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Topic: Bill James

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	Bill James - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		To James, context is paramount: he was among the first to emphasize the importance of adjusting traditional statistics for park factors and to stress the role of luck in a pitcher's won-loss record.
		James had previously published several analyses of the use of the closer in baseball, and had concluded that the traditional use of the closer both overrated the abilities of that individual, and used him in suboptimal circumstances.
		James did not suggest a "bullpen by committee"; rather, his studies showed that the relief ace should be used in close or tie games as early as the 7th inning, when the outcome of a ballgame is really decided.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Bill_James (1836 words)

	William James - Biography, Chronology, and Photographs
		James had warned Alice that, should she deign to accept his proposal of marriage, she should be well aware of his mental condition.
		James ended the college year in the spring of 1899 feeling hopeful and energetic, but ill-health again beset him in the form of a heart condition, and he welcomed the new century convalescing in Europe, where he remained for two years.
		James himself was aware of "how odd it must seem to some of you to hear me say that an idea is 'true' so long as to believe it is profitable to our lives," and he worked both to clarify his definition of pragmatism and to emphasize the moral element that accompanies it.
	www.emory.edu /EDUCATION/mfp/jphotos.html (8890 words)

	Bill James - BR Bullpen
		Bill James is the most prominent author on the subject of baseball from a statistical perspective.
		Though not a statistician by trade, James pioneered the field of sabermetrics with his insightful, articulate, creative, knowledgable, occasionally comical and always idiosyncratic writings on a plethora of baseball-related subjects, many of which he invented himself.
		It was up to Bill James, over one hundred years later, to point out that the game had changed greatly, and that many new ways of evaluating performance were needed.
	www.baseball-reference.com /bullpen/Bill_James_(author) (397 words)

	CNN.com - Bill James: Baseball not just by the numbers - December 13, 2001
		Before James, the typical fan -- and, for that matter, many sportswriters and historians -- paid little attention to such variables as the impact of park dimensions, the value of stolen bases, or the truth of established beliefs over who was to credit (or blame) for a team's fortunes.
		James based his 100-best rankings on a new stat called "Win Shares," a system of crediting the accomplishments of teams to individual players.
		James refutes that assessment point by point, noting that the Mickey Mantle-Roger Maris Bronx Bombers had a decent, but not spectacular, offense; a mediocre bench; and one good starting pitcher.
	archives.cnn.com /2001/SHOWBIZ/books/12/13/bill.james/index.html (1172 words)

	The New Yorker: Fact
		He is Bill James, a former boiler-room attendant who, almost thirty years ago, set out to debunk the conventional wisdom proffered by television and radio commentators—“baseball’s Kilimanjaro of repeated legend and legerdemain,” as he called it—by using statistical evidence.
		James is now responsible for a quarterly report covering various baseball subjects—like a mini-Abstract, with a controlled circulation—and he’ll travel to Boston to keep abreast of the baseball climate on Yawkey Way several times during the year.
		James lives within walking distance of the office, which is probably just as well, since he has been meaning to get a new car to replace his dying Honda for more than a year now.
	www.newyorker.com /fact/content/?030714fa_fact1 (4242 words)

	USATODAY.com - Red Sox hire 'Baseball Abstract' author Bill James (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-23)
		James attracted fame in the 1980s for his annual book, The Bill James Baseball Abstract, which analyzed the game with easily understood but unconventional statistics.
		James' hiring as a senior baseball adviser was confirmed last week, but he didn't arrive in Boston until Friday.
		James has already filed his first report for the Red Sox, a 70-page tome in which he spent a paragraph or so analyzing every free agent on the market.
	www.usatoday.com /sports/baseball/al/redsox/2002-11-15-james_x.htm (553 words)

	USATODAY.com (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-23)
		Bill James: I could give you a better answer if I studied the question first, but I would certainly assume that he is a Hall of Famer.
		Bill James: NO, I think he has to SURPASS what he has done to be better than Honus on a level-field comparison (that is, assuming that baseball a hundred years ago was as competitive as it is now.
		Bill James: It's a very complicated issue, in which there are a very large number of factors that have to be balanced one against another, and many of those factors are not really susceptible to standard measurement.
	cgi1.usatoday.com /mchat/20030325004/tscript.htm (4475 words)

	ESPN.com: SPORTSNATION - Chat-3503
		Bill James: Well, the accurate answer to your question, which you probably don't want to hear, is "because those rules were made up a long time ago when the game was played very differently, and they frequently don't work in modern baseball.
		Bill James: Well, there is a tremendous amount of noise in the data, and it is not clear to me that we can filter it all out and get useful data.
		Bill James: Blalock's not going to hit.384 all year, but I expect him to finish the season as one of the top ten hitters in the league.
	proxy.espn.go.com /chat/chatESPN?event_id=3503 (4395 words)

