THE SIMPSONS RECOGNIZE BILL JAMES.
THE SIMPSONS RECOGNIZE BILL JAMES. I have posted several times on sabermetrics and have boasted about the fact that Mary Jane and I were among the early subscribers to whom Bill James dedicated his 1983 BASEBALL ABSTRACT. Bill James appeared last weekend on an episode of The Simpsons entitled “Moneybart.” Joe Posnanski, one of the best writers on baseball today, has a description of the episode here, along with commentary on the sabermetric implications. Lisa becomes the manager of Bart’s little league team. She manages by applying sabermetric (statistical) principles, and the team makes the playoffs. Bill James gets to deliver one line in his own voice: “I made baseball as much fun as doing your taxes!” (Posnanski rightly says: “… playing himself on The Simpsons? I’m not sure it gets a whole lot bigger than that.”)
I absolutely have to see this. Baseball and the Simpsons are two of my favorite things.