Statistician and author Bill James spoke to the Iowa State University Economics Club Wednesday, Oct. 27 in 127 Curtiss Hall. The audience of about 70 club members and others listened to James speak on Sabermetrics, the statistical analysis of baseball.
George William James, BS Economics, University of Kansas, 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. In 2003, James was hired by a former reader, John Henry, the new owner of the Boston Red Sox. During his tenure with the Red Sox, James is credited with advocating some of the moves that led to the team's first World Series championship in 86 years, including the signing of non-tendered free agent David Ortiz, the trade for Mark Bellhorn, and the team's increased emphasis on on-base percentage. During his time with the team, Bill James received four World Series rings for the team's 2004, 2007, 2013, and 2018 World Series titles.
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James was in Ames to present a lecture, "Massacres, Trains, and Iowa: Connecting the 1912 Villisca Axe Murders to a Cross-Country Serial Killer," with his daughter Rachel McCarthy James in the Great Hall of the Memorial Union.