# The one constant during the Red Sox Dynasty



## Room2201974 (Jan 23, 2018)

The Boston Red Sox have now won four World Series Titles in 15 years! They have done so with different players, different managers and different General Managers. But there has been one constant in these victories - the smartest man in baseball, Bill James. The Sox hired James in 2003 and the rest is history. If you love the game and haven't read his books and abstracts you have been missing out. _The Bill James Historical Abstract_ may be the best book ever written about the game.

The movie _Moneyball_ is really about using the methods that James has advocated through the years. As an adult I thought I understood the game. Then someone lent me a copy of the _1983 Bill James Abstract_......and the scales fell from my eyes.


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## mmsbls (Mar 6, 2011)

I'm not a Red Sox fan, but I am a huge fan of Bill James. When I was younger, several of us had fun analyzing baseball players using James (and some others') statistical methods. We learned that Babe Ruth may be the most underrated baseball player ever.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

The Red Sox are a club that now know how to do things properly. After so many years of both heartbreak and underachievement I'm glad the Red Sox are back at the top, and it seems as if the hiring of Bill James was a very smart move by J.W.H. Could you imagine the likes of Marge Schott or Charlie Finley having the imagination to hire him?


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## Desafinado (Apr 13, 2014)

There's a second constant as well.

Let's see what James can get done with the Brewers


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Red Sox are playing the Yankees at the London (Olympic) Stadium next year - and in a divisional game, NOT in a pre-season exhibition. Tickets on sale soon. Sadly, because London Stadium is used mainly for Association Football, Rugby Union and athletics it doesn't possess the asymmetrical quirkiness of many baseball parks - American visitors will probably describe London Stadium as more like the 'cookie-cutter' sort from the 70s and 80s which many fans weren't happy with as they were more suited for gridiron. Still, the place has a 66,000 capacity so the atmosphere should be great if the venue is full or thereabouts.


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## Haydn70 (Jan 8, 2017)

Room2201974 said:


> The Boston Red Sox have now won four World Series Titles in 15 years! They have done so with different players, different managers and different General Managers. But there has been one constant in these victories - the smartest man in baseball, Bill James. The Sox hired James in 2003 and the rest is history. If you love the game and haven't read his books and abstracts you have been missing out. _The Bill James Historical Abstract_ may be the best book ever written about the game.
> 
> The movie _Moneyball_ is really about using the methods that James has advocated through the years. As an adult I thought I understood the game. Then someone lent me a copy of the _1983 Bill James Abstract_......*and the scales fell from my eyes.*


Amen to that! For me, it was his first Historical Baseball Abstract given to me by a close for friend for a Christmas present back in 1985 or 1986 that performed the scales removal. I became a huge Bill James fan. I also have the new one which I also like. In the original I particularly like how he wrote about career value vs. peak value and compiled his top 100 players in each category. Also I liked how in his articles about older players he indicated a similar current player.

Great stuff…*long live on-base percentage!*


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

I am a Yankee fan and hate the Red Sox.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

I certainly don't hate the Red Sox - indirectly the Yankees have the Red Sox to thank for their becoming a force in the first place. Many of the better players on the teams who won AL pennants during 1921-23 were former Red Sox players acquired by Colonel Ruppert's limitless funds and Harry Frazee's colossal dereliction of duty. With the team they had in 1919 the Red Sox could have had the AL sewn up in the wake of the Black Sox scandal but they were shafted by an owner who thought he could gamble with the Red Sox's stability by banking on his Broadway productions being successful. No wonder the balance of power irretrievably shifted. It was great news for the Yankees for the next forty-odd years but I think the Red Sox's torpidity made the AL less fun.


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