Stumbling On Wins in Football: Two Economists Expose the Pitfalls on the Road to Victory in Professional Sports

Preface

Once upon a time, the word “moneyball” was only heard in reference to a winning shot in billiards. A few years ago, though, the phrase moved out of the pool hall and onto the baseball diamond. The man responsible for this move was Michael Lewis. In 2003, Lewis published Moneyball, a book that tells the remarkable story of the Oakland A’s and General Manager Billy Beane. From 1996 to 2006, Beane managed to consistently field a winning baseball team without spending very much money on players. According to Lewis, this feat was accomplished because Beane knew something about measuring player performance that other decision-makers in baseball didn’t know.

One year before Moneyball appeared, we published an article examining the coaches voting ...