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9 unusual facts about Bill James


1913 Philadelphia Athletics season

In 2001, baseball historian Bill James ranked the 1913 incarnation of the Athletics' famous "$100,000 infield" as the best of all time in major league history (first baseman Stuffy McInnis, second baseman Eddie Collins, third baseman Frank "Home Run" Baker, shortstop Jack Barry).

1915 Detroit Tigers season

Baseball historian Bill James ranks the Tigers' 1915 outfield as the best in major league history.

Bill James Presents The Great American Baseball Statbook

Bill James Presents The Great American Baseball Statbook is a book written by baseball sabermetrician Bill James in 1988.

Computer-aided scouting

However, when pioneers like Bill James began to analyze the data and apply mathematical principals and new non-conventional formulas to predict success and failures of a player or team.

LABR

Formed by John Hunt, the fantasy baseball columnist for USA Today Baseball Weekly, the league was first formed in 1994 and featured such celebrities as Peter Gammons, Keith Olbermann and Bill James.

Luis Tiant, Sr.

Bill James and Rob Neyer ranked it the seventh-best screwball of all time.

Player efficiency rating

Hollinger's work has benefitted from the observations of sabermetric baseball analysts, such as Bill James.

Similarity score

Similarity scores are among the many original sabermetric concepts first introduced by Bill James.

The Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract

The Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract is a reference-type book written by Bill James featuring an overview of professional baseball decade by decade, along with rankings of the top 100 players at each position.


Arky Vaughan

In his New Historical Baseball Abstract, published in 2001, Bill James claimed that Vaughan is the second-best shortstop in major league history, behind fellow Pirate and mentor Honus Wagner.

Jack Clements

In his Historical Baseball Abstract, Bill James ranked Clements as the 58th greatest catcher in baseball history.

Mickey Tettleton

In his book, The Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract, baseball historian Bill James ranked Tettleton 37th all-time among major league catchers.

The Only Nolan

Bill James and Rob Neyer report Nolan has having thrown an unusually fast (for his day) underhand fastball and a combination of curveballs.

Tommy McCarthy

In his Historical Baseball Abstract, Sabermetrician Bill James makes the point that McCarthy was held in such high esteem because of his introduction of the "hit and run" play into the game.


see also

Arto Monaco

Shortly after WW2, he was asked by his old colonel, Bill James, to work help refurbish Lake Arrowhead Resort, Lake Arrowhead, California, as a Swiss-style resort village.

Rob Neyer

He is the author or co-author of six books: Baseball Dynasties (2000) with Eddie Epstein, Feeding the Green Monster (2001), Rob Neyer's Big Book of Baseball Lineups (2003), The Neyer/James Guide to Pitchers (2004) with Bill James, Rob Neyer's Big Book of Baseball Blunders (2006), and Rob Neyer's Big Book of Baseball Legends (2008).

Secondary average

For example, in 1990, Bill James identified Eric Davis as the most productive batter with a career average below .275; in spite of his low batting average, Davis had a career secondary average of .504, which was the highest of any active player at the time.

Those Memories of You

It was first cut by Bill & James Monroe in 1980 and later released as a single by Pam Tillis in 1986, whose version peaked at #55 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart.