Rickey Henderson and Peter Angelos, together again

Today I was reminded of a riddle from junior high:
Q: What do you get when you cross an elephant with peanut butter?
A: Peanut butter that never forgets, or an elephant that sticks to the roof of your mouth.

The occasion was a link from Tyler Cowen to a new book by Garry Kasparov and . . . Peter Thiel.

Kasparov we all know about. I still remember how he pulled out a victory in the last game of his tournament with Karpov. Just amazing: he had to win the game, a draw would not be enough. Both players knew that Kasparov had to win. And he did it. A feat as impressive as Kirk Gibson’s off-the-bench game-winning home run in the 1987 Series.

Peter Theil is a more obscure figure. He’s been featured a couple of times on this blog and comes across as your typical overconfident rich dude.

It’s an odd combination, sort of like what you might get if Rickey Henderson and Peter Angelos were to write a book about how to reform baseball. Cowen writes, “How can I not pre-order this book” (that is, Kasaparov/Thiel, not Henderson/Angelos), but it sounds like to me like it could be a mess.

5 thoughts on “Rickey Henderson and Peter Angelos, together again

  1. By the description of the book at Amazon (“…we have become a risk-averse society, hobbled by … government regulations…”) it seems to talk about a counterfactual world, instead of the current one filled by golden parachutes, bail-outs and the elimination of virtually every existing financial regulation.

  2. “Kasparov we all know about. I still remember how he pulled out a victory in the last game of his tournament with Karpov. Just amazing: he had to win the game, a draw would not be enough. Both players knew that Kasparov had to win. And he did it. A feat as impressive as Kirk Gibson’s off-the-bench game-winning home run in the 1987 Series.”

    This bit of high-low brow writing is pretty impressive, too.

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