With the publication in May of the bestseller "Moneyball,"
baseball's statistics geeks finally have gone mainstream. But
most of the sports media haven't noticed.  The rigorous
numerical study of what makes a ballplayer valuable, known as
sabermetrics, had already gained traction with several clubs --
most notably the Oakland A's. Their general manager, Billy
Beane, is the hero of Michael Lewis's "Moneyball" for building a
championship-caliber team while eschewing the conventional
wisdom of a century of scouting. In the book, the protagonist,
like an unorthodox Wall Street thinker, takes advantage of
others' misguided strategies for his own profit, and in the
process revives the flagging careers of several players tossed
on the scrap heap by other teams. It's a gripping tale that many
fans will devour the day they buy it.  But the media have
remained behind the pack. Most writers continue to rely on
outmoded measures like batting average even after their
publications have given stellar reviews to a book that