Skip to content

The Numbers Game: Baseball's Lifelong Fascination with Statistics
Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different

The Numbers Game: Baseball's Lifelong Fascination with Statistics Hardcover - 2004

by Alan Schwarz


From the publisher

Most baseball fans, players and even team executives assume that the National Pastime's infatuation with statistics is simply a byproduct of the information age, a phenomenon that blossomed only after the arrival of Bill James and computers in the 1980s. They couldn't be more wrong.
In this unprecedented new book, Alan Schwarz - whom bestselling "Moneyball" author Michael Lewis calls "one of today's best baseball journalists" - provides the first-ever history of baseball statistics, showing how baseball and its numbers have been inseparable ever since the pastime's birth in 1845. He tells the history of this obsession through the lives of the people who felt it most: Henry Chadwick, the 19th-century writer who invented the first box score and harped endlessly about which statistics mattered and which did not; Allan Roth, Branch Rickey's right-hand numbers man with the late-1940s Brooklyn Dodgers; Earnshaw Cook, a scientist and Manhattan Project veteran who retired to pursue inventing the perfect baseball statistic; John Dewan, a former Strat-O-Matic maven who built STATS Inc. into a multimillion-dollar powerhouse for statistics over the Internet; and dozens more. Almost every baseball fan for 150 years has been drawn to the game by its statistics, whether through newspaper box scores, the backs of Topps baseball cards, "The Baseball Encyclopedia," or fantasy leagues. Today's most ardent stat scientists, known as "sabermetricians," spend hundreds of hours coming up with new ways to capture the game in numbers, and engage in holy wars over which statistics are best. Some of these men - and women -- are even being hired by major league teams to bring an understanding of statistics to a sport that for so long shunned it.
Taken together, Schwarz paints a history not just of baseball statistics, but of the soul of the sport itself. "The Numbers Game" will be an invaluable part of any fan's library and go down as one of the sport's classic books.

First line

When you get right down to it, no corner of American culture is more precisely counted, more passionately quantified, than the performance of baseball players.

Details

  • Title The Numbers Game: Baseball's Lifelong Fascination with Statistics
  • Author Alan Schwarz
  • Binding Hardcover
  • Edition First Edition
  • Pages 270
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Thomas Dunne Books, NY
  • Date July 21, 2004
  • Illustrated Yes
  • ISBN 9780312322229 / 0312322224
  • Weight 1.19 lbs (0.54 kg)
  • Dimensions 9.54 x 6.48 x 1 in (24.23 x 16.46 x 2.54 cm)
  • Library of Congress subjects Baseball - United States - Statistics -, Baseball statisticians - United States -
  • Library of Congress Catalog Number 2004042755
  • Dewey Decimal Code 796.357

About the author

Alan Schwarz is an investigative reporter for The New York Times and the author of The Numbers Game: Baseball's Lifelong Fascination with Statistics and Once Upon a Game: Baseball's Greatest Memories.

He was a finalist for the 2010 Pulitzer Prize in Public Service for his reporting on the effect of concussions in sports, which was credited with improving safety policies both among athletes and the military.

Before joining the Times in 2007, Schwarz was known primarily as the Senior Writer of Baseball America magazine, a columnist for ESPN.com and a frequent contributor to dozens of national publications.

Read other articles by Alan Schwarz.
Back to Top

More Copies for Sale

The Numbers Game : Baseball's Lifelong Fascination with Statistics
Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different

The Numbers Game : Baseball's Lifelong Fascination with Statistics

by Schwarz, Alan

  • Used
Condition
Used - Good
ISBN 13
9780312322229
ISBN 10
0312322224
Quantity Available
1
Seller
Mishawaka, Indiana, United States
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Item Price
$5.87
FREE shipping to USA

Show Details

Description:
St. Martin's Press. Used - Good. Former library book; may include library markings. Used book that is in clean, average condition without any missing pages.
Item Price
$5.87
FREE shipping to USA
The Numbers Game : Baseball's Lifelong Fascination with Statistics
Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different

The Numbers Game : Baseball's Lifelong Fascination with Statistics

by Schwarz, Alan

  • Used
Condition
Used - Very Good
ISBN 13
9780312322229
ISBN 10
0312322224
Quantity Available
1
Seller
Reno, Nevada, United States
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Item Price
$5.87
FREE shipping to USA

Show Details

Description:
St. Martin's Press. Used - Very Good. Former library book; may include library markings. Used book that is in excellent condition. May show signs of wear or have minor defects.
Item Price
$5.87
FREE shipping to USA
The Numbers Game: Baseball's Lifelong Fascination with Statistics

The Numbers Game: Baseball's Lifelong Fascination with Statistics

by Schwarz, Alan

  • Used
  • very good
  • Hardcover
Condition
Used - Very Good
Binding
Hardcover
ISBN 13
9780312322229
ISBN 10
0312322224
Quantity Available
1
Seller
Seattle, Washington, United States
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 4 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Item Price
$6.57
FREE shipping to USA

