Surdam (economics, U. of Northern Iowa) uses professional team sports to help students, sportswriters, and sports fans learn and understand economic principles. He concentrates on historical examples from baseball, football, and basketball to illustrate principles like basic probability and statistics, game theory, supply and demand, monopoly power, profits, and present value. He also discusses the impact of teams on local economies, competitive balance, revenue sharing, discrimination, why professional athletes make so much money, and creating barriers to new teams. Annotation ©2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)