Bill James facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts

Quick facts for kids Bill James
James in 2010
Born	George William James (1949-10-05) October 5, 1949 (age 75) Holton, Kansas, U.S.
Alma mater	University of Kansas
Occupation	Baseball historian statistician
Years active	1977–present
Known for	Sabermetrics

Military career
Allegiance	United States
Service/branch	United States Army
Years of service	1971–1973

George William James (born October 5, 1949) is a famous American baseball writer and expert. He is known for using science and numbers to study baseball. Since 1977, James has written many books about baseball history and statistics.

His special way of looking at baseball is called sabermetrics. This name comes from the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR). Sabermetrics uses facts and figures to understand why teams win or lose.

In 2006, Time magazine called him one of the 100 most important people in the world. In 2003, the Boston Red Sox baseball team hired James as a special advisor. He worked for the team for 17 years. During that time, the Red Sox won four World Series championships.

Early Life and Education

Bill James was born in Holton, Kansas. He joined the United States Army in 1971. After his time in the Army, he went to the University of Kansas.

He earned degrees in English, economics, and education by 1975.

Career in Baseball Analysis

Starting with The Bill James Baseball Abstracts

After leaving the Army, Bill James started writing about baseball. He was a big fan and wanted to be a writer. He often wrote while working as a security guard at night.

Unlike other writers, James did not just tell stories about games. He asked questions like, "Which pitchers let runners steal the most bases?" Then, he used data to find the answers.

Publishers thought his ideas were too different. So, James decided to publish his own books every year. He called them The Bill James Baseball Abstract.

The first book came out in 1977. It had 68 pages of detailed statistics. He gathered these numbers by studying box scores from the past season. Only 75 people bought the first book.

The 1978 edition sold 250 copies. From 1979 to 1984, James also wrote a baseball preview for Esquire magazine.

His early books earned him respect. A writer named Daniel Okrent gave a very good review in Sports Illustrated. By 1982, sales of his Abstract books grew a lot. A big publishing company then started to print and share his books.

Before James, few writers had made baseball statistics popular. His work led to many other books and articles about baseball numbers.

Later Books and Projects

In 1988, James stopped writing the yearly Abstract books. He felt tired from the work and thought there were too many statistics available. However, he kept writing other baseball books.

These books included different versions of The Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract. They were very popular and got good reviews.

James also started new yearly book series:

The Baseball Book (1990–1992) had comments, player stories, and research.
The Player Ratings Book (1993–95) gave statistics for fantasy baseball fans.
The Bill James Handbook (2003–present) shares past and future player stats. It also includes results for the Fielding Bible Awards.
The Bill James Gold Mine (2008–2010) had new essays and stats.

In 2008, James launched Bill James Online. People could subscribe to read his new writing. They could also ask him questions and talk with other fans. In 2023, James announced that this website would close.

Working with STATS, Inc.

In 1984, James wanted Major League Baseball to share detailed play-by-play information from every game. He suggested creating "Project Scoresheet." This was a group of fans who would collect and share this information.

The group collected game details from 1984 to 1991. James's publisher even released two books with essays and data from this project.

Later, many members of Project Scoresheet formed new companies. One of these was STATS, Inc.. James joined this company. STATS, Inc. provided baseball data to major news companies. Fox Sports bought the company in 2001.

Bill James's Big Ideas

Bill James created many new ways to understand baseball using numbers. Here are some of his important ideas:

Runs Created

This number tries to show how much a player helps their team score runs. It also predicts how many runs a team should score. It uses other hitting stats to figure this out. $RC = \frac{(H+BB) \times TB}{AB+BB}$ When used for a whole team, it is usually very close to the team's actual runs scored. Experts have made this idea even better over time.

Range Factor

This number helps measure how good a player is at defense. It counts how many outs a player is involved in. $RF = \frac{9 \times (A + PO)}\text{Innings}$ James believed that the total number of outs a player helps with is more important than just their fielding percentage.

