
The Inside Game
Bad Calls, Strange Moves, and What Baseball Behavior Teaches Us About Ourselves
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Narrated by:
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Rhett Samuel Price
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By:
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Keith Law
About this listen
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.
For years, Daniel Kahneman’s iconic work of behavioral science Thinking Fast and Slow has been required reading in front offices across Major League Baseball. In this smart, incisive, and eye-opening book, Keith Law applies Kahneman’s ideas about decision making to the game itself.
Baseball is a sport of decisions. Some are so small and routine they become the building blocks of the game itself - what pitch to throw or when to swing away. Others are so huge they dictate the future of franchises - when to make a strategic trade for a chance to win now, or when to offer a millions and a multi-year contract for a twenty-eight-year-old star. These decisions have long shaped the behavior of players, managers, and entire franchises. But as those choices have become more complex and data-driven, knowing what’s behind them has become key to understanding the sport. This fascinating, revelatory work explores as never before the essential question: What were they thinking?
Combining behavioral science and interviews with executives, managers, and players, Keith Law analyzes baseball’s biggest decision making successes and failures, looking at how gambles and calculated risks of all sizes and scales have shaped the sport, and how the game’s ongoing data revolution is rewriting decades of accepted decision making. In the process, he explores questions that have long been debated, from whether throwing harder really increases a player’s risk of serious injury to whether teams actually "overvalue" trade prospects.
Bringing his analytical and combative style to some of baseball’s longest running debates, Law deepens our knowledge of the sport in this entertaining work that is both fun and deeply informative.
©2020 Keith Law (P)2020 HarperCollins PublishersListeners also enjoyed...
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Featured Article: The Best Baseball Audiobooks of All Time
Ask any baseball fan and they'll tell you: some of their favorite sounds can only be heard at the ballpark—the smooth, satisfying pop of a catcher’s glove as a pitch hits its mark; the crack of a bat as it tears into a fastball, explosive and hopeful, drawing the crowd to their feet. Our list, a roundup of outstanding baseball audiobooks, offers a glimmer of that same ballpark magic with just a few of the greatest stories from our national pastime.
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Story
Instead of out-drafting, out-signing, and out-trading their rivals, baseball's best minds have turned to out-developing opponents, gaining greater edges than ever by perfecting prospects and eking extra runs out of older athletes who were once written off. Lindbergh and Sawchik take us inside the transformation of former fringe hitters into home-run kings, show how washed-up pitchers have emerged as aces, and document how coaching and scouting are being turned upside down. The MVP Machine charts the future of a sport and offers a lesson that goes beyond baseball.
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Just too much cussing!
- By D Maybee on 04-19-20
By: Ben Lindbergh, and others
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Bloody Okinawa
- The Last Great Battle of World War II
- By: Joseph Wheelan
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 13 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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On Easter Sunday, April 1, 1945, more than 184,000 US troops began landing on the only Japanese home soil invaded during the Pacific war. Just 350 miles from mainland Japan, Okinawa was to serve as a forward base for Japan's invasion in the fall of 1945. Nearly 140,000 Japanese and auxiliary soldiers fought with suicidal tenacity from hollowed-out, fortified hills and ridges. Under constant fire and in the rain and mud, the Americans battered the defenders with artillery, aerial bombing, naval gunfire, and every infantry tool.
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Very Technical
- By J.Brock on 07-16-21
By: Joseph Wheelan
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The Baseball Codes
- By: Jason Turbow, Michael Duca
- Narrated by: Michael Kramer
- Length: 10 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Everyone knows that baseball is a game of intricate regulations, but it turns out to be even more complicated than we realize. What truly governs the Major League game is a set of unwritten rules, some of which are openly discussed (don’t steal a base with a big lead late in the game), and some of which only a minority of players are even aware of (don’t cross between the catcher and the pitcher on the way to the batter’s box).
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A bit dry, both in content and narration...
- By Everett on 09-17-10
By: Jason Turbow, and others
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The Book of Joe
- Trying Not to Suck at Baseball and Life
- By: Joe Maddon, Tom Verducci
- Narrated by: Will Collyer
- Length: 13 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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No one sees baseball like Joe Maddon. He sees it through his trademark glasses and irrepressible wit. Raised in the “shot and beer” town of Hazleton, PA, and forged by 15 years in the minors, Maddon over 19 seasons in Tampa Bay, Chicago, and Anaheim has become one of the most successful, most colorful, and most quoted managers in Major League Baseball. He is a workplace culture expert, having engineered two of the most stunning turnarounds in the past quarter century.
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Typical Joe
- By BG on 01-21-25
By: Joe Maddon, and others
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Once a Giant
- A Story of Victory, Tragedy, and Life After Football
- By: Gary Myers
- Narrated by: Charles Constant
- Length: 9 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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The 1986 New York Giants are legendary. A championship team coached by Bill Parcells and his wunderkind assistant Bill Belichick, featuring future Hall of Famers and All-Pros like Phil Simms, Lawrence Taylor, Mark Bavaro, and Harry Carson. They were dominant on the field and formed a unique and lasting bond off of it. More than thirty years later, it's the friendships that have proved more important—a matter of life and death. In Once a Giant, bestselling football writer Gary Myers tells the story of that team and what became of it.
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Must Read for Big Blue Fan
- By Mark A. McCoy on 03-05-24
By: Gary Myers
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Chasing the Bear
- How Bear Bryant and Nick Saban Made Alabama the Greatest College Football Program of All Time
- By: Lars Anderson
- Narrated by: Dan Woren
- Length: 8 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Both Bear Bryant and Nick Saban are undeniable kings of college football, two coaches at Alabama who have each won more national championships - six apiece - than anyone else in the history of the game. Chasing the Bear examines how they did it, revealing along the way their similarities in style, background, football philosophy, and recruiting methods, while providing listeners a rare inside look at two of the greatest leaders in the history of sports.
