Rating: 
Summary: The best!
Review: This is by far the most authoritative, informative and entertaining baseball guide around. It is not, however, objective and Bill James does not keep his likes and dislikes well hidden. The statistical analysis of the game and its players is comprehensive and just awesome You may argue with James over who is the greatest catcher of all time but you can't say he hasn't done his homework. The only quibble I have with this book is James' decision to rate the "ugliest" players of each decade. Why?? Is this necessary in any way, shape or form? Who cares if James considers Randy Johnson "ugly". The inclusion of this category in the book needs to be taken out for all future printings or editions.It serves no real purpose and detracts from the overall greatness of this book.
Rating:
Summary: For every baseball fan
Review: How can you not like this book?Bill James is a stat-head. You already know that. And if this were simply a compilation of obscure stats -- many made up by James himself -- I'd probably skip it. I can get my stats elsewhere, thank you. I already own the Baseball Encylopedia and Total Baseball. But Bill James is also a terrific, engaging writer. His studies, in every book he writes, are filled with humorous and insightful observations on individual players and the history of the game. It's true in this book, too. Just when you think you've read enough about, say, the Top 100 Shortstops in history, James sneaks in an essay about why catchers and shortstops have historically been such genial, well-liked people, and why the outfield is filled with such curs. The book is filled with essays like this, in unexpected places, so that turning the page you're never sure what new and funny stories or trends you'll find. It ain't perfect. The Win Shares system is subjective. It is imperfect. And Bill James bears grudges. He despises Rogers Hornsby and has some pretty not-nice things to say about Joe Morgan, the broadcaster. So what? The ratings are merely a jumping-off point for character studies and anecdotes. And any book without prejudices -- at least any BASEBALL book -- is bound to be dull. Chill out and enjoy. It's a fun read.
Rating: 
Summary: Too Technical
Review: James has bias. He loves Mantle and has figured out a way to elevate him in his rankings. He dislikes Nolan Ryan and tries to show why Ryan should not be ranked higher. On the plus side ... he has managed to include defense into his rankings. Also, players of different eras are not lumped together but compared to players of THEIR generation for comparison. Some rankings I don't agree with, most I do and a few he has convinced me to change my mind on. I wonder how much Clemens, Bonds and Maddux have moved up on the all time ratings with another year under their stats since this fine book was published. Lastly, I would have given this book a 4.5 rating but I had to choose between 4 and 5.
Rating: 
Summary: A must-have for lovers of sabermetrics....
Review: .... but not quite as ground-breaking as the original edition. Overall, it is a definitive book to have on your baseball shelf. James rates many more players than he did in 1987 and introduces a new statistic called "Win Shares" from which most findings are based. I was disappointed with his explanation for wins shares theory and even more frustrated to learn that you had to buy the "Win Shares" companion piece [not cheap] just to understand his derivations. The preface/introduction in the historical abstract does not fully describe the intricacies of the method (particularly for defensive win shares), making it difficult to appreciate his conclusions. His finding that Craig Biggio is the 35th greatest player of all time, for example, is met with skepticism because the reader is not given complete proof. Yes, we know Biggio can create runs -- that is a Jamesian throwback -- but how precisely do these runs contribute to wins? The reader won't know all the details until he purchases the "Win Shares" volume....... Some of James' conclusions arbitrarily deviate from the quantitative analyses. He goes to the trouble of developing a systematic approach for win shares but then does not do us the service of explaining why certain players rate higher than their individual values would indicate (see Don Mattingly). Such deviations do not lend confidence to a value scheme which Mr. James himself is VERY fond of.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting bios of many players, and good ideas
Review: This is the most interesting baseball book I've ever seen. There are nearly a thousand mini-biographies of players throughout history. It really brings these old names to life, attaching personalities and events to names in the baseball encyclopedias. Bill James stresses the player's performance in relation to the era and ballpark he played in. Someone who hit .280 for the Dodgers in the 1960s is given more credit than someone who hit .300 in a hitter's park in a hitter's era. He also emphasizes the value of walks, singles, and leadoff hitters. These players rarely make it to the Hall of Fame, but they are the reason for Hack Wilson's incredible single season RBI record. You've got to have men on base in order to drive in runs. One of his points is that RBIs are overrated, and runs scored are underrated. Though I enjoy his writing style, I have one complaint. He often uses the phrase "as most of you know". Usually it is followed by a fact I didn't know. With only slight exaggeration, I'll make up an example. As most of you know, Spook Jacobs had 131 hits in his rookie season for the Philadelphia Athletics in 1954. So it leaves us thinking What?????????????????? We were supposed to know that? Bill, most of us have jobs. You don't. You do baseball for a living. Anyway, this is a very interesting book and Bill James is a brilliant baseball analyst and good storyteller except for that one annoying habit.
