Bill James Handbook Walk-Off Edition

by Bill James, Sports Info Solutions

Genres: Sports, Baseball

252 pages, Paperback

Published October 30, 2023

About the author

George William “Bill” James (born October 5, 1949, in Holton, Kansas) is a baseball writer, historian, and statistician whose work has been widely influential. Since 1977, James has written more than two dozen books devoted to baseball history and statistics. His approach, which he termed sabermetrics in reference to the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR), scientifically analyzes and studies baseball, often through the use of statistical data, in an attempt to determine why teams win and lose. His Baseball Abstract books in the 1980s are the modern predecessor to websites using sabermetrics such as Baseball Prospectus and Baseball Primer (now Baseball Think Factory).

In 2006, Time named him in the Time 100 as one of the most influential people in the world. He is currently a Senior Advisor on Baseball Operations for the Boston Red Sox. In 2010, Bill James was inducted into the Irish American Baseball Hall of Fame.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_James

Reviews

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

The final Handbook ditches the numbers for the words, and it makes for a great read. Plenty of the thoughtful -- and wiseass -- Bill James writing that has made him a legend.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted this book to be special. It's the last Bill James Handbook, after all. But it was really just an "Oops, all essays" version of the regular handbook. Most of the essays weren't even written by Bill - just other folks on the team. There were a couple of good ones - a somewhat lengthy interview with Bill among them, and some more ruminations on Win Shares vs WAR - but even without the stats, it felt like a lot of filler.

A reasonable endcap to the run of Bill James Handbooks? Yes. Anything like the old Bill James abstracts? Sadly, no.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bill James Handbooks have been published annually for 30+ years. I have read perhaps one-third of them, but I have never bought one. I've found them in libraries and other random places, often years after they were published.

I bought this one. It will be the last one.

Some articles were very good, including Bill talking about Win Shares and WAR.

Even today I will still learn about something that we all now take for granted that Bill either developed himself or was developed by someone he directly influenced. Baseball-reference.com itself is kind of a second-generation Bill creation. It's rather remarkable how wide and deep his impact has been, and he'll be the first to tell you that sometimes he's not sure it's all been for the better.

Anyway, a handbook worthy of its successors.

[Rodger Payne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've been buying the Bill James Handbook for several decades. I used to buy the minor league handbook when James and his team produced that. Indeed, I may own every book with the Bill James name attached to it going back to the early 1980s.

My 3 star rating (probably only 2.5 rounded up) reflects the fact that this book is almost entirely essays without most of the stats the Handbook provided in the past. I buy this book for the terrific (and early) stats. While the publisher is ending the run because most of the stats are readily available now on the internet, I personally like to have a hard copy that I can read readily in my hands without an electronic device. I want to be able to hop from page to page making comparisons, to look at tables, to make margin notes if I want, etc.

This book has some interesting essays and a couple of worthwhile interviews, but it is most definitely NOT the Handbook that buyers have purchased over the years. I'm very sad to see it go and will be looking for a replacement.

[Michael Projansky · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bill James is one of the magicians for statistics within the field of baseball. If you are someone that enjoys that element. This is for you.

[Stephen Power · Rating 4 out of 5]

As much about how to collect and use data as it is about baseball, which made it more fun.