Review of 'The sinister first baseman and other observations' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
This is a collection of observations about baseball, a style also used by Bill James as far back as 1977. Unlike James, these are not all stats, and run the gamut from why first basemen and good hitters are more frequently left-handed to describing baseball to a Martian. I found it from a collection of the best baseball books that are also freely available.
Nearly everybody who reads baseball has heard of Bill James - but who is Eric Walker? When this book was published, he was a sports writer in California, and also an electrical engineer. Good combination. After being hired by Sandy Alderson, he was the guy who wrote a somewhat technical report describing his analytical approach for new assistant GM Billy Beane - who later remarked that in reading that report it was "as if the scales fell from his eyes.". So ultimately, without Eric Walker there …
This is a collection of observations about baseball, a style also used by Bill James as far back as 1977. Unlike James, these are not all stats, and run the gamut from why first basemen and good hitters are more frequently left-handed to describing baseball to a Martian. I found it from a collection of the best baseball books that are also freely available.
Nearly everybody who reads baseball has heard of Bill James - but who is Eric Walker? When this book was published, he was a sports writer in California, and also an electrical engineer. Good combination. After being hired by Sandy Alderson, he was the guy who wrote a somewhat technical report describing his analytical approach for new assistant GM Billy Beane - who later remarked that in reading that report it was "as if the scales fell from his eyes.". So ultimately, without Eric Walker there would have been no [b:Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game|1301|Moneyball The Art of Winning an Unfair Game|Michael Lewis|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388176510l/1301.SY75.jpg|416305]. This resume was all after publishing this book.
The articles vary. The stats aren't always that plain to follow, and I'm a math guy who likes baseball. The observations sometimes ramble. It is possible he picked some of this up from Bill James, but some of his observations are quite unique, and overall the book is very approachable. Oh, yeah, and free. I found it at archive.org/details/sinisterfirstbas0000walk - if you like baseball, you should probably give it a try.