Fools Rush Inn: More Detours on the Way to Conventional Wisdom

In this second collection of recent articles (the first was Solid Fool's Gold), groundbreaking sabermetrician and baseball historian Bill James takes his unique way of looking at the world and applies it to topics as diverse as the major league players who went out on top, whether ground ball pitchers are as good (or as bad) as people think, do hitters like Yasiel Puig have hot hand streaks (they do) and why (that's a different question), and do teams have tough stretches and soft patches in their schedules (they do) and how to mention them. Along the way, James takes several detours to discuss his views on classical music, fiction versus non-fiction, keeping will animals in captivity, conservatives and liberals, and several other things that interest or offend him. He even includes a couple of his favorite old baseball stories and a new way to summarize something's or someone's history in exactly 10-25-50-100-200-500 words.

The 18 articles included are: -Dividing Baseball History into Eras -Classical Sport -Big Game Pitchers -Going Out on Top -Let Me Offend You -Hot Hand Question -Jumping the Fictional Shark -The Analogy of the Fisherman -Mindless Education -The 300-Win Pool -The Standards of a Hall of Fame Manager -The Liberal Coach and the Conservative Athlete -The Zanesville Animal Massacre -Tough Stretches and Soft Patches -Experiment in Summary -Yaz and Billy -Opinions, Philosophy, and Ideas -Couple of Great Old Baseball Stories