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State of Play
- The Old School Guide to New School Baseball
- Narrated by: Danny Campbell
- Length: 5 hrs and 11 mins
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America's favorite pastime is undergoing an operations-to-field transformation. In recent years, the sabermetrics and analytics craze has infiltrated Major League Baseball - from its front offices to dugouts to clubhouses to media covering both, inciting a baseball culture war. New phrases like "launch angle," "spin rate," and "pitch framing" have entered the vocabulary, often with little real meaning when it comes to how the game is actually played on the field. No more.
In State of Play, 12-year Major League veteran, Emmy Award-winning MLB Network analyst, and best-selling author Bill Ripken breaks down these modern statistical methods to explain which ones make sense in the game's historical context, bringing them together with proven old-school strategies. He simplifies those sabermetric terms hastily added to the baseball lexicon without being fully realized, taking new-school confusion out of old-school baseball's tried-and-true common sense. In the end, he unites the teachings of each school to show fans of both how to listen to and understand the game as it's played today and how it should be played moving forward.
From a true baseball lifer, State of Play offers a fascinating insider's look at how to reconcile years of historical tradition with the rules and trends of the new millennium.
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Story
Drawing from Moskowitz's original research, as well as studies from fellow economists such as bestselling author Richard Thaler, the authors look at: the influence home-field advantage has on the outcomes of games in all sports and why it exists; the surprising truth about the universally accepted axiom that defense wins championships; the subtle biases that umpires exhibit in calling balls and strikes in key situations; the unintended consequences of referees' tendencies in every sport to "swallow the whistle," and more.
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Fascinating book!
- By Wayne on 10-22-16
By: L. Jon Wertheim, and others
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The Only Rule Is It Has to Work
- Our Wild Experiment Building a New Kind of Baseball Team
- By: Ben Lindbergh, Sam Miller
- Narrated by: Kirby Heyborne, John Pruden
- Length: 13 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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It's the ultimate in fantasy baseball: You get to pick the roster, set the lineup, and decide on strategies - with real players, in a real ballpark, in a real playoff race. That's what baseball analysts Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller got to do when an independent minor-league team in California, the Sonoma Stompers, offered them the chance to run its baseball operations according to the most advanced statistics.
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Narrarators have never watched baseball. Ever!
- By Anon on 06-02-16
By: Ben Lindbergh, and others
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Dollar Sign on the Muscle
- The World of Baseball Scouting
- By: Kevin Kerrane
- Narrated by: Patrick Kerrane
- Length: 12 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Humorous case histories and profiles of great baseball scouts accompany a discussion of the trade secrets of baseball scouts, the economics of scouting, player development, and the history of the profession. In a new epilogue Kevin Kerrane explores the world of baseball scouting in the late 1990s.
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Good for diehards, but dated and riddled w errors
- By Kindle Customer on 03-02-17
By: Kevin Kerrane
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K: A History of Baseball in Ten Pitches
- By: Tyler Kepner
- Narrated by: Tyler Kepner
- Length: 10 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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From the New York Times baseball columnist, an enchanting, enthralling history of the national pastime as told through the craft of pitching, based on years of archival research and interviews with more than 300 people from Hall of Famers to the stars of today.
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Attn authors: please use professional narration.
- By Mark Erickson on 07-10-19
By: Tyler Kepner
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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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As They See 'Em
- A Fan's Travels in the Land of Umpires
- By: Bruce Weber
- Narrated by: Charley Steiner
- Length: 13 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Millions of American baseball fans know, with absolute certainty, that umpires are simply overpaid galoots who are doing an easy job badly. Millions of American baseball fans are wrong. As They See 'Em is an insider's look at the largely unknown world of professional umpires, the small group of men (and the very occasional woman) who make sure America's favorite pastime is conducted in a manner that is clean, crisp, and true.
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Judging Umpires
- By Bruce on 11-28-09
By: Bruce Weber
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1954: The Year Willie Mays and the First Generation of Black Superstars Changed Major League Baseball Forever
- By: Bill Madden
- Narrated by: David Drummond
- Length: 8 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Jackie Robinson heroically broke the color barrier in 1947. But how—and, in practice, when—did the integration of the sport actually occur? Bill Madden shows that baseball’s famous black experiment” did not truly succeed until the coming of age of Willie Mays and the emergence of some star players—Larry Doby, Hank Aaron, and Ernie Banks—in 1954. And as a relevant backdrop off the field, it was in May of that year that the US Supreme Court unanimously ruled, in the case of Brown v. Board of Education, that segregation be outlawed in America’s public schools.
