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Alan Schwartz. The Numbers Game: Baseball's Lifelong Fascination with Statistics. New York: St. Martin's, 2004. 270 pp. Cloth, $24.95.
Alan Schwarz's The Numbers Game is not a statistical book but a book about statistics that reads like a fast-paced novel. In it Schwarz demonstrates how statistics have evolved to reflect the changes in the game as well as at times influencing those changes and promoting baseball's popularity. It is a thoroughly researched and intriguing history that goes beyond the numbers. Much in the way that Bill James has proven to be an excellent historian beyond the numbers, so too is Schwarz in this book. Statistics serve as the backdrop, but readers will learn much more about the changing way the game has been played and evaluated.
The book delves into a number of interesting areas, profiling the early work of Henry Chadwick and the pioneers who followed: Ernie Lanigan, F. C. Lane (whose development of a percentage value of a run...