Rating:
Summary: A good read
Review: Bill James always seems to be an interesting read to me - I tend to enjoy more his biographies on players, rather than the statistical explanations - too much statistics takes the enjoyment out of it for me - I can't say I agree with some of his ratings and I didn't agree with there being so many pre-1900 players in this book, but I do agree with alot of his ideas of the differences between the eras.
Rating:
Summary: interesting facts and ideas about baseball from 1870 to now
Review: Bill James is famous for his ability to collect, publish and analyze statistics about baseball. This is the second edition of his history book covering through the entire 20th century. But as James says in his preface this is more than just an update. In reviewing the first book he found that he didn't like a number of things that he did and so he has changed. Some may think for the better others for the worse but in my case I never read his 1980s edition so I have no basis for comparisons. James is not a professional statistician but has good statistical intuition and is respected by professional statistician who specialize in sports statistics. James covers the rules of the game and is very detialed about the players and the rule changes and strategy changes. What I enjoyed most about the book was his lists of the all time top 100 players at each position. This is something sports statisticians think about often and using statistical adjustment techniques and Bayesian methods professional statistician like Schell and Berry have written articles and in Schell's case a book on how to do this. Schell's book includes a list of the all time greatest hitters with Tony Gwynn at the top. The book tells you how the list is constructed and teaches statistical methods along the way. James has no formal statistical method for constructing his lists. At each position he ranks the top 100 players and does a good job of mixing the old timers with the present day players. Though subjective, this is a difficult task for anyone and James is one of the few who knows enough detail of the history and players in baseball to be up to the task. I may not agree with all of his rankings but that is part of what makes talking about baseball fun. James provides descriptions of the players on his list that may be thought of as justification for their inclusion or rank. The list of number 1 players by position is as follows:
1. catcher - Yogi Berra
2. pitcher - Walter Johnson
3. 1st base - Lou Gehrig
4. 2nd base - Joe Morgan
5. shortstop - Honus Wagner
6. 3rd base - Mike Schmidt
7. left field - Ted Williams
8. center field - Willie Mays
9. right field - Babe Ruth
Rating:
Summary: Mindless Pablum? I think not
Review: No offense, but baseball fans have been arguing about player rankings for a long time now. What true baseball fan among us hasn't gotten into a discussion of the relative merits of say, Joe Dimaggio vs. Wille Mays, Walter Johnson vs. Roger Clemens, etc., etc.? More than any other sport, baseball encourages comparison of players from different eras. Now, maybe you've never sat down and actually came up with a list, but, really, he isn't doing anything different in principle here than the types of comparisons mentioned above, he's just a lot more thorough. And of course there is a lot more to this book than just lists of 100 players at each position. It is funny, engaging, thought-provoking. I recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Tells you a lot about Baseball, and life.
Review: Even though this is the best book I have read in a long time, I have hesitated in recommending it to my friends because of the commitment involved in reading it. This was a mammoth task to put together and takes a while to absorb. I learned three things from this book. Learning any one of them would have made reading this book worthwhile. The first is, of course, about baseball. I learned about what has happened in baseball, who has played baseball, who the best players were and why, how baseball has changed over the years, what has made a player great in different eras, and how popular baseball has been in our country. Bill James brings an infectious love to the game of baseball. The second lesson was how one goes about historical research. James is very concerned about being accurate in his stories so he lets you know how he found out the story he is conveying. The difficulties inherent in showing a particular event happened in the early 20th century are great. James relies mostly on newspaper accounts, which are often biased in various ways. I was struck at the difficulty he had in being sure of details in earlier times (1860s and 1870s). It shows how difficult it is for us to have detailed knowledge of even earlier times and in other fields. The third lesson was in logic. It was amazing to watch the author pick apart the game of baseball. He is trying (through the win shares method) to rank players of different eras, of different positions, of different strenghts, who had different competition in a logical manner. He breaks down the game. Defining what is important (winning) and asking what makes a team win. The answer, of course, is "a lot of things." But James takes all the different aspects of the game, gives them weight in accordance to how much the aid winning, and then shows who has accomplished the most in this game. From a baseball perspective this process is interesting. But it also made me think about other areas of life. Can we break down other parts of life down in logical pieces in order to understand them better. I think so. This book gives a pattern. This book changed the way I look at the world. It is well worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: SABRmetrics and unique style = My kind of book
Review: The best thing about Bill James is that, although he is the "Sultan of Stats", this book is about his prose. His depth of analysis and insight is why I read his abstracts. Read this: Joe Gordon was one of the best at turning the double play and he and Rizzuto may have been the best double play duo of all time. Or this: If he hadn't been injured, Charlie Keller would have been one of the greatest power hitters in the history of baseball. Do those (paraphrased by me) statements and the facts and reasoning behind them intrigue you? If they do, there are thousands more just like them contained in this book. I highly recommend it.
| 
