HOT CORNER

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What: “Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game”

Author: Michael Lewis

Publisher: W.W. Norton

Price: $24.95

Michael Lewis is a respected financial writer who usually focuses on what takes place on Wall Street rather than what takes place in the sports world.

Lewis, who lives in Berkeley, was drawn away from the financial world to baseball by this question: How do the Oakland Athletics, one of the poorest teams in baseball, win so many games?

This well-researched, 288-page book tries to answer that question. Featured is Billy Beane, the team’s general manager. Beane never lived up to his potential as a player, but as a general manager he can be compared to Jerry West.

Beane, as was sometimes the case with West and the Lakers, often doesn’t watch the A’s play. When the A’s, in a home game against Kansas City last season, were trying to win their 20th in a row, Beane went to Modesto to watch the Visalia Oaks play the Modesto A’s. Both teams are Class-A affiliates of Oakland, and Beane wanted to see the players the A’s had drafted.

The book, also available on audio tapes through Random House, provides a look at the inner workings of a major league team. It has produced a reaction from critics. Newsweek said, “Anyone who cares about baseball must read it.”

Lewis, through Beane, criticizes much of what is traditional in baseball. Longtime baseball beat writer Tracy Ringolsby, now with the Rocky Mountain News, said two things were apparent: “Beane’s ego has exploded, and author Michael Lewis has a limited knowledge of baseball and a total infatuation with Beane.”

The feeling here is Lewis perhaps paid too much attention to detail and the book gets tedious at times, even boring.

-- Larry Stewart