King Kaufman's Sports Daily

Bill James belongs in the Hall of Fame. Plus: Nets need Richard Jefferson, stat! And: The perfect coach for Sacramento.

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May 10, 2006 | Time magazine's inclusion of Bill James in its annual "Time 100: The People Who Shape Our World" feature this week has got me thinking: Bill James belongs in the Hall of Fame.

Boston Red Sox owner John Henry, who wrote the magazine's brief profile of his employee, quotes another employee, Sox general manager Theo Epstein, talking about James: "He was an outsider, self-publishing invisible truths about baseball while the Establishment ignored him. Now 25 years later, his ideas have become part of the foundation of baseball strategy."

James, 56, changed the way we understand baseball in fundamental ways. When you watch a game and you see a player's on-base percentage and slugging average flashed on the screen or the scoreboard, you're seeing James' influence. As recently as 10 years ago, those stats never appeared outside baseball-wonk circles.

When you mention a pitcher's strikeout rate, note sagely that sacrifice bunts are a waste of precious outs or ask if a hitter's stats are inflated by his home ballpark, you're talking with Bill James' voice.

First in his annual "Baseball Abstract" books, which began as a self-published series, and later with books such as "The Politics of Glory" -- now retitled "Whatever Happened to the Hall of Fame?" -- and "The New Bill James Historical Abstract," James has had as great an influence on the game as any single thinker since Branch Rickey.

Former union chief Marvin Miller -- who also belongs in the Hall of Fame -- and former Kansas City and Oakland A's owner Charlie Finley have left as great a mark on the business issues that surround the game, as have current commissioner Bud Selig and '60s outfielder Curt Flood, a pioneer in the fight for players' rights.

But James' influence is closer to the field of play. The Red Sox, A's and Toronto Blue Jays are all organizations that are explicitly run with what can be called a Jamesian philosophy, which James called sabermetrics, after the Society for American Baseball Research's acronym.

Many other teams have adopted at least some of his ideas. "Moneyball," probably the most important baseball book of the past 20 years, tells the story of how the A's put James' concepts to work in building a contender in the early years of this decade.

Next page: Deserving but not eligible. Plus: Nets offense, Kings coach