Quote of the Week

Aaron Gleeman posts an excellent review of a new bookabout Bill James by Scott Gray which has already been added to my Amazon shopping cart. There are so many reasons to admire Bill James, but mostly I respect him for calling out BS when he sees it.

Today, Al and I are starting a new feature of the blog..."Quote of the Week." Each week we will present one of our favorite baseball-related quotes, whether old or new, for your enjoyment. To kick things off, I'll provide two this week, one from Bill James and one from a writer on Baseball Prospectus, a site that wouldn't exist if it weren't for Bill James. Both of these quotes summarize my beliefs when it comes to baseball and knowledge in general, and frequent readers will find it to be a recurring theme on Baseball For Thought:

“If you care to think about it at all you have to realize, as soon as you acquire a taste for independent thought, that a great portion of the sport's traditional knowledge is ridiculous hokum.” - Bill James, as quoted in Moneyball

“I'm skeptical of any conclusion until it's proven to be so. I have a very healthy distrust of other people's opinions.” - Dr. Rany Jazayerli, Baseball Prospectus