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BOOK NEWS |
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September
2, 2007 The latest news on the book is the release of the paperback version of The
Wages of Wins. With this release
it seemed like a good time to update this website, something that really hasn’t
happened since February, 2007. Added are details on the paperback and a link to technical notes. Because the website has not been altered
much since February, 2007, links to two recent columns by Dave Berri have been added to the left. Finally, the list of links – many of which
are repeated at our blog (The Wages of
Wins Journal) – has been removed. One should note that news concerning The
Wages of Wins will likely be noted in the future at The Wages of Wins Journal. Material is added to our blog on almost a
daily basis. Consequently that forum appears to be the best place to find
current news (and our full list of links).
May 6, 2007 The
Keeping Score column in the New York Times for May 6, 2007 examined a
topic covered extensively in The
Wages of Wins .
In
“The Short Supply of Competitive Balance.” Dave Berri examines why the same NBA teams
keep winning the NBA title. The quick answer... there is a short supply of
talented big men. Winter, 2007 The
Winter, 2007 cover story of The
Yale Economic Review is titled “Wages of Wins: The Price of a Jump Shot
in the NBA. “ The title is a bit misleading (the story never reveals the price
of a jump shot) but the subject matter of the article should be familiar to
readers of The
Wages of Wins. In essence the
lessons taught in The
Wages of Wins about basketball are applied to the stunning failure of the
New York Knicks in 2005-06. This team led the league in payroll yet was
the worst team in the Eastern Conference.
The stories from The
Wages of Wins help explain why this happened.
Once
again a Wages of Wins writer has authored a Keeping Score column for The New York Times. The latest, from
Dave Berri, is titled “Star
Power Can Leave Home Fans With Empty Feeling.” The basic story should be
familiar to readers of The Wages of
Wins and the writing offered at The Wages of Wins Journal. Star
power in the NBA creates revenue, but it generally creates this revenue for
every team other than the one that pays the star. For
those who want additional details, including updates of the analysis offered
in The Wages of Wins, please read today’s post at The Wages of Wins Journal: More
Details from Keeping Score in The New York Times. February 12, 2007 Two
new reviews of The Wages of Wins have appeared. Allen
R. Sanderson of the University of Chicago has reviewed our book for Choice.
Sanderson’s short review has been added to the Reviews section, located both above and at The Wages of
Wins Journal. In
December, John Bundell reviewed our book for Economic
Affairs. We can’t reproduce the entire review, but here are the
last three paragraphs: “So
are payrolls and wins highly correlated? Do strikes/lockouts impact on future
attendance? Do current structures give competitive balance? Are tall people
in ‘short’ supply? Do fans care about competitive balance? Does ‘star power’
bring in fans? Do ‘better’ players make their team-mates ‘better’? Do great
players lift their games to higher levels when the games matter more? Buy the
book and find out the answer to these and many other great questions.
It’s 100% American but suggest various UK research questions. And in
buying the book you will also be sending a signal to the market that we want
good, interesting, accessible economics that explains the world around us and
makes us see it in a different, better way.” – John Bundell, Director General, Institute of Economic Affairs [John Blundell (2006). Review Special: THE WAGES OF
WINS: TAKING MEASURE OF THE MANY MYTHS IN MODERN SPORT - by David J. Berri,
Martin B. Schmidt and Stacey L. Brook. Economic
Affairs 26 (4), 94–94.
doi:10.1111/j.1468-0270.2006.682_5.x] December 13, 2006 Dan
Shanoff has named The Wages of Wins one of the top
ten sports books of 2006!!! The Wages of Wins appears to be the
only book written by academics and published by an academic press. Not
sure what that means, but we are very pleased Shanoff
included our work on his list. November 21, 2006 Reviews
of The Wages of Wins have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Sports
Illustrated, and a few local media outlets around the country. And now
we have our first review in an academic forum written by an academic.
