Explore Quotes by Bill James

Professionalism in law has brought us the O.J. Simpson case in lieu of justice.

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?

Our society is very, very good at developing certain types of skills and certain types of genius. We are fantastically good at identifying and developing athletic skills - better than we are, really, at almost anything else. We are quite good at developing and rewarding inventiveness.

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

I have always been much better at asking questions than knowing what the answers were.

Bunting is usually a waste of time. The - generally, yeah, I mean, if you think about it, bunt is the only play in baseball that both sides applaud. The - if the home team bunts, you get a base. The home team applauds because they get an out, and the other team applauds because they get a base. So what does that tell you?

If a candidate for office starts talking about thinning the deer population or investing in barriers to reduce the number of deer on the highways, the other side will probably just ignore him, because they're not going to know what to say about it. But there is a chance that the issue will resonate with voters in an unexpected way.

There are many things that you can't measure. But the great fun of what I do for a living is figuring out ways to measure things that people previously considered intangible.

Some people give themselves over to their most evil desires, and those people becomes evil. But in general, it's reductive to think of evil as something foreign and separate from the rest of us. Evil is part of everyone. We all have the capacity to commit evil acts.

Famous crime stories almost always lead to the passing of new laws.

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

In a crime story, the details become tremendously important - where the staircase was in relation to the bed, for example.

Do people really believe there's something different about the eyes of murderers?

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

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.

Visualizing the movement finally got me over the top after months of practice.

Let's try to find ten good things to say about Albert Belle:_x000D_10. So far as we know, he's never killed anyone._x000D_ 9. He is handsome, and built like a God._x000D_ 8. He played every game._x000D_ 7. He has never appeared on the Jerry Springer Show._x000D_ 6. He was an underrated base runner who was rarely caught stealing._x000D_ 5. He hasn't been arrested in several years._x000D_ 4. He is very bright._x000D_ 3. He works hard._x000D_ 2. He has never spoken favorably about Adolf Hitler, Saddam Hussein, or any other foreign madman._x000D_ 1. The man could hit.

I do have a family, and obviously I spend as much time as I can with them. Though even when I'm with my family, my mind tends to drift toward baseball.

I learned to write because I am one of those people who somehow cannot manage the common communications of smiles and gestures, but must use words to get across things that other people would never need to say.

Do we need to have 280 brands of breakfast cereal? No, probably not. But we have them for a reason - because some people like them. It's the same with baseball statistics.

Letting him manage in the major leagues is like sending Bo Derek through cellblock A without a bodyguard.