	The American Enterprise: Bill James (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-23)
		Bill James has been called "the most influential baseball writer in the sport's history." In a sport shrouded in myth, James's success is itself the stuff of legend.
		JAMES: Well, there was a period when all of my friends were getting married and I was going to weddings and talking to people.
		JAMES: What I believe to be true about the highest levels of baseball I also believe to be true about the lowest levels of baseball.
	www.taemag.com /issues/articleID.17948/article_detail.asp (2771 words)

	The Do-Not Press, Bill James: biography
		Bill James is a former journalist who worked for the Western Mail and South Wales Echo, The Daily Mirror and the Sunday Times.
		James lives in his native South Wales and also writes under the name David Craig, most recently a series set around Cardiff docks, where he grew up.
		James is concerned with the dilemmas and difficulties of policing Britain's inner cities, and he addresses these in hard-edged narratives that leave readers gasping and flinching, praying the people in these stories never come to live in their streets." – Sunday Times
	www.thedonotpress.com /authors/billjames.html (236 words)

	News 14 Carolina \| 24 Hour Local News \| LOCAL NEWS
		James Pughsley, superintendent of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, said he was insulted by the commissioner's comments.
		James Pughsley, superintendent of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, said this is not the first time he has been offended by Commissioner Bill James.
		James, a Republican, represents a district in south Mecklenburg and was unopposed in his bid for a fifth term last month.
	www.news14charlotte.com /content/local_news/?ArID=80628&SecID=2 (639 words)

	Diamond Mind Baseball
		Editor's note: Many of the analytical techniques that we use were developed by Bill James and described in the Bill James Baseball Abstract series in the 1980s.
		Bill's most recent books are The New Bill James Historical Abstract (2001) and Win Shares (2002).
		Bill wrote this with the idea of sharing it with some members of the baseball analysis community, not with the intent of publishing it.
	www.diamond-mind.com /articles/james_onerun.htm (3134 words)

	ESPN.com: MLB - Red Sox hire Bill James as advisor
		And while James certainly isn't the first sabermetrician to work for a major-league team, nor even the first to work for the Red Sox, he certainly is the most famous.
		Bill doesn't start with an assumption and then find data to support it, like a lot of people in baseball do.
		Bill is, and I assume the inherent bias against him within baseball will increase now that he has taken sides.
	espn.go.com /mlb/s/2002/1105/1456563.html (1722 words)

	Amazon.ca: Top Banana: Books: Bill James (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-23)
		This is England's mystery treasure Bill James describing a 13-year-old girl known as Noon, soon to be shot dead while working as a drug courier near a rundown park.
		Iles wants to curtail drug-related crime by making a treaty with the top dealers, especially Mansel Shale (whom James invests with brilliant dialogue that suggests a mating of Damon Runyon and Harold Pinter: "I would not like to be talking to any child of mine if I thought he had bullets in him").
		It's a 50-50 proposition Bill James either scores deep or is totally wrong for you.There's certainly nothing middling about this authors work.
	www.amazon.ca /Top-Banana-Bill-James/dp/0330350080 (858 words)

	CD Baby: BILL JAMES: The Love Doctor - from relaxradio
		Bill finished recording the CD and all artwork was done by Jonathan Sack,Lee Reinhardt and Discmakers.
		Bill James managed to incorporate various sound and music styles which we, European, are calling real American music.
		Bill James is drummer and guitar player, but he treated those instruments equally making good mix of vocal and instrumental parts.
	cdbaby.com /cd/billjames/from/relaxradio (437 words)

	Bronx Banter: BRONX BANTER INTERVIEW: BILL JAMES (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-23)
		James is a wonderful writer who is currently employed as a special advisor to the Boston Red Sox.
		James, more than any other sabermetrician, is a fantastic writer, and has shown that although he is objective (most of the time) in his analysis, it doesn't always have to revolve around statistics.
		James shows how stepping back and observing the game from a distance can be intellectually thrilling, and perhaps a greater pleasure than mere moment to moment fandom.
	www.all-baseball.com /bronxbanter/archives/012646.html (3056 words)

	Bronx Banter: Post Script with Bill James (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-23)
		Bill James was one of the guys I had contacted to participate.
		James' independence from the establishment existed b/c few, if any saw the value of saber analysis in baseball (James actually worked for the Royals in the 80's).
		James was one of several guys I had invited to participate who never got back to me. But then just a few days ago he did.
	www.all-baseball.com /bronxbanter/archives/016341.html (2933 words)

	Bill James
		Bill was a trucker in his younger days, and picked up on any excuse for a drive.
		Bill took along a stack of CDs in case there was a lull in the conversation, but that never happened.
		Bill realized that veterinary expenses could be a major obstacle to retired people like his parents, preventing them from keeping their old Bassets.
	www.allan-der.com /tbo/index.html (654 words)