JC Bradbury – an economist in the Department of Health,
Physical Education, and Sport Science at Kennesaw State University – has
reviewed our book for the The
International Journal of Sport Finance. Bradbury’s published work on sports and economics has appeared in Economic Inquiry and The Journal of Sports Economics. He
is also author of the forthcoming book titled The
Baseball Economist and has written extensively on baseball at his blog --
Sabernomics. Dennis Howard,
the editor of IJSF, has given us permission to post Bradbury’s review, which
you can find in our Reviews
section. November 5, 2006 For
the sixth consecutive month, an author of The Wages of Wins has written a
column for The New York Times. Martin Schmidt’s latest column,
titled “When
it Comes to the World Series, Luck Conquers All” examines the argument
Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig offers
in defense of revenue sharing. Selig argues
that seven different champions in seven years is evidence that revenue
sharing has increased the level of parity in baseball. Marty notes that
if revenue sharing worked we would see less payroll disparity. But
payroll disparity has actually increased in recent years. So why are we
seeing a different champion each year? The answer is in the column (or
at The
Wages of Wins Journal). October 8, 2006 Martin
Schmidt has once again penned the Keeping Score column for the New York
Times. Martin’s column, titled “Success
in September is Key to Winning in October”, examines the impact momentum
plays in determining playoff outcomes. As he notes, the data indicates that
teams that are playing well heading into the playoffs are more likely to win
the World Series. For all those keeping score, this is Marty’s third column
for the New York Times. October 4, 2006 Greg
Johnson of the LA Times argued in the October 4th edition that Seriously,
Money Isn’t Everything (the article is free to read, but you do have to
register first). Johnson observes that although playoff teams like the
Yankees and Mets rank towards the top in baseball’s payroll rankings, other
playoff teams like the Twins and A’s do not. Having
made this observation, Johnson then turns to the thoughts of three economists
with some expertise in the study of sport: Andrew Zimbalist – author of In
the Best Interest of Baseball? and The
Bottom Line: Observations and Arguments on the Sports Business, as well
as other books; Rodney Fort – author of
Sports Economics, as well as other books; and David Berri, who
co-authored The
Wages of Wins. The
quotes Johnson employed make an argument that readers of The
Wages of Wins would find familiar. In Chapters Three and Four of our book
we argue that there is a statistical relationship between pay and wins in
baseball, but it not the case that payroll offers a great deal of predictive
power. As we state in the book, the payroll-wins relationship lacks much
oomph. That
basic point is clearly echoed in the Johnson article by the following quote
from Zimbalist.“If 20% of the
variation in a team’s winning percentage can be explained by payroll, then
there’s still 80% left over, which is a good-sized chunk,” said Smith College
economist Andrew Zimbalist, author of “In
The Best Interests of Baseball? The Revolutionary Reign of Bud Selig.” September 10, 2006 The New York Times has once again published
a column from one of the authors of The Wages of Wins. This time it is
Dave Berri. On Sunday –
September 10 – Berri penned the Keeping
Score column in the New York Times. The column, titled “To Get
a Grip on Turnovers, Follow the Bouncing Ball”, reviews a finding
reported in The Wages of Wins. Specifically, interceptions and fumbles are
very hard to predict for NFL quarterbacks. And as the column notes,
turnovers are also unpredictable for running backs. Given these results
it is perhaps not a surprise that turnover differential for the team is also
unpredictable. Thus, an important factor in determining outcomes this
season cannot be known with much certainty before the season starts. August 27, 2006 Once again, it’s The New York Times!!! On Sunday – August 27 --
Martin Schmidt once again wrote the Keeping
Score column in the New York Times. Marty’s column, titled “Numbers
Often Lie When It Comes to Football”, reviews a
topic we mention in The Wages of Wins. Player statistics in football
don’t always tell us what we want to know about player productivity.
For those keeping score, this is the fourth time The Wages of Wins was
mentioned in the pages of the nation’s leading newspaper. July 27, 2006 A
Major Day for the Field of Sports Economics!!! On the front cover of USAToday’s Money section is an article titled: “Batter
up! Sports Economics Hits Field” by Sue Kirchhoff.
