Koppett's Concise History of Major League Baseball

Rating:
Summary: Truly Phenomenal
Review: I used to always enjoy reading Leonard Koppett's columns. He would make a point, then be able to back it up by using stats or his own knowledge of baseball to prove his point. This updated edition in some ways is like reading a greatly extended column of his. And at 550 pages or so, it's a highly impressive piece of work. Not only does he take on the history of major league baseball, he does so with a flair for not only using stats to make numerous points, he also discusses what events were going on in the country with each specific era. He also takes great pains to debunk a few myths, such as "Judge Landis and Babe Ruth saving the game in the 1920s."

I was constantly impressed and amazed with Koppett's writings in the book, he takes certain situations and explains them almost the same way one of your friends might explain an event with you. I almost felt like I was sitting in a sports bar with him at times watching a game. One minor flaw with the book's updated edition that I found: statements like "Detroit still plays at Tiger Stadium," or "the NBA has never gone on strike" held true in 1998, but not in 2003. Koppett also mentions the story of Bill Veeck wanting to buy the Phillies in 1943 and populating it with Negro League players, only to have the Commissioner and the other league owners veto the sale. I have heard recent stories that cast doubt as to whether or not this actually almost happened.

Again, these are minor issues. Overall, I found this to be one of the best baseball books I've ever read. Any student of the game who has the interest and the time to read a comprehensive book about baseball history owes it to themselves to buy this book. It is a commitment of a good amount of time to read this all the way through, but it's well worth it.

Rating:
Summary: A textbook of basebal history
Review: Leonard Koppett's book does not get a 5 star rating by me only because it is hard to rate a textbook as a 5. Still, this is a great book. It is along the lines of an SABR release, though the statistics are of a different type. I liked this book, but it will appeal only to those who want a deeper understanding of how the game has mirrored society and how the issues of today are not unlike those of the past. This is a history project, but a very good one. Read this with some of the histories by Harold Seymour and the game will appear much different come the spring. I would also recommend BASEBALL by Ken Burns and Geoffrey Ward.
I admire Koppett greatly for attempting such a project as this
CONCISE HISTORY OF MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL.