Beane is the primary subject through wish Lewis examines how statistics were applied to Major League Baseball to improve efficiency. He is a figure who straddles the old world of baseball insiders and the new world of outsiders armed with computers and spreadsheets. A top baseball prospect while still in high school, Beane looked the part of the professional athlete. On the surface, he acted it, too; he ran fast and hit well. All the scouts were interested in him. Under the surface, however, little details hinted at problems. Between his junior and senior years of high school, his batting average fell considerably without explanation. Most of all, he did not handle adversity well; he’d had so much success early on, Lewis notes, that he never really had to.

Later, as general manager of the Oakland A’s, Beane became part of the new world of baseball. By then he had been introduced to the ways of Bill James—who had analyzed baseball in his Baseball Abstract—through his mentorship from the A’s Sandy Alderson. It made perfect sense to him given his background and his confusing lack of success as a player. Thus he took a ragtag group of players, the only ones the paltry A’s budget could afford, and made them top contenders.