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Acumen bugaboo
- By steve finkelstein on 04-25-21
By: Bill Madden
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A Band of Misfits
- Tales of the 2010 San Francisco Giants
- By: Andrew Baggarly
- Narrated by: Brian Troxell
- Length: 9 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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For 53 years, San Francisco waited. Waited for a team like the 2010 Giants to come along. Waited for a team that could end a title drought that started in New York and carried on for more than five decades after a move to the West Coast. Waited for that one magical postseason run that could unleash more than a half-century of pent-up frustration. At long last, the 2010 Giants hopped on that magic carpet and made it happen. San Jose Mercury News beat reporter Andrew Baggarly captured the 2010 Giants' incredible run through the regular season, playoffs and World Series in his new book.
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Relived that season!
- By jeff olson on 12-20-18
By: Andrew Baggarly
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Big Hair and Plastic Grass
- A Funky Ride Through Baseball and America in the Swinging '70s
- By: Dan Epstein
- Narrated by: Dan Epstein
- Length: 12 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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The Bronx Is Burning meets Chuck Klosterman in this wild pop-culture history of baseball's most colorful and controversial decade. The Major Leagues witnessed more dramatic stories and changes in the 70s than in any other era. The American popular culture and counterculture collided head-on with the national pastime, rocking the once-conservative sport to its very foundations. For the millions of fans who grew up during this time, Big Hair and Plastic Grass serves up a delicious trip down memory lane.
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Excellent but biased
- By Andy on 02-25-21
By: Dan Epstein
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The Extra 2%
- How Wall Street Strategies Took a Major League Baseball Team from Worst to First
- By: Jonah Keri
- Narrated by: Lloyd James
- Length: 9 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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In The Extra 2%, financial journalist and sportswriter Jonah Keri chronicles the remarkable story of one team's Cinderella journey from divisional doormat to World Series contender. By quantifying the game's intangibles, they were able to deliver to Tampa Bay an American League pennant. This is an informative and entertaining case study for any organization that wants to go from worst to first.
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No Strategies or Insight
- By Victor Luera on 10-11-12
By: Jonah Keri
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The Best Team Money Can Buy
- The Los Angeles Dodgers’ Wild Struggle to Build a Baseball Powerhouse
- By: Molly Knight
- Narrated by: Hillary Huber
- Length: 11 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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In 2012 the Los Angeles Dodgers were bought out of bankruptcy in the most expensive sale in sports history. Los Angeles icon Magic Johnson and his partners hoped to put together a team worthy of Hollywood. By most accounts they have succeeded, if not always in the way they might have imagined.
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BOTH BOOK AND TEAM NEED TO BE BETTER
- By Ray on 09-06-15
By: Molly Knight
What listeners say about State of Play
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- James
- 08-08-21
Not a guide, more of an
Danny Campbell was the perfect narrator for this book. His mature, scratchy voice perfectly matches the tone of this book. He gives the reader the feel that are listening directly to the author. He nailed it.
These things are actually said in this book. “Get off my lawn”, “Things were better in my day”, “The world is flat”. OK that last one wasn’t said, but it would have fit right in.
I bought this book based on seeing how an old school baseball guy acclimated to New School Baseball. But that’s not what this book is about. It’s more of a Old School guy trashing New School strategies. How is arguing against everything a guide? The sad part of Ripken’s book is that he does not Seem to understand “New School Baseball” so how can he guide anyone to understanding it? That’s not my opinion, it’s his, as he says that several times in the book.
He argues with that it as “better in my day” on almost every chapter. Some make sense in his agreements on defensive statistics but completely misunderstands WAR and seems to claim that “New School” is stealing terminology by giving it a more catchy or appropriate name.
I am not a hard core Sabermetrician but I’m much more of one now than I was prior to reading this book.
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- Anthony
- 04-28-24
Things were better in the old days
That pretty much sums up this book. Lots of gripes but little or no substance. The narrator did a good job though.
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