Power Ball: Anatomy of a Modern Baseball Game

I was given a copy of this book by Harper Collins in exchange for an honest review.

Today's post is on Power Ball: Anatomy of a Modern Baseball Game by Rob Never. It is 304 pages long and is published by Harper Collins. The cover is white with a baseball field on the bottom and a stat sheet as the 'O' in the title on top. There is mild foul language, no sex, and no violence in this book. The intended reader is someone who is interested in baseball both historically and modern. There Be Spoilers Ahead.

From the back of the book- The former ESPN columnist and analytics pioneer dramatically recreates an action-packed 2017 game between the Oakland A’s and eventual World Series Champion Houston Astros to reveal the myriad ways in which Major League Baseball has changed over the last few decades.
On September 8, 2017, the Oakland A’s faced off against the Houston Astros in a game that would signal the passing of the Moneyball mantle. Though this was only one regular season game, the match-up of these two teams demonstrated how Major League Baseball has changed since the early days of Athletics general manager Billy Beane and the publication of Michael Lewis’ classic book.
Over the past twenty years, power and analytics have taken over the game, driving carefully calibrated teams like the Astros to victory. Seemingly every pitcher now throws mid-90s heat and studiously compares their mechanics against the ideal. Every batter in the lineup can crack homers and knows their launch angles. Teams are relying on unorthodox strategies, including using power-losing—purposely tanking a few seasons to get the best players in the draft.
As he chronicles each inning and the unfolding drama as these two teams continually trade the lead—culminating in a 9-8 Oakland victory in the bottom of the ninth—Neyer considers the players and managers, the front office machinations, the role of sabermetrics, and the current thinking about what it takes to build a great team, to answer the most pressing questions fans have about the sport today.

Review- If I had more understanding of Baseball in general I think I would have gotten more out of this book but that said I still learned a lot about the game and how it is played in our modern time. Never wants to examine baseball in the now but because baseball has a very long history he has to engage with the history of baseball and how we got to the now. The beginning of the book is very stat heavy but as the narrative of this one game continues that gets less and for me that made the story easier to engage with. We get to know the players, their backgrounds, the teams, how runs them, how trading has lead to this game, and over details that add up to the game being played. I really enjoyed learning about the players, the history of the teams, and those details but the stats and the numbers behind the game just flew over my head, I do not blame Never for that but my own lack of knowledge about the game and these stats. If you are a Baseball fan then you should give this book a look but if you want to learn more about Baseball without having a background in Baseball then I would try something else.

I give this a Three out of Five stars.