Stumbling On Wins

• For interviews, contact Laura Czaja of FT Press & Wharton School Publishing
• Read the official Press Release for Stumbling on Wins

Some more Reviews!

• David Berri and Martin Schmidt have written a very interesting book called Stumbling on Wins: Two Economists Expose the Pitfalls on the Road to Victory in Professional Sports.
  
  I just concluded reading it. I recommend it highly to the passionate, opinionated fan. The stats speak loudly and clearly.
  
  This is a wonderful counter cultural look at the world of sports by economists and math majors. Buy it today.
  
  - Ted Leonsis, owner of the Washington Wizards
• "Stumbling on Wins" is packed full of "Eureka!" moments -- where Berri and Schmidt show how the secrets of sports-team success are hidden in plain sight. Whether they're writing about basketball, baseball, football or hockey, the authors have an unerring knack for picking out the statistical truths that most fans (and many general managers) overlook. What's more, they write with an easy-going grace that makes even the most extreme re-education far more fun than it should be.
  
  George Anders, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist; pickingtalent.com.
• "This book takes the hallowed traditions of sports decision making and pokes them with a sharp stick."
  
  -- Henry Abbott, founder of TrueHoop, housed at ESPN.com.
  
  More from Henry Abbott:The robots are coming, and they're cranky
• "'Moneyball' should have been called 'MoneyBaseball.' Stumbling on Wins covers everything else. Every general manager needs to buy this book to save his owner money. Every fan needs to buy this book to know when it makes sense to yell at the general manager." -- Darren Rovell, CNBC Sports Reporter
• “This is an important book. Berri and Schmidt have been leaders of the revolution in the analysis of team performance in sports, in this book, they explain why coaches, players and fans cannot afford to ignore the stats if they want to win. Moneyball gave us an inkling of what is to come, but this is the real deal.”
  
  -- Stefan Szymanski, author of Soccernomics and Playbooks and Checkbooks
• “Berri and Schmidt are true pioneers of modern sports economics, proving time and again that sports are the perfect laboratory for social science research. Stumbling On Wins reveals that sports are more than entertainment; they tell us something important about ourselves.”
  
  -- JC Bradbury, author The Baseball Economist and founder of Sabernomics
• “This book isn't just about sports statistics. In Stumbling On Wins, Berri and Schmidt have a compelling story to tell about how people make decisions in sports, and the stats narrate the story. This is a fresh and revealing look at how decision-makers frequently miss the mark and how they can do better.”
  
  -- Brian Burke, AdvancedNFLStats.com
• “..This book covers a wide array of interesting topics, from bias against black quarterbacks to whether coach quality matters (in some cases, yes, but most coaches are interchangeable). Ultimately it’s a book about irrationality in decision-making, and how poor business practices can persist for a loooooong time whenever competitive pressures are somewhat attenuated.”
  
  -- Matthew Yglesias, yglesias.thinkprogress.org and author of Heads in the Sand
• Excerpts from Ty Willihnganz review… (here is the entire review)
  
  ….I am an extremely particular reader, okay? If the material is weak, if the research is weak, or if the writing is weak, the book gets put down. I don’t care if the author is my brother. Well, I got the book yesterday. Okay? I started to read it last night. You follow me? Its morning and I’m finished.
  
  ….What I absolutely love about the work put out by Berri and Schmidt is it is written in plain English. Subject-Verb-Object. Subject-Verb-Object. That may sound like a back-handed compliment, it absolutely is not. The hardest form of English writing is simple, understandable, well-structured writing, especially when you are dealing with a subject like Economics. These guys can do it, and they do it through out the book, and this reader appreciates the effort and skill that it took.
  
  …This is NOT a “Stat Geek” book. …This is a book that applies economic theory to the sports industry. It is a study of irrational decision making and the misunderstood, or overvalued inputs that cause faulty outputs. Its a study of human behavior, in other words, not of numbers necessarily.
  
  -- Ty Willihnganz, Courtside Analyst