Defensive Efficiency Rating

This stat shows how often a team's defense turns a ball hit into play into an out. It helps show how good a team's defense is overall. $DER = 1 - \frac{H + ROE - HR}{PA - K - BB - HBP - HR}$

Win Shares

This is a complex number that tries to compare players from different positions and different time periods. It combines hitting, pitching, and fielding stats. It can be hard to calculate.

Pythagorean Winning Percentage

This idea explains how a team's wins and losses relate to the runs they score and the runs they allow. It often matches a team's actual winning percentage very closely. $\mathrm{Pythagorean ~ W\%} = \frac{R^2}{R^2+RA^2}$

Game Score

This number helps decide how strong a pitcher's performance was in a single game. Other experts have improved this idea since James first created it.

Major League Equivalency

This idea uses a player's stats from minor league games. It tries to guess how well that player will do when they play in the major leagues.

The Brock2 System

This system tries to predict how a player will perform for the rest of their career. It looks at their past performance and how players usually change as they get older.

Similarity Scores

This idea compares a player's stats to other players' stats. It helps us understand how a player from the past might be like a player today. For example, Lou Gehrig is similar to Don Mattingly.

Secondary Average

This number tries to show how much a player helps their team's offense in ways that are not just about their batting average. It can be very different from a player's batting average. $\mathrm{SecA} = \frac{BB+(TB-H) + (SB-CS)}{AB} = \frac{BB + (SB-CS)}{AB} + ISO$

Power/Speed Number

This stat combines a player's home runs and stolen bases. It helps find players who are good at both hitting for power and running fast. $\mathrm{PSN} = \frac{2 \times HR \times SB}{HR + SB}$

Other Ideas

James also created an "Approximate Value" system. This helps estimate how much value a player added to their team. He also made a "temperature gauge" to show how well a player is doing recently. This gauge has been used on TV during Red Sox games.

Even though James is known for stats, he often said that numbers are not the only important thing. He stressed that understanding the situation (like how a baseball park affects hits) and luck are also very important. Many of his ideas helped people see that traditional stats do not tell the whole story.

Impact on Professional Baseball

In the early 2000s, Oakland Athletics general manager Billy Beane started using Bill James's ideas. Beane used these "sabermetric" principles to build a successful team with a smaller budget. This was written about in the book Moneyball.

In 2003, John Henry, the new owner of the Boston Red Sox, hired Bill James. Henry had been a fan of James's work.

James helped the Red Sox make important decisions. He is given credit for suggesting moves that led to the team's first World Series win in 86 years in 2004. This included signing David Ortiz and trading for Mark Bellhorn. He also helped the team focus more on players who had a high on-base percentage.

James worked for the Red Sox for 17 years. During his time there, the team won four World Series titles (2004, 2007, 2013, and 2018). He received a World Series ring for each win.

In 2019, James announced he was leaving the Red Sox. He felt he was no longer as involved with the team's main decisions.

Other Writing and Interests

Bill James has also written two true crime books. One is Popular Crime: Reflections on the Celebration of Violence (2011). The other, The Man from the Train (2017), was written with his daughter, Rachel McCarthy James. This book tries to solve many old murder cases from the early 1900s.

James is also a big fan of the University of Kansas men's basketball team. He has written about basketball and even created a formula for what he calls a "safe lead" in the sport.

Bill James in Pop Culture

Bill James's work has been featured in many places:

The book Moneyball (2003) by Michael Lewis talks a lot about James and sabermetrics.
In 2007, James was added to the Shrine of the Eternals. This is a special place that honors people who have had a big impact on baseball.
He was featured on the TV show 60 Minutes in 2008.
In 2010, he was put into the Irish American Baseball Hall of Fame.
James made a guest appearance on The Simpsons in the 2010 episode "MoneyBART". In the episode, he joked that he made baseball "as fun as doing your taxes."
The 2011 movie Moneyball mentions James several times. The movie shows how important his ideas were to baseball.

Personal Life

Bill James married Susan McCarthy in 1978. They have three children together.

In January 2024, James shared that he had a stroke. This affected the use of his right hand.

Books About Bill James

The Mind of Bill James (2006)
How Bill James Changed Our View of Baseball: by Colleagues, Critics, Competitors and Just Plain Fans (2007)