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The Only Rule Is It Has to Work

Written by: Ben Lindbergh, Sam Miller
Narrated by: Kirby Heyborne, John Pruden
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Publisher's Summary

It's the ultimate in fantasy baseball: You get to pick the roster, set the lineup, and decide on strategies - with real players, in a real ballpark, in a real playoff race. That's what baseball analysts Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller got to do when an independent minor-league team in California, the Sonoma Stompers, offered them the chance to run its baseball operations according to the most advanced statistics.

We tag along as Lindbergh and Miller apply their number-crunching insights to all aspects of assembling and running a team, following one cardinal rule for judging each innovation they try: It has to work. We meet colorful figures like general manager Theo Fightmaster and boundary-breakers like the first openly gay player in professional baseball. Even José Canseco makes a cameo appearance.

Will their knowledge of numbers help Lindbergh and Miller bring the Stompers a championship, or will they fall on their faces? Will the team have a competitive advantage or is the sport's folk wisdom true after all? Will the players attract the attention of big-league scouts, or are they on a fast track to oblivion?

©2016 Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller (P)2016 Tantor
Baseball & Softball Mathematics
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What the critics say

"[F]un, breezy, and moving read." (Jonah Keri, author of Up, Up, and Away)

What listeners say about The Only Rule Is It Has to Work

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Profile Image for Nathan White

Great book, please get narrators who know sports

Another fantastic sports book read by a person who has seemingly not even a passing awareness of the sport it’s about. If you can get past the mangled names and basic sports expressions, it’s a great book. If that’s going to bother you, maybe just read it.

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