what are you reading this weekend?
Politics, sports, current events, biographies. What is out there that you would recommend?