Rating:
Summary: Incredible Research Guide!
Review: The second edition of this book is a big upgrade from the first edition, which was a huge project on its own. This edition not only contains names of virtually every existing team from the 1800's up to the present day, but also contains complete standings of all leagues, major and minor from 1884 through 1996.

The editors of this book did an amazing amount of research for this book and it shows. In addition to each league's standings, there is also a list that shows each major league team's farm system (From the 1930's on to the present). Some teams like the St. Louis Cardinals of the 1930s had as many as TWELVE minor league farm teams! With each team are listed their won-lost records, their attendance figures, and the team managers.

It's fascinating to look at how each team in a league did over a 10, 20 or even 30 year period, or how different leagues came and went. Along with each league standings are lists of league leaders in batting and pitching.

Each section of the book is divided into decades and at the beginning of each section is a summary of the period. There's a tremendous amount of reference information listed in the beginning of the book (ie teams listed by league, city, state and counties and leagues from year to year).

At the back of the book are listed all-time records for active and inactive leagues. Standings for independent leagues, (which became popular in the mid 1990s) which aren't always available in other baseball reference books are included here.

Any minor league history fan will love this updated and vastly improved book.

Also recommended are any of the Bill O'Neal minor league history books and also The Grand Minor League by Dick Dobbins.