The Real 100 Best Baseball Players of All Time...and Why!

Rating:
Summary: A book for the baseball purest!
Review: Baseball is by far the most discussed sport in America and with the coming of the new millennium everyone wants to give you the listing of the 100 best players of all time. Well stop listening to others and grab this book and let ken Shouler explain his choices.

In 320 pages you are blessed by the author's ability to not only give you the best 100, but also show you why they are the best. The book is broken down in the 75 best players and the 25 best pitchers and for the first time someone is right on track.

Using statistics rather than popularity, Shouler shows how Babe Ruth really is the best of all time. I read this book in just over two hours and have re-read it several times since. A fascinating piece of work and one of the most complete books I have ever read.

Greats like Ruth, Williams, Gehrig, Mays, Schmidt, Hornsby, Foxx, Cobb, Brett, Carlton and 90 others are covered in this certain collector items for every baseball or sports fans. This may be the one book all others are measured by - well done!

Rating:
Summary: Well-Argued and Well-Supported, but Not Perfect
Review: Ken Shouler's list of 100 top baseball players comes with statistics and arguments to back up each of his claims. Shouler is particularly partial to onbase percentage and slugging percentage, as are most Sabermetricians. The list Shouler produces is convincing, and well articulated. The problem with Shouler's list is that he does not adjust enough for changes in the game across eras. The 1930's saw the highest offensive outputs of any decade until the 1990's. The big numbers put up by hitters in the thirties leads Shouler to vastly overrate Lou Gehrig and Jimmie Foxx. Players in pitching rich eras are likewise penalized, most notably Mickey Mantle. Shouler notes that Mantle hit over 100 RBIS only four times. But if we normalize those stats to a league where 750 runs a years is the average, Mantle ends up with 10 seasons over 100 RBIS. But no system has been able to fairly evaluate these changes over time until the recent publication of the Win Shares system in the New Bill James Historical Abstract. While I found the Win Shares system more useful, I still found Shoulers' book an excellent reference and a good guide to judge against other lists of top players. Highly recomended!

Rating:
Summary: Baseball's Greatest Players
Review: No sport provokes arguments over its best of all time more than baseball, and this book is a great argument-starter. Ken Shouler definitely supports his choices for the greatest of all time, and wisely separates pitchers and position players. I think he believes a little too strongly on slugging average, but his choices are defendable. And he puts Cal Ripken Jr in the top 30, where he belongs, unlike The Sporting News, which placed him at 78. And although I think he overvalued players like Ted Williams and Pete Rose and undervalued players like Honus Wagner and Tris Speaker, I totally agree with Ruth #1 and Gehrig #3. Overall, a great baseball book!