Baseball is my favorite sport. If you don't include my family, it might be my favorite thing in the world. Since 1986, I’ve loved baseball in all of its forms. From playing the sport to watching it to collecting baseball cards and other memorabilia, aside from television; there is probably nothing that I’ve spent more time thinking about than baseball.
I’ve read a lot of books about baseball. Some are the typical, linear biography types: person A was born on this date, he played baseball, he had some problems that he (probably) overcame and then he died. You get to spend about 300 or so pages learning about someone whom you admire. Then there is the collection of baseball essays. These are little snapshots of the game, brief interludes about a person or an idea that’s pretty important.
These are my favorite type of baseball books to read. Power Ball is that type of book.
The big thing in the technology world and social media is the term “thought leaders”. These are people who shape the ideas and the future of a particular industry. Like most designations, the term is beginning to wear out its welcome. And it also sounds a bit Orwellian, but Power Ball author Rob Neyer is a thought leader in the world of baseball. Or at least he should be, because he’s damn good at finding the issues on baseball’s fringes and trying to figure out exactly what they mean to game.
Power Ball has an interesting framework that initially made me hesitant to begin reading. Neyer goes to a September 8, 2017 game that pits the Houston Astros against the Oakland Athletics. It’s a nothing game played after the Astros have (pretty much) punched their ticket to the postseason and the A’s have (for all intents and purposes) closed up shop for the year. In other words, the Astros are really good and the A’s really stink and what’s there to play for?
That’s not what made me have trepidations about reading Neyer’s latest. Unlike football or basketball, even when the baseball season is over; there are still things to play for. Tanking isn’t as prevalent because even if a team grabs the number one overall pick, it’s not going to be a panacea for the next season. That player still has to knock around the bushes for two or three years before their potential pays off – if it ever does. And since the rosters expand from 25 to 40 players, late season baseball is audition for the minor league guys who get their shots at trying to impress on someone that they can play. Oftentimes, even a team that is hopelessly out of playoff contention in September might play with more vigor than that same team in July simply due to the infusion of young, hungry players.
So no, that wasn’t the reason why I wasn’t sure of the book. What made me hesitant was I thought that Neyer was going to go through every single play of the game and examine it from 50 different angles inning by inning. Like I said, I love baseball, but there’s a reason why game stories—even World Series Game 7 stories—are only about 800-1000 words. A whole book about one game? No thanks.
But I’ve liked all of Neyer’s other books, so I felt as though I owed it to him to give Power Ball a shot. And I’m glad that I did, because the Houston-Oakland tilt is just a conduit. Neyer briefly describes the inning’s action and uses that as a spring board to jump off into an essay that deals more with baseball at large.
It’s really fascinating stuff.
Neyer’s first job in baseball was working as a research assistant for the father of modern baseball thought, Bill James. And you can tell that he’s picked up a lot of the same ways that James’ writes about the game. Yes, Bill James is a brilliant statistician; but he’s also a terrific writer too. That’s the sizzle that sells James’ unique statistical ideas. And Neyer definitely comes from that way of writing and thinking.
I dare say that Neyer has surpassed his teacher. I truly enjoy reading both authors, but I think that the difference between James and Neyer is that Neyer writes with a bit more heart. A bit more human emotion. He seems to be a person who wears his passion as a badge and one gets that when reading Power Ball. While Neyer throws out a lot of numbers in his analysis, he also delves into the human side of the game. Why ball players or the manager or the front office act the way that they do. Yes, they are all ruled by numbers to some degree, but there is also an understanding that people play this game. And it’s more about the love of baseball, than it is about the cold numbers.
I mean, after playing 140 plus games (not including spring training) with the prospect of 40 more games to go, why else would you drag yourself to the ballpark to face hard throwing, but erratic Jharel Cotton if you didn’t have to? You don’t do it solely because you’re getting paid—your contract is guaranteed. You don’t do it because of some obligation to your team—if you got hurt thanks to a fastball to the mouth and you go on the DL, you’re out of sight, out of mind. You do it because at some guttural level, you love baseball and you love the way the ball sounds when it snaps off your bat. And you love chugging around the bases and hearing people scream when you make a terrific play.
Rob Neyer gets this. Power Ball is more than a book ABOUT baseball, it’s an ode to the game. And I can read about something like this every day.
I was sent Power Ball free to review and comment on. This did not have any effect on my review.
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