Bill James Quotes

Quotes about:

Baseball Crime Sports

There will always be people who are ahead of the curve, and people who are behind the curve. But knowledge moves the curve.

Bill James

Moving, Curves, People

Bill James (2015). “Bill James Handbook 2016”, p.2, ACTA Publications

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I try to take large, general questions that are difficult to resolve and break them down into small, very specific questions that have clear answers.

Bill James

Trying, Answers, Break

"Stats Geek Bill James Applies His Science to Serial Killers" by Brian Raftery, www.wired.com. April 04, 2011.

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I made baseball as much fun as doing your taxes!

Bill James

Baseball, Fun, Made

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I have always been much better at asking questions than knowing what the answers were.

Bill James

Knowing, Asking Questions, Answers

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Do we need to have 280 brands of breakfast cereal? No, probably not. But we have them for a reason - because some people like them. It's the same with baseball statistics.

Bill James

Baseball, Cereal, People

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A chart of numbers that would put an actuary to sleep can be made to dance if you put it on one side of a card and Bombo Rivera's picture on the other.

Bill James

Sleep, Numbers, Cards

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Standardization leads to rigidity, and rigidity causes things to break.

Bill James

Causes, Break, Rigidity

"The Mind of Bill James: How a Complete Outsider Changed Baseball". Book by Scott Gray, 2006.

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Even if Mays is given every conceivable break on every unknown - defense, base running, clutch hitting - his performance still would not match Mantle's.

Bill James

Baseball, Running, Defense

Bill James (1988). “The Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract”, Random House Incorporated

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Well, stealing bases adds some runs but very few, and you lose most of the runs that you gain by having runners caught stealing.

Bill James

Running, Gains, Add

"The Man Behind The 'Moneyball' Sabermetrics". "Talk of the Nation" with Neal Conan, www.npr.org. September 26, 2011.

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You can't ultimately dodge defeat by winning close elections.

Bill James

Winning, Dodge, Election

"‘Moneyball’ Godfather Bill James Tackles Politics In Super PAC Age" by Sam Stein, www.huffingtonpost.com. June 15, 2012.

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Visualizing the movement finally got me over the top after months of practice.

Bill James

Practice, Movement, Months

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When people disagree with you, what you ultimately have to do is persuade people to agree with you - period.

Bill James

People, Periods, Agree

"‘Moneyball’ Godfather Bill James Tackles Politics In Super PAC Age" by Sam Stein, www.huffingtonpost.com. June 15, 2012.

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The business of popularizing crime is how we expose the faults in our justice system. It's how we expose police misconduct.

Bill James

Justice, Police, Faults

"Writer Bill James". "The Tavis Smiley Show", www.pbs.org. May 20, 2011.

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Television is full of fictional and real violence that's turned into entertainment. It's an interesting phenomena and I tried to put it in perspective and tried to think through a few of the real questions that this sometimes unseemly business raises.

Bill James

Real, Thinking, Interesting

"Writer Bill James". "Tavis Smiley", www.pbs.org. May 20, 2011.

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Let's try to find ten good things to say about Albert Belle:
10. So far as we know, he's never killed anyone.
9. He is handsome, and built like a God.
8. He played every game.
7. He has never appeared on the Jerry Springer Show.
6. He was an underrated base runner who was rarely caught stealing.
5. He hasn't been arrested in several years.
4. He is very bright.
3. He works hard.
2. He has never spoken favorably about Adolf Hitler, Saddam Hussein, or any other foreign madman.
1. The man could hit.

Bill James

Hard Work, Men, Years

Bill James (2001). “The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract”

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I do have a family, and obviously I spend as much time as I can with them. Though even when I'm with my family, my mind tends to drift toward baseball.

Bill James

Baseball, Mind, My Family

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How easy it is for a fantasy to grab hold of your foot like a rope, and dangle your life upside down while brigands go through your pockets. Deal with the life you've got. Solve the problems you have, rather than fantasizing about a life without them.

Bill James

Feet, Pockets, Rope

"The Professor of Baseball" by Ben McGrath, www.newyorker.com. July 14, 2003.

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Do people really believe there's something different about the eyes of murderers?

Bill James

Believe, Eye, People

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I learned to write because I am one of those people who somehow cannot manage the common communications of smiles and gestures, but must use words to get across things that other people would never need to say.

Bill James

Communication, Writing, People

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The human race has been in a long struggle to eliminate murder. And we will succeed.

Bill James

Struggle, Race, Long

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Any of us are capable of doing things we're not proud of under the wrong kind of stresses. Anyone can become a drug addict if you let yourself do it and, once you become a drug addict, you'll do whatever you have to to get the drugs. Absolutely, anybody can do it.

Bill James

Stress, Drug, Proud

"Writer Bill James". "The Tavis Smiley show", www.pbs.org. May 20, 2011.

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Letting him manage in the major leagues is like sending Bo Derek through cellblock A without a bodyguard.

Bill James

Sports, League, Psychology

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It's extremely damaging to a fair trial to have people reaching judgment about the case in the newspapers and on the radio before the facts are heard in a case.

Bill James

People, Trials, Radio

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Famous crime stories almost always lead to the passing of new laws. There's a great many intersections between this unseemly tabloid phenomena and serious social issues and we never get to that intersection because serious people don't like to talk about that unattractive stuff.

Bill James

Law, Issues, People

"Writer Bill James". "The Tavis Smiley Show", www.pbs.org. May 20, 2011.

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The fact is that everybody around a college basketball game - the coaches, the announcers, even the referees at a lower level - calculates when the game is really over. They calculate it with intuition and guesswork.

Bill James

Inspirational, Basketball, College

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Latest quotes from interviews

"I tried not to write about the O.J. Simpson case too much because so much has already been said about it, but there are a lot of questions left worth asking. However, the case is very useful to illustrate other points. The case is a common reference point because everybody knows the ins and outs of it, more than any other case in this generation, so it becomes useful to reference other points. In itself, there aren't that many questions about it that remain unanswered."

- Bill James,

www.pbs.org, added Oct 8, 2015

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Bill James

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Born: October 5, 1949
Occupation: Writer
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