This article mentions and quotes a number of the major names in our field:
Peter von Allmen, Michael Leeds, Aju Fenn, John-Charles
Bradbury, R. Todd Jewell, Rodney Fort, John Fizel, Yvan Kelly, and the authors of some book called The Wages
of Wins. This is a lengthy cover article that provides a wonderful
overview of this growing field. Additionally,
Bill Syken of Sports Illustrated has written an article
titled “Number
Crunchers.” The subject of this article is The Sports Economist, the blog led
by Skip Sauer. Syken does a fantastic job of
introducing readers both to Sauer’s blog and also the field of sports
economics. As the article notes, a collection of sports economists
regularly contribute to this blog. Contributors to The Sports Economist
include Dennis Coates, Rodney Fort, Brian Goff, Brad Humphreys, Victor
Matheson, Phil Miller, John Palmer, Stefan Szymanski, and Dave Berri. July 5, 2006 The
New York Times, once again. On Sunday – July 2 -- Martin Schmidt wrote the Keeping
Score column in the New York Times. This is third time in three
weeks that The Wages of Wins was mentioned in the pages of the nation’s
leading newspaper. Marty’s column examines perhaps the only downside to
the World Cup – players taking dives in an effort to get a call from the
refs. The solution... well, for that you need to read the column.
One should not be surprised, though, that an economist would call for a change
in the incentives players face. Sports
Illustrated Reviews our work!!! Thus far we have received consistent attention
from New York – specifically The New Yorker and The New York Times – yet less
attention outside the Big Apple. This week that has changed. Dick
Friedman of SI.com has penned a review titled Adam
Smith meets Joe Smith. Not only does Friedman offer a wonderful review
of all the stories we tell, but there is also a link to an excerpt
of our book. June 25, 2006 And
now for news only important to us. The Wages of Wins tops the list of
best-selling Sports & Adventure books at Barnes&Noble.com. At
least we do at 9am PST today. Yesterday
we rose to the #2 spot in Sports books at Amazon.com, but were unable to take
the top spot from John Daly’s book My
Life in and out of the Rough. As
we said yesterday, for a book written by three economists, this is all pretty
amazing. Thanks to everyone for buying our book and hope you have as
much reading our work as we had doing the research. June 24, 2006 We
are a hit in New York!!!. First Malcolm Gladwell reviewed our work in The New Yorker.
Then Dave Berri wrote “The N.B.A.’s
Secret Superstars”, an op-ed
which appeared in The New York Times. Today Joe Nocera
of the New York Times wrote a review of
our work titled “Sportonomics Beguiles 3
Economists.” Nocera’s review has certainly had an impact.
As of 4pm PST today, our book is the #3 sports book at Amazon.com. Not
too bad for a book written by three economists. Update:
As of 7pm PST, The Wages of Wins is the #2 sports book at Amazon.com. Can we
reach the number #1 ranking? Should we hold a press conference if we
reach the coveted top spot? Is there any evidence that this is coveted?
Does anyone else care besides us? Okay, we’re probably making too much of this. June 17, 2006 The
Wages of Wins Virtual Book Tour continues. On Monday, June 12th, Dave Berri was a guest on the Dom Giordano Show,
which can be heard on WPHT in Philadelphia [1210AM]. The next day an
interview Dave gave to the Central Valley Business Times was posted
on-line. The interview can be heard here.
On Monday, June 19, Dave is scheduled to appear on KGET’s
“17 News at Sunrise.” in Bakersfield, California. This is the first
television appearance (and hopefully not the last) associated with the
book. Dave will have to drive several miles to the studio (okay, about
five) and given the cost of gasoline our book tour budget of $18.06 may be
strained. Our
book has also been mentioned in a couple of newspapers. Ted Hutton of the
South Florida Sun-Sentinel wrote a story titled “Wade
has a Winning Number.” The story examines what our methods have to
say about Dwyane Wade of the Miami Heat.
Those reading The Wages of Wins
Journal already know that Wade is a very productive basketball player. Jason
Kelly of The South Bend Tribune used our methods to evaluate the
productivity of Notre Dame basketball players Chris Thomas and Chris Quinn.
We are not sure how he measured Wins Produced for a college player, but it
was nice to see the effort. June 10, 2006 In
today’s New York Times an op-ed written
by Dave Berri appears. In “The N.B.A.’s Secret Superstars” Berri
explains the essence of the Wins Produced algorithm. The article also reveals
what Wins Produced says about the players in the 2006 NBA Finals.
