Jack's Flash - Bill James

[Jackstraw]

Did anyone catch the Bill James segment on "60 Minutes" last night before the game? It was very good. He gave all of us some credibility. Even Mike Lowell said that the numbers meant something, even though he was still very skeptical.



Though he won't claim it, I would still have to give James credit for the fantasy game. Before him, they were just the numbers in the boxscores of favorite players. Now those numbers are clues... Now you can look at other numbers, similar to the traditional ones, and extrapolate even more clues... By studying those numbers, and finding a way to use them, our game of fantasy baseball was invented. Sure, Okrent and Waggoner are given credit for inventing the game, but it was James who first stirred the interest.



After James is Ron Shandler. Where James' formulas are for and about the real game, Shandler's focus on this game. James' has proven influential in baseball. How influential do you think Shandler's been?