Quotes by Bill James

About Bill James:

George William "Bill" James is an American baseball writer, historian, and statistician whose work has been widely influential. Since 1977, James has written more than two dozen books devoted to baseball history and statistics. His approach, which he termed sabermetrics in reference to the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR), scientifically analyzes and studies baseball, often through the use of statistical data, in an attempt to determine why teams win and lose. His Baseball Abstract books in the 1980s are the modern predecessor to websites using sabermetrics such as Baseball Prospectus and Baseball Primer (now Baseball Think Factory).
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I have always been much better at asking questions than knowing what the answers were.

Bill James

It's extremely damaging to a fair trial to have people reaching judgment about the case in the newspapers and on the radio before the facts are heard in a case.

Bill James

None of us are claiming that the statistical analysts understand the game of football as well as the football coaches do, or that our analysis should take precedence over the informed opinions of experts. I'm not saying that at all.

Bill James

Any of us are capable of doing things we're not proud of under the wrong kind of stresses.

Bill James

Baseball does become slow sometimes. It's totally unnecessary. The - you can play baseball fast. You can play it slow, and for some reason, we have chosen to play it slow, you know, which is unfortunate, but nothing you can do about.

Bill James

When I was a small kid, I grew up in the newspapers.

Bill James

There comes a moment during a job interview when you're still talking, but you might as well take off your shoes.

Bill James

The fact is that everybody around a college basketball game - the coaches, the announcers, even the referees at a lower level - calculates when the game is really over. They calculate it with intuition and guesswork.

Bill James

We don't genuinely need more literary geniuses. One can only read so many books in a lifetime.

Bill James

You know one little way in which baseball changes us? We don't even think twice about Japanese names anymore. You know what I mean?

Bill James

I try to take large, general questions that are difficult to resolve and break them down into small, very specific questions that have clear answers.

Bill James

Serial murders are just the worst stories. It can take an emotional toll on you.

Bill James

Television is full of fictional and real violence that's turned into entertainment.

Bill James

I think among the population at large, people are openly fascinated with crime and don't feel any shame over it. It's only the opinion-makers and the 'opinion elites' who turn up their noses.

Bill James

The human race has been in a long struggle to eliminate murder. And we will succeed.

Bill James

You can't ultimately dodge defeat by winning close elections.

Bill James

There are, I believe, many more false confessions to murders than true confessions.

Bill James

If you go to a party populated by the NPR crowd and you start talking about JonBenet Ramsey, people will look at you as if you had forgotten your pants.

Bill James

We need new athletes all the time because we need new games every day - fudging just a little on the definition of the word 'need.' We like to have new games every day, and, if we are to have a constant and endless flow of games, we need a constant f...

Bill James

I like to feel that I understand little things about sports.

Bill James

I would never encourage my children to be athletes - first because my children are not athletes and second because there are so many people pushing to get to the top in sports that 100 people are crushed for each one who breaks through. This is unfor...

Bill James

Author Bio

  • NameBill James
  • DescriptionAmerican baseball writer and statistician
  • BornOctober 5, 1949
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionStatistician