Baseball Business

An ex-Wall Street trader improved on Moneyball’s famed sabermetrics to place bets that would beat the Vegas odds on Major League Baseball games - with a 41 percent return in his first year. Trading Bases explains how he did it. After the fall of Lehman Brothers, Joe Peta was out of a job. He found a new one but lost that, too, when an ambulance mowed him down. In search of a way to cheer himself up while he recuperated, Peta started watching baseball again. That’s when inspiration hit: Why not apply his outstanding risk-analysis skills to improve on sabermetrics, the method made famous by Moneyball?

No owner has changed the landscape of sports more than New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner. From the moment he bought the team in 1973 for $10 million, Steinbrenner's monomaniacal pursuit was to restore the most fabled franchise in baseball history to its former glory. Today the New York Yankees are worth more than $1 billion and are once again world champions.

We are in a historic era for the home run. The 2019 season saw the most homers ever, obliterating a record set just two years before. It is a shift that has transformed the way the game is played, contributing to more strikeouts, longer games, and what feels like the logical conclusion of the analytics era. In Swing Kings, Wall Street Journal national baseball writer Jared Diamond reveals that the secret behind this unprecedented shift isn’t steroids or the stitching of the baseballs, it’s the most elemental explanation of all: the swing.

Baseline Selling: How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know About the Game of Baseball will dramatically change the way we approach the sales process, replacing the gratuitous complexity advocated by today's sales "experts" with an elegant and very effective simplicity. Studies have shown that the selling techniques of the last two decades have had very little impact on most of the sales population. Why?

Astroball is the inside story of how a gang of outsiders went beyond the stats to find a new way to win. When new Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow and his top analyst, the former rocket scientist Sig Mejdal, arrived in Houston in 2011, they had already spent more than half a decade trying to understand how human instinct and expertise could be blended with hard numbers. Astroball is the story of the next wave of thinking in baseball and beyond, at once a remarkable underdog story and a fascinating look at the cutting edge of evaluating and optimizing human potential.

Earl Bell, successful businessman, entrepreneur, and Little League coach is just the coach you need to take your business to the Major Leagues. Now for the first time, Earl Bell reveals his coaching secrets in Winning in Baseball and Business, an audiobook that uses metaphor to show that everything you need to know in business you can learn from lessons in youth baseball. As an added bonus, 20 stories of successful entrepreneurs from teenagers to historical business icons are included as inspirational models.

The 2018 season was a coronation for the Boston Red Sox. The best team in Major League Baseball - indeed, one of the best teams ever - the Sox won 108 regular season games and then romped through the postseason, going 11-3 against the three next-strongest teams baseball had to offer. As Alex Speier reveals, the Sox’ success wasn’t a fluke - nor was it guaranteed. It was the result of careful, patient planning and shrewd decision-making that allowed Boston to develop a golden generation of prospects - and then build upon that talented core to assemble a juggernaut.

The longtime commissioner of Major League Baseball provides an unprecedented look inside professional baseball today, focusing on how he helped bring the game into the modern age and revealing his interactions with players, managers, fellow owners, and fans nationwide.

In this groundbreaking book, Keith Law, the ESPN baseball writer and author of the acclaimed Smart Baseball, offers an era-spanning dissection of some of the best and worst decisions in modern baseball, explaining what motivated them, what can be learned from them, and how their legacy has shaped the game....

This is The Shift, where “for the love of the game” has given way to an exclusive world of wealth and greed. Learn about it from someone who has lived it as a coach, mentor, and most importantly, as a father.

One of the most respected and successful athletes ever to grace a major-league pitcher's mound, Orel Hershiser had an approach to the game that put him in a class by himself. Now that he's retired, this Cy Young Award winner, MVP of division- and World Series-winning teams, and Sports Illustrated "Sportsman of the Year" looks back on the people, events, and decisions that most affected his life, on the field and off.

Baseball's all-time Iron Man, Cal Ripken, Jr., retired from baseball in 2001 after breaking countless records, including Lou Gehrig's record for consecutive games played. Ripken is admired by thousands of fans not only for his relentless perseverance, but also for his unparalleled integrity. Now, in a stirring audiobook that draws on his exhilarating career as well as the wisdom of his legendary father, Ripken shares rousing advice centered around his proven Eight Elements of Perseverance.

An engaging blend of business and baseball that inspires and entertains, Small Ball Big Results is about the little things that add up to the big wins in baseball, business, and life. Leaders and team players alike will draw vital lessons from stories that transport you from the baseball field to the board room revealing what it takes to build an unbeatable culture. Emmy Award-winning sports broadcaster Joel Goldberg shares tales of perseverance, patience, grit, and gratitude from soldiers, executives, entrepreneurs, baseball players, and many more.

Swing for the Fences draws on lessons from America's greatest pastime to create a manual of practical tools for winning at the game of life. Navigating life's challenges is never easy, but Greg Bancroft's thoughtful and humorous writing will teach you how to give yourself a break and "suck less". In a clear, engaging style, Swing for the Fences guides you through being successful at home, at work, and in relationships. In the end, it's not just about the home runs; it's about how you approach stepping up to the plate.

There are many books available on the topic of leadership, but none quite like this one. Walk Off Winning: A Game Plan for Leading Your Team and Organization to Success is the work of Steve Trimper - a college baseball coach who shares what he has learned about business through his extensive leadership experience in high-level sports. In addition to reflecting on his own failures and successes, Trimper interviews leadership experts to distill a wealth of wisdom into this valuable book.

This book is a step-by-step guide of mental training and stress management to assist you on your journey to success. This expert advice and guidance stems from many years of research and experience as a certified sport psychology coach, certified stress management coach, a former professional baseball general manager, a former college athlete, a motivational speaker, and a lifelong baseball coach.

What is Servant Leadership, and how can it transform company culture? How does Servant Leadership relate to Agile and Scrum methods? How can leaders inspire and empower their organization? The Balancing Act: Servant Leadership in the Modern Workplace answers these questions. From its philosophical beginnings to its application in various fields: the military, business, and even industries where you wouldn't expect.

"Osez sortir du rang !" sonde la puissance des idées nouvelles, ce qu'il en coûte vraiment pour leur donner vie et comment chacun d'entre nous peut se faire le chantre de l'originalité et inciter les autres à penser autrement. Comment défendre ses idées et ses valeurs sans risquer de tout perdre ? Adam Grant montre comment améliorer le monde en réfléchissant d'une façon nouvelle, à l'encontre des idées reçues, en combattant les conformismes et en rejetant les traditions désuètes.

While much has been written about his father, Sam, a titan of industry, there is no public record of Charles Bronfman’s thoughts on his own life, family, career and his significant accomplishments in sport and philanthropy. Distilled does just that, chronicling key events in the life of the heir to one of Canada’s great fortunes. Born in 1931 to the fabulously wealthy Bronfmans, Charles grew up in a 20-room mansion with many staff. Via their control of the distilling giant Seagram, the Bronfman family dominated the liquor business.

If your organization is not performing at its best, this book is for you. It puts you right into the shoes of the leaders of the great baseball dynasties and demonstrates how they overcame challenges common to those in our own teams and groups. Topics include managing and motivating highly talented but dysfunctional individuals, turning around careers that have stalled late in life, better understanding the practical benefits of diversity and inclusion, and inspiring individuals to find their best within the context of their teams.