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Half great half fair
- By jonathan meharg on 09-26-19
By: Lars Anderson
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We Promised You a Great Main Event
- An Unauthorized WWE History
- By: Bill Hanstock
- Narrated by: Josh Bloomberg
- Length: 13 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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In We Promised You a Great Main Event, longtime sports journalist Bill Hanstock pulls back the curtain to give a smart fan’s account of WWE and Vince McMahon’s journey to the top. Untangling the truth behind the official WWE storyline, Hanstock does a deep dive into key moments of the company’s history, from the behind-the-scenes drama at the Montreal Screwjob, to the company’s handling of the Jimmy Snuka scandal, to the real story of the Monday Night Wars.
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Pronounce names correctly!
- By JLA4 on 12-29-20
By: Bill Hanstock
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Tough Titties
- On Living Your Best Life When You're the F-ing Worst
- By: Laura Belgray
- Narrated by: Laura Belgray
- Length: 8 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Tough Titties is one big permission slip to be a dork, a sometimes-unspiritual slacker, a late bloomer and, ultimately, 100% yourself. It’ll also have you snort-laughing in public and tapping whoever’s nearby to say, “Lemme read you one more part!” Which is annoying, but tough titties.
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Plum! jinx!
- By Emily on 07-19-23
By: Laura Belgray
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North
- By: Scott Jurek, Jenny Jurek
- Narrated by: Scott Jurek, Jenny Jurek
- Length: 8 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Scott Jurek is one of the world's best known and most beloved ultrarunners. Renowned for his remarkable endurance and speed, accomplished on a vegan diet, he's finished first in nearly all of ultrarunning's elite events over the course of his career. But after two decades of racing, training, speaking, and touring, Jurek felt an urgent need to discover something new about himself. He embarked on a wholly unique challenge, one that would force him to grow as a person and as an athlete: breaking the speed record for the Appalachian Trail.
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Couldn’t take Jenny
- By M. Bissett on 08-27-18
By: Scott Jurek, and others
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Retail Gangster
- The Insane, Real-Life Story of Crazy Eddie
- By: Gary Weiss
- Narrated by: Richard Ferrone
- Length: 11 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Back in the fall of 2016, we heard the news about the passing of Eddie Antar, "Crazy Eddie" as he was known to millions of people, the man behind the successful chain of electronic stores and one of the most iconic ad campaigns in history. Few things evoke the New York of a particular era the way "Crazy Eddie! His prices are insaaaaane!" does. The journalist Herb Greenberg called his death the "end of an era" and that couldn't be more true. What's insane is that his story has never been told.
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Great Story, Long Listen
- By Bridget on 03-26-23
By: Gary Weiss
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Future Value
- The Battle for Baseball's Soul and How Teams Will Find the Next Superstar
- By: Eric Longenhagen, Kiley McDaniel, Keith Law - foreword
- Narrated by: Perry Daniels
- Length: 18 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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For the modern major-league team, player evaluation is a complex, multipronged, high-tech pursuit. But far from becoming obsolete in this environment - as Michael Lewis' Moneyball once forecast - the role of the scout in today's game has evolved and even expanded. Rather than being the antithesis of a data-driven approach, scouting now represents an essential analytical component in a team's arsenal. Future Value is a thorough dive into the world of the contemporary scout - a world with its own language, methods, metrics, and madness.
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Fantastic material needing an accompanying PDF
- By Tyler Burch on 08-27-20
By: Eric Longenhagen, and others
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Watching Baseball Smarter
- A Professional Fan's Guide for Beginners, Semi-experts, and Deeply Serious Geeks
- By: Zack Hample
- Narrated by: Barry Abrams
- Length: 5 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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This smart and funny fan's guide to baseball explains the ins and outs of pitching, hitting, running, and fielding, while offering insider trivia and anecdotes that will appeal to anyone - whether you're a major league couch potato, lifelong season ticket-holder, or a beginner. Combining the narrative voice and attitude of Michael Lewis with the compulsive brilliance of Schott's Miscellany, Watching Baseball Smarter will increase your understanding and enjoyment of the sport-no matter what your level of expertise.
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No New Information
- By amarkstone on 12-15-17
By: Zack Hample
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The Grand Tour
- The Life and Music of George Jones
- By: Rich Kienzle
- Narrated by: John Pruden
- Length: 8 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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In a masterful biography laden with new revelations, veteran country music journalist/historian Rich Kienzle offers a definitive, full-bodied portrait of legendary country singer George Jones and the music that remains his legacy. Kienzle meticulously sifted through archival material, government records, and recollections by colleagues and admirers, interviewing many involved in Jones' life and career. The result: an evocative portrait of this enormously gifted, tragically tormented icon.
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Interesting story, bad reading
- By Amazon Customer on 05-12-16
By: Rich Kienzle
Best Baseball book ever
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Interesting Read
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Narrator wasn't a good fit
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still a good book, definitely worth a listen
Great Book, Quirky Performance
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Get the hardcopy
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Baseball: Stats & Life-Lessons
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zzzzz
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Amazing book.
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The narrator, on the other hand, is Rockies-signing-Ian Desmond level bad. He was so flat that at first I wondered if it was actually AI. Then he started doing accents.
There were bad attempts at mimicking people that speak with accents. There were weird attempts to do accents for people that do NOT speak with accents. There were no accents from any specifically distinguishable region, dialect, or individual.
Somehow this open mic-level reader managed to both make the case both for and against the need for human narrators. Uncanny.
Solid, if overstated, takes on baseball’s sacred truths
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Not great.
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