Beyond the article, check out the cool illustration. Maureen Dowd and
John Tierney also have columns on the same page of the Times, but only the Berri piece comes with a cool picture. A
very positive review by Jesse Kellerman has been added to our Reviews section. Kellerman is a novelist, whose debut work
Sunstroke has received much critical acclaim. Why does it matter what a
novelist says about a book on sports and economics? First, Kellerman is obviously a talented writer and when someone
of his skill level says he likes what you wrote, well, you tend to be pretty
pleased. Perhaps most importantly, Kellerman noted
that the book is “well-conceived”, “well-supported”, and “funny.” And
it is the last comment that we like the most. There are some attempts
at humor in the book. Hopefully Kellerman is not
the only who notices. June 2, 2006 The
Wages of Wins Virtual Book Tour is in full swing!! Today Dave Berri was a guest on The Morning Show with Angelo Cataldi and Al Morganti on
Sports Radio 610 WIP in Philadelphia. Stacey Brook was a guest on Dakota
Digest of South Dakota Public Broadcasting on May 30th. And on May 25th
Dave was a guest on the The Dan LeBatard Show with Stugotz – which can be heard on Sports Talk 790AM in South
Florida. Our book tour budget consists of the $18.06 Dave found in his
desk. Given our budget, each of us are more than happy to appear on any
show, as long as traveling vast distances is not part of the equation. Of
course if someone else wants to pay the travel costs, then that might be a
different story. May 22, 2006 REVIEWS
ARE IN!! Malcolm Gladwell
of The New Yorker, and
author of the best selling books Blink and The Tipping Point,
wrote a review of our work that will appear in the May 29 issue of The
New Yorker. It was posted today on-line. Gladwell is an amazing writer – as any reader of his
best-selling books can see -- and manages to tell the basic story we tell
about the NBA better than we have told this tale ourselves. Here is a link to
Gladwell’s review.
Professor
Tyler Cowen of George Mason, author of Good
and Plenty: The Creative Successes of American Arts Funding
and also a writer at Marginal
Revolution, has also read and reviewed our work. His comments,
which capture the many stories we tell about baseball and basketball, can be
read here.
Obviously
we are thrilled with the reviews of Gladwell and
Cowen. This is our first book and we are pleased that such talented writers
enjoyed our work. May 19, 2006 THE
BOOK IS NOW AVAILABLE!!! If you go to Amazon.com
or Barnes&Noble you can now order our book and
expect it to be delivered. Of course you could order our book
previously – and many thanks to all those that did – but only now is the book
being shipped. We look forward to hearing from everyone who reads our
work. And once again, many thanks to all those who have placed orders. May 11, 2006 THE
BOOK IS COMING!!! We all received copies of the book this week. Martha
Cooley, our editor at Stanford Press, tells us that the book should reach
bookstores on May 19th. We do not know what that means for all the
people who ordered this book early on-line. We do know we are extremely
pleased with the many pre-orders that have been placed. Thanks to
everyone waiting patiently to read our book. We hope everyone finds our
work well worth the wait. April 8, 2006 We have finished the book, but it won't be released until next month. While we wait, we thought we would tell people what our book is about.
The basic premise is that much of what people believe about sports is not true when one looks at the very numbers sports generate.
For example, have you ever heard...
In sports, teams that pay the most win the most.
The 1994-95 player strike in baseball nearly destroyed the game.
Major League Baseball has a competitive balance problem.
Players who score like Allen Iverson are basketball’s best players.
Michael Jordan always played his best when the games mattered most.
LeBron James will be "Like Mike" when like MJ, King James learns to make his teammates better.
Quarterbacks are responsible for wins and losses in the NFL
What do all these statements have in common? Comments like these are often given by players, coaches, and members of the media. And all of these statements, when one does the numbers, are not exactly true.
How do we know this? We have published numerous papers in academic journals and made many, many presentations at academic conferences. All this research on various topics in sports and economics keeps telling us not to believe everything we hear in the sports media.
And this is the story our book tells. Although we are all professors of economics, one doesn't need to take a class in economics to understand what we are saying. In our book you will find some numbers but very little math. What you will find is a collection of stories we hope are interesting, easy to follow, and able to change what many believe about professional sports.
In sum, as Alan Schwarz says, "The Wages of Wins provides some of the most intelligent yet readable sports analysis I’ve seen in a long time. Call it Freakonomics meets ESPN.”
We have also entered the "blogosphere" and will start connecting the stories we tell in the book to today's headlines. We plan on posting frequently so hopefully there should be a reason to visit our site often. So please look around the site and of course, visit the many places where you can pre-order a copy of our book: The Wages of Wins.
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