The Bill James Gold Mine
by Bill James
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Book Reviews of The Bill James Gold Mine
Book Review: Not Worth the Price, but Worth a Look
Summary: 3 Stars
Other reviewers have accurately pointed out that this book is basically an advertisement for Bill James' new website. This is an outline for what Baseball Abstracts used to be, and while there are some very interesting statistics and amusing observations (on Troy Glaus' HOF chances: Birthdays are not kind to .250 hitters), there aren't enough to justify the cost of the book when, for the exact same price, you can get everything in this book and waaaaaay more by subscribing to the on-line site for seven months.
If you enjoy reading Bill James' articles you'll enjoy this book, but you'll enjoy it in the same way someone who loved Raiders of the Lost Ark enjoys the coming attraction for the new Indy movie. You want more. A lot more.
Book Review: Is this all there is ?
Summary: 2 Stars
Have all the interesting aspects of baseball been covered/discovered ? Here we get lots of "nuggets" usually paired with analysis consisting of "I have no idea what this means". There is even a full page color picture devoted to Brad Hawpe as clutch hitter of the year, a skill that James has (rightly) long contended doesn't really exist but is random chance. What the @$#* ?
Most of the tidbits sound like the meaningless stats based on tiny samples that are often quoted during telecasts featuring Tim McCarver.
While this may have been acceptable coming from the Hardball Times writers, for someone who has such brilliant previous writing to his credit, this can only be a major disappointment.
Book Review: Still at the top of the game
Summary: 5 Stars
I've been reading Bill James since 1983, and for years I anticipated his newest book. However, I approached the Gold Mine with trepidation, as I would an aging rock star who lost his chops. I didn't like the Bill James Handbook series at all because it was minutiae that didn't leave room for imagination nor wit.
However, this book returns to the best of Bill James: humor, unusual insights and ideas, social commentary, and sheer unpredictability. This book blazes so many new paths that it's impossible to decide where to go first, and you just sit there thinking, "Well, I hope all those smart sabermetricians follow up on the ideas that Bill has raised."
Book Review: enjoyable book well worth the purchase
Summary: 4 Stars
Please note this is not the old Abstracts but in this book Bill James mixes plenty of essays along with his usual endless supply of statistics. Even with so much information, it is surprisingly very readable. The Team by Team analysis has historical and comparable stats as well as a number of "nuggets" of interesting information throughout.
The essays contain Bill James's trademark humor and unique point of view, so if you are a fan of his past work, you'll probably like this too. It pushes his website a lot but having a hard copy at my convenience to flip through rather than searching my computer far out weighs the marginal one time cost.
Book Review: Basically a glorified advertisement for his web site
Summary: 1 Stars
I was really looking forward to reading this book. I think Bill James made a big mistake when he stopped writing the abstracts. So is Bill back and better than ever? Unfortunately, no. As is indicated at the beginning of this book you are essentially reading a piece of his new web site. The commentary on each team is weak and consists mostly of data (with extremely limited analysis). The "essays" pale in comparison to what James used to put out each spring, and consist primarily of data surrounded by a few text boxes.
Save your money and pay $3 for a month's worth of his web site (where you can read all of the material in this book).