Lesson 6: Specialist Writing
Write a 300-word review of any published book you have read recently or a 300-word review of any film or TV show you have seen recently
MONEYBALL: THE ART OF WINNING AN UNFAIR GAME – BY MICHAEL LEWIS
Luke Richards
Word Count: 296 (not including book information)
Title: Moneyball: The art of winning an unfair game
Author: Michael Lewis
Publisher: WW Norton & Company, 2003
Pages: 317, paperback
Price: £10.49 at Amazon; £11.99 at Waterstones.
In 2002, acclaimed author Michael Lewis (the Blind Side and The Big Short) was granted unprecedented, behind the scenes access to Billy Beane, the general manager of Major League Baseball’s Oakland Athletics.
Oakland, a low budget team with a payroll of $40m, were defying the odds, winning over 100 regular season games, and making it to the playoffs two years in a row.
Despite this relative success, Beane’s dream of winning the World Series was twice thwarted by the New York Yankees- a club with a payroll of $126m.
This financial disadvantage is exacerbated when Beane loses his best two players to the Yankees and the Boston Red Sox.
With the new season approaching, Beane and his assistant, Paul DePodesta turned to sabermetrics and analytics.
By carefully interpreting player data, they identified it was possible to rebuild a competitive squad at a third of the price.
Their method would challenge the orthodoxy. Often scouts, coaches, general managers and fans would consider physical appearance or athleticism as means of judging a player’s ability.
Beane and DePodesta cared little for appearances. They were only interested in what the data told them.
In essence, players that got onto bases statistically provided more runs and wins. Therefore, they provided better value than the expensive athletic big hitters.
Moneyball, at its core, is a book about Baseball. However, you don’t need to have seen a game to understand it. It will appeal to those who love the underdog.
Moneyball excels when recounting the experiences of the undervalued and how they challenged the very traditions that rejected them to become one of the most successful franchises in MLB.
20 years since its release, Moneyball details an ideology that has since become the norm in Baseball and spread to other sports and businesses.
You are a general columnist. Clip out of any paper a news story and express your opinion about the news it contains. Write up this opinion for your column in 250 words. Send the clipping of the original story with your work.
BBC IGNORES WORLD CUP OPENING WORLD CUP CEREMONY IN FAVOUR OF QATAR CRITICISM
BY JIM WATERSON, THE GUARDIAN 20/11/22
Luke Richards
Word Count (250 words)
“Politics should be kept out of football.”
This sentiment comes as an interesting juxta position given the fact that several clubs and organisations are funded by human rights abusers and despots.
With the World Cup reportedly reaching five billion people, it is no surprise that broadcasters, like the BBC, chose to highlight issues that have been ignored for years by the organisers.
However, it was at the expense of the opening ceremony, an opportunity for the hosts to showcase themselves.
Unlike the Olympics, most football opening ceremonies are dull. However, for many Muslims this represented a chance to display a positive vision of Islam and the Middle East.
It was particularly important to visualise this to the west, where sections of the media are hostile towards them.
Their criticism was fair. Did the BBC discuss the issues in Russia and China in previous World Cups or Olympics? Will guns and abortion be up for debate in 2026?
The answer is probably not. This World Cup has made hypocrites of us all. However, I don’t believe it was the BBC’s intention to cause offence.
In this digital age, the opening ceremony was made available on the red button and online. If you wanted to avoid the politics, you could.
What cannot be argued with is FIFA’s attempt to avoid accountability. They avoided questions regarding migrant deaths and corruption and held such criticism with contempt.
It was inevitable that journalists forced the issue onto a global audience before finally talking about the football.
