Baseball Books

I use this book extensively with my Little League team to help the kids learn about the game. I give each player a "homework" assignment to learn about players who wore their number. This is great for connecting to the history of the game.

I have always wondered about the numbers. It's really cool to know, and this knowledge has enriched my enjoyment of the game. This book makes a great reference, if you can keep your friends from taking it home with them.

Sammy Sos

Dr. Beckett does it again with this huge mass of a book listing all baseball cards for every player, from tobacco cards to recent issues. Oddballs & regionals are listed too. If you're a player collector, this book is invaluable.

I have been looking for a book like this for years, and finally found it. It gives you the card numbers for each years team sets. I hope they will publish one that will update the years for us. This one only goes up to 1996. This book is worth every penny and more. If you have alot of common cards....this is to book to get to make them into team sets!

Breaks down every manufacturer, year by year, and lists each card number (and its player)under the team name. Even includes traded and updates!

THIS BOOK IS A MUST FOR ALL BASEBALL HISTORIANS,ESPECIALLY THOSE WHO LOVE 19TH CENTURY BASEBALL!I HAVE BEEN A PHILLIES FAN FOR 44 YEARS AND THIS BOOK COVERS THEM FROM A-Z.REEEEEED IT!

The Baseball Chronology is a superb book!!! It has day-by-day highlights of all Major League baseball seasons back to 1876 - and then some!!! Unlike its main competitor, The Baseball Timeline, this book does not skimp when it comes to the 19th. century. In fact, it is that trait that makes this tome, in my opinion, superior to the other. The only suggestion that I have is to update the book past 1990.

Man, oh man. Where has this book been all these years I've been playing - and losing - at fantasy baseball? I've never seen it in the bookstores but this has got to be the absolute best approach to winning your league. I've never looked at stats this way before, but it sure makes sense that we've been evaluating players all wrong. Shandler has won experts leagues with it and heck, if Rob Neyer and John Hunt use it, there's got to be something to it.

This book is a must-have for any fantasy baseball participant. It offers concise reviews and predictions on most major leaguers in a frank and humorous way. His statistical approach is unique and almost always on the mark.

If you're like me and you grew up reading Bill James' baseball abstracts, then the Baseball Forcaster is for you.

Shandler uses sabermetric analysis to look at the numbers behind the numbers in order to evalulate players skills. Those skills are what translates into stats.

Its a good book to read whether you've been doing fantasy baseball for years or just starting. Heck, its a good book to read if you're not interested in fantasy baseball, but want a systematic approach to analyzing player performance.

My only criticism is that it doesn't really have much analysis on minor league players (although it does have comprehensive Major League Equivalency stats for minor leaguers, there is no commentary).

Its one of the two baseball books I couldn't live without (the other one being the Baseball Prospectus). Its what I base my preseason scouting on, and I always have it handy during the season. I only hope too many other owners in my league don't start buying it.

As every fantasy baseball competitor knows, many publications out there contain important statistical data necessary to prepare for your upcoming season. But Shandler's book is different. This book not only provides data on every major league player, it gives you brilliant insights on how to INTERPRET that imformation. Shandler even includes stats for minor leaguers -- and a Major League Equivalency Table that helps make these stats relevant when looking for those all-important rookie bargains.

The only negative I can find is that this book is geared for traditional ROTO League players, not Points League players. But the statistics included, along with Shandler's baseball acumen, really make this book indispensable for ANY fantasy league team owner.

I used Shandler's book last year and finished in the money. Money that I used, not coincidentally, to pay for THIS year's book.

This is an easy fun to read book detailing some of the lighter moments in baseball. The stories about the worst teams of all time and the overly obese legends who graced and shadowed the game really stand out. Also these story about Zeke Bonarus's wacky fielding exploits are pretty hillarious. This is definitely abook that will amuse young and old time and time again.

Bruce Nash and Allan Zullo have taken hundreds of the dumbest plays and players in the history of baseball and put them in one book.There are many things I've told baseball trivia buffs that I read that they never knew.The wording in the book is so funny that I laughed till I cried!If you need a laugh or want stump any trivia buff,read The Baseball Hall of SHAME.

Wonderfully written, phenominal charactors, beautiful photography...this book has it all. I only hope the film doesn't butcher this incredible masterpiece.

A young white girl gets involved with a black teacher/coach at a Catholic Junior High? A Lolita rip? Not at all! This story is very different. The author portrays this relationship in a unique and original way. I was most interested in the tension between Mary (the young girl) and Carol (the friend/coach/teacher/former lover of the man). After a few chapters it becomes apparent that the two are on very even terms and know their respective weapons of love. I found this to be an incredibly honest view of love and life, far removed from the hysteria of child sex and pedophilia we're bombarded with by the media.

The book is written in screenplay format with nice black and white photos in the insert. It's very visual. I also liked the attention to detail, e.g. the girl's descriptions of her childhood, the little things the main characters say to each other in passing. I was very much wrapped up into the story and was sad when I got to the last page.

This book is realy intresting and gives lot of information about baseball in Europe. For everyone who is intrested in baseball a must

Author Chetwynd, a former pro ballplayer in Britain and Sweden, hits a home run with this well researched tome on baseball's past and present in Europe. Book is meticulously researched, as we expect from McFarland. Snappy illustrations e.g. a ticket from a baseball game at the 1936 Berlin Olympics; posters and programs from here there and everywhere; and an image proving that Italy's fashion sense in baseball uniforms was as bad as ours during the 1970s.

Great cultural contrasts, e.g. learn where the intentional walk is considered unmanly, and in which Euro-baseball powerhouse the fans would certainly never consider booing. Book takes a country-by-country approach, with vivid stories like the Italian grave diggers who learned the game from WWII GI's, not far from the beaches of Anzio. There are also several incidents of U.S. ballplayers retarding the international growth of the game by making less than diplomatic comments to the press.

Loads of statistical appendices and footnotes, plus a fun glossary on baseball terms in seven languages. Don't get thrown out of the game by the Schiedsrichter in Germany! In Italy a "doppio gioco" turns out to be a double play, not the team mascot. And who else but the French could convey the grace of a slider, or "glissante"?

A fun read for ball fans around the world, and a must buy for sports libraries.

I do not like prose, I do like baseball. And when I got this book as a gift I thought I wold never read it, but I did look at it and the next thing I know I'v read the whole thing. Then I found myseld saying to friends ," hay guys listen to this one . . . " Steckis has made my love of the game revert back to the passion I had for it when I was a kid. I've even started collecting baseball cards again.

If you love baseball and apple pie, this book is for you. A collection on poems and short narratives will take you on a journey back to your childhood. You will once again experience the joys and pitfalls of baseball in America. Bill Steckis reaches deep down and shows us what it is like to root for the home team. You will love "Baseball In The Prose".