	Boston Red Sox, Major League Baseball - CBS SportsLine.com
		Essentially, what James does with numbers is use them while attempting to quantify a player's contribution to his team in a various categories.
		James has been employed by clubs before, but more on a consulting basis to produce a study here or there -- he says he is not at liberty to say by whom, or by how many clubs -- but never in as high a profile capacity as this.
		James works out of his Kansas house and, the way the relationship currently is structured, he's scheduled to travel to Boston quarterly to meet with the front-office staff and scouts to further analyze the information he researches and analyzes throughout the year.
	www.cbs.sportsline.com /mlb/story/6274095 (2938 words)

	Amazon.com: The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract: Books: Bill James (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-23)
		Bill James talks about who he wants to talk about, and while he sometimes says quite a bit about the player, he often has little to say.
		Bill James is famous for his use of statistical analysis of baseball.
		Bill James applies his unique statistical approach, which makes him such a guru for many serious students of the game.
	www.amazon.com /Bill-James-Historical-Baseball-Abstract/dp/0743227220 (2373 words)

	Bill James (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-23)
		Bill James, whose other pseudonym is David Craig, has written many espionage and crime novels, one of which was filmed by Warner Brothers as The Squeeze, starring Stacy Keach, Edward Fox and Carol White and was adapted from the David Craig novel, Whose Little Girl Are You?
		Bill James is a former journalist, and wrote for The Sunday Times, the Daily Mirror, the Spectator, The New Review and Punch.
		James is married, with four children, and lives in his native South Wales and divides his time between his home near Cardiff and a caravan on the Pembrokeshire coast.
	www.twbooks.co.uk /authors/billjames.html (1411 words)

	Bill James
		Bill James, who actually coined the phrase “Sabermetrics”;, is still the best-known popularizer of the field.
		James began self-publishing his annual Baseball Abstracts in 1977.
		Bill James has gone on to publish numerous books and articles analyzing the game of baseball.
	libweb.uoregon.edu /exhibits/archive/baseball/billjames.html (115 words)

	A conversation with Bill James. By James Surowiecki - Slate Magazine
		Over the past 25 years, James' work on player evaluation, player development, and baseball strategy—which inaugurated the body of baseball research known as sabermetrics—has revolutionized baseball analysis and overturned decades' worth of conventional wisdom.
		For most of his career, though, James was the archetypical prophet in the wilderness.
		For the first time in his life, Bill James is no longer a baseball outsider.
	www.slate.com /id/2084193 (2722 words)

	TDA Book Review - The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract
		James' style is a blend of candor, sarcasm, humor, diffidence, curiosity, and respect.
		James is enamored with the Astro second baseman as to Win Shares, but I don't see any pennant, World Series, MVP, or more than the one "Black Ink" entry(James' own term for leading a league) - NL steals in 1994.
		Younger readers may not be too familiar with the latter, an exciting player and personality who was a rarity - the kind of slash hitter who could drive in 100 or more runs with fewer than 20 homers, which he did three times.
	www.thediamondangle.com /books/bjames.html (1087 words)

	Bill James \| BaseballLibrary.com
		Bill James, Win Shares and the Evaluation of Defense by Michael Hoban
		A former high school English teacher in Kansas, Bill James delved into the study of baseball statistics, publishing a series of "baseball abstracts" each season from 1977 through 1988 and
		The Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract in 1985.
	www.baseballlibrary.com /baseballlibrary/ballplayers/J/James_Bill43.stm (97 words)

	The Baseball Analysts: Breakfast With Bill James
		Although Bill has written nearly 40 books overall, the Baseball Abstracts are undoubtedly his best-known body of work and among the most significant collections in the game's history.
		James has arguably been the most influential person with respect to how we think about baseball since Branch Rickey.
		At times, Bill may have felt as if he was the lone voice in the wilderness but there were a number of prominent early readers who were paying close attention, including current Boston Red Sox owner John Henry, who hired James as the ballclub's Senior Baseball Operations Advisor in 2002.
	baseballanalysts.com /archives/2005/02/breakfast_with.php (2773 words)

	At Home Plate: Our interview with Bill James the guru of baseball statistical analysis
		James is known as one of the pioneers of baseball statistical analysis, a founding member of SABR (the Society for American Baseball Research), and author of one of the very best overall historical baseball books ever written -
		I had the pleasure of meeting Bill last year in Denver at the 2003 SABR annual conference.
		But I will say this: I didn't have anything to do with the best decision we made, which was the signing of Bill Mueller.
	www.athomeplate.com /jamesinterview.shtml (1491 words)

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