Show Details

Description:
Thomas Dunne Books, 2004. Hardcover. Very Good. May have limited writing in cover pages. Pages are unmarked. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less.Dust jacket quality is not guaranteed.
Item Price
$6.57
FREE shipping to USA
The Numbers Game: Baseball's Lifelong Fascination with Statistics

The Numbers Game: Baseball's Lifelong Fascination with Statistics

by Schwarz, Alan

  • Used
  • good
  • Hardcover
Condition
Used - Good
Binding
Hardcover
ISBN 13
9780312322229
ISBN 10
0312322224
Quantity Available
4
Seller
Seattle, Washington, United States
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 4 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Item Price
$6.57
FREE shipping to USA

Show Details

Description:
Thomas Dunne Books, 2004. Hardcover. Good. Missing dust jacket; Pages can have notes/highlighting. Spine may show signs of wear. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less.Dust jacket quality is not guaranteed.
Item Price
$6.57
FREE shipping to USA
The Numbers Game: Baseball's Lifelong Fascination with Statistics

The Numbers Game: Baseball's Lifelong Fascination with Statistics

by Schwarz, Alan

  • Used
  • good
  • Hardcover
Condition
Used - Good
Binding
Hardcover
ISBN 13
9780312322229
ISBN 10
0312322224
Quantity Available
4
Seller
Seattle, Washington, United States
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 4 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Item Price
$6.57
FREE shipping to USA

Show Details

Description:
Thomas Dunne Books, 2004. Hardcover. Good. Pages can have notes/highlighting. Spine may show signs of wear. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less.Dust jacket quality is not guaranteed.
Item Price
$6.57
FREE shipping to USA
The Numbers Game: Baseball's Lifelong Fascination with Statistics

The Numbers Game: Baseball's Lifelong Fascination with Statistics

by Schwarz, Alan

  • Used
  • good
  • Hardcover
Condition
Used - Good
Binding
Hardcover
ISBN 13
9780312322229
ISBN 10
0312322224
Quantity Available
3
Seller
Seattle, Washington, United States
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 4 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Item Price
$6.57
FREE shipping to USA

Show Details

Description:
Thomas Dunne Books, 2004. Hardcover. Good. Former library book; Pages can have notes/highlighting. Spine may show signs of wear. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less.Dust jacket quality is not guaranteed.
Item Price
$6.57
FREE shipping to USA
The Numbers Game: Baseball's Lifelong Fascination with Statistics

The Numbers Game: Baseball's Lifelong Fascination with Statistics

by Schwarz, Alan

  • Used
  • Acceptable
  • Hardcover
Condition
Used - Acceptable
Binding
Hardcover
ISBN 13
9780312322229
ISBN 10
0312322224
Quantity Available
2
Seller
Seattle, Washington, United States
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 4 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Item Price
$6.57
FREE shipping to USA

Show Details

Description:
Thomas Dunne Books, 2004. Hardcover. Acceptable. Readable copy. Pages may have considerable notes/highlighting. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less.Dust jacket quality is not guaranteed.
Item Price
$6.57
FREE shipping to USA
The Numbers Game: Baseball's Lifelong Fascination with Statistics
Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different

The Numbers Game: Baseball's Lifelong Fascination with Statistics

by Schwarz, Alan

  • Used
  • very good
  • Hardcover
Condition
Used - Very Good
Binding
Hardcover
ISBN 13
9780312322229
ISBN 10
0312322224
Quantity Available
1
Seller
Tolar, Texas, United States
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Item Price
$8.00
$4.75 shipping to USA

Show Details

Description:
Thomas Dunne Books, 2004. Jacket and boards have only light wear. Pages are clean, text has no markings, binding is sound.. Hard Cover. Very Good/Very Good. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall.
Item Price
$8.00
$4.75 shipping to USA
The Numbers Game: Baseball's Lifelong Fascination with Statistics
Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different

The Numbers Game: Baseball's Lifelong Fascination with Statistics

by Alan Schwarz

  • Used
  • Hardcover
Condition
Used: Good
Binding
Hardcover
ISBN 13
9780312322229
ISBN 10
0312322224
Quantity Available
1
Seller
HOUSTON, Texas, United States
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 4 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Item Price
$8.54
FREE shipping to USA

Show Details

Description:
Thomas Dunne Books, 2004-07-21. Hardcover. Used: Good.
Item Price
$8.54
FREE shipping to USA
Numbers Game: Baseball's Lifelong Fascination with Statistics
Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different

Numbers Game: Baseball's Lifelong Fascination with Statistics

by Alan Schwarz

  • Used
  • Hardcover
Condition
Used - Very Good
Binding
Hardcover
ISBN 13
9780312322229
ISBN 10
0312322224
Quantity Available
1
Seller
Chicago, Illinois, United States
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Item Price
$9.00
$3.50 shipping to USA

Show Details

Description:
St. Martins. Used - Very Good. 2004. Hardcover. Very Good.
Item Price
$9.00
$3.50 shipping to USA