Paul O'Neill asked: this may be a dumb question but who is Bill James?

Paul O'Neill played from 1985 through 2001, 1993-2001 with the Yankees.  In recent seasons O'Neill occasionally does color commentary during Yankee TV games.

In last night's game against the Angels at Yankee Stadium announcer Micheal Kay mentioned that Bill James estimated that Albert Pujols had a three percent chance of hitting 700 home runs.  That prompted O'Neill to ask about the identity of Bill James.

Kay explained that James was prominent in the modern stats, SABRmetrics, etc.  They moved on.

I was stunned and I'm not even a SABR member and I'm certainly not one of the snooty know-it-all people.  But how could someone providing baseball commentary on television not know about Bill James?

Ironically, later in the game O'Neill mentioned WAR (Wins Above Replacement).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_James

Bill James 2010

In 2006, Time named him in the Time 100 as one of the most influential people in the world.[3] He is currently a Senior Advisor on Baseball Operations for the Boston Red Sox. In 2010, Bill James was inducted into the Irish American Baseball Hall of Fame.
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I'm guessing that O'Neill is of Irish heritage.  That gave him another opportunity to know about James.

Former MLB players as TV analysts: mostly suck!  Tuesday, March 8, 2011

During yesterday's spring training game Yankee play by play announcer Micheal Kay mentioned that two Yankee TV analysts, both former players, had been nominated for a local  New York sports Emmy award.  They are John Flaherty and Paul O'Neill. They suck!  ...

Until the end of last season O'Neill seemed to be challenging the late Dandy Don Meredith, original analyst on Monday night football, for the analyst who does the least to prepare and pretty much boast about it.  I dread when O'Neill is doing a game.  I don't need to hear 100 times a season how little O'Neill knows about computers and how much he depends on his wife and kids to use them for him.
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Paulie, come on.  Put a little effort into it.

Batters are dumber than usual this season, hitting into the shift most of the time.  Monday, April 7, 2014

Paul O'Neill is a man for all seasons.