#1 NEW YORK TIMES bestselling Michael Lewis, with his usual narrative flair, examines the fallacy behind the major league baseball refrain that the team with the biggest wallet is supposed to win. Over the past four years the Oakland Athletics, a major league team with a minor league payroll, have had one of the best records in the country. General Manager Billy Beene is putting into practice on the field revolutionary principles to build his team that have been concocted by geek statisticians and college professors, rather than using the old scouting technique called "gut instinct."

The author takes us behind the scenes with the Oakland A's?into the dugouts, and into the conference rooms where the annual Major League draft is held by conference call?and rumor mongering is par for the course as each team jockeys for position for their favored player. In a narrative full of fabulous characters and brilliant excursions into the unexpected, Michael Lewis shows us how and why the new baseball knowledge works. He also sets up a sly and hilarious morality tale: Big Money, like Goliath, is always supposed to win...how can we not cheer for David?