The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract

Must have for baseball fans

Basically, almost 1000 pages of the most self-indulgent writing you will ever see, including James' opinion on pretty much everything from A to Z, with a heavy emphasis on some pretty conservative social views. I won't say that I didn't enjoy it--I pretty much couldn't put the book down, but there are so many disappointments here. Mostly these come when you get to a player you are interested in and find that James has gone off on another one of his tangents or provided a cryptic one-sentence comment. The book is also incredibly dated, of course, but that's a bit less of a problem, since the players in the steriod-fueled decades that followed don't interest me that much. I haven't actually paid attention to baseball in the last 25 years at all. So, why am I reading this book at all? Nostalgia, perhaps. It was fun remembering some players I had completely forgotten about. James metrics are a bit out of date, however, compared to the latest ones in use.Also, for what is the 5th printing, my copy is full of typos and printing errors.

This book could be subtitled `Random Thoughts about the 100 Greatest Players at Every Position by Bill James'. This tome contains a wealth of information for anyone interested in the historical and statistical aspects of baseball. It is really three books in one. In the first section, titled `The Game', James takes a historical tour through each decade of baseball, discussing the players, the era, some of the important (or infamous) events. The second, and most important, section is entitled `The Players'. James gives his ratings for each of the 100 best players at each position with some comments after each entry. This is the real meat of the book. It isn't the kind of thing that you are likely to read straight through. You'll pick up this book and read a few pages now and then, or just thumb through various sections. The final section, `Reference' discusses James WinShares system in action by comparisons of various historical teams, some great, some terrible, and some mediocre.Quite simply, I don't know how anyone can give this book less than five stars. It doesn't matter if you agree with James on the rating of every player, or whether Mantle was better than Mays. You'll realize that there is/was a lot more to baseball than you ever knew! One thing I found most interesting about this book was James' discussions of players I thought were great when I was a boy. It is interesting to see how my boyhood notions compare with James' statistical arguments. It is also interesting to see many players that I perceived as average/decent in the top 100 at their position. A second thing that I found fascinating about this book was James' discussion of the importance of offense versus defense. This topic comes up often at certain positions such as CF, RF, SS, and 2B. How does Roberto Clemente's great throwing arm, for example, offset someone else's better home run numbers? Who was really the `better' player?One final note, James uses his WinShares system and other statistical arguments throughout this book, but they are generally not described in detail. If you want to learn about WinShares per se, this isn't the book.In addition, this book was published in 2000/2001, so there are clearly many current players (Manny Ramirez, Derek Jeter, etc.) who would be in an updated version.Bottom line - I bought this book a year ago and look at it, at least a little, virtually every day, and I'm sure I'll be looking at it 20 years from now. At less than 18 dollars, this is a steal. If you are interested in baseball, you are wasting time hestitating, buy the book.

If you like baseball books, in depth analysis and have a keen interest in the history of the game ... you NEED this book.Bill James' revision to his classic historical abstract weighs in at a hefty 1000 pages and a big price tag. But it's worth it. You really get two books.Book I: A decade-by-decade look at the game. As James says in his preface, he's not trying to give times and dates. Each section gives the reader a feel for what baseball was like in that decade - who the popular players were, how they played, where they played. Who was the biggest player, the smallest player, which team had the best infield, best outfield, best pitchers. He gives an OJ Simpson award for each decade, a Clint Hartung award for the biggest flop, the Paul Krichell award for the dumbest trades and signings. He also details the biggest problems the game had in each decade. You can read a chapter and almost hear the fans debating Wagner vs. Cobb, commenting on what a jerk Rogers Hornsby was and venting frustration as New York teams dominated the 1950's. He also has one section on the Negro Leagues. The last section has his (brilliant) solutions to the problems the game has in the 90's.Book II introduces James' new method of player evaluation -- Win Shares. A quantum leap forward in analysis, Win Shares quantifies everything a player contributes - pitching, hitting and defense -- in terms of how many WINS it brought his team. This corrects for park effects, different eras (you'll be surprised to learn how good those 60's hitters were) and is a massive improvement in evaluation of defense. He rates the top 100 players in history based on career value, peak value, clutch performance, etc. This top 100 includes 12 Negro League players and has some surprises (Oscar Charleston at #4). He rates the top 100 players at each position. Some of this can get dull when you get down to the low #'s. But you'll learn a lot, such as that the 1901 Beaneaters had the best pitching staff of the decade, that Arky Vaughn was the #2 all-time shortstop and that Craig Biggio and Barry Bonds are two of the best all-time at their position (this was written before Bonds' historic 2001 season and Biggio's 2001 comeback).One last thing. Throughout the book, James' cites reference to other great baseball books. You could build an amazing baseball library just from his bibliography.All of this comes with James' wit, insight and love of the game. He combines hard-boiled statistical analysis with an apprection of the intangible aspects of the game.

Essa é a bíblia do beisebol. O resto é perfumaria.

Muy bueno.

This is a magnificent book to browse through for a quirky and refreshing history of the game, the players who played it and how and why the game changed over the years. Bill James loves to explain why the 'accepted view' of things is wrong so there is always something to be surprised by. The book is split into two sections, the first being a run through of the history of baseball decade-by-decade, showing how different players, different ballparks, different rules and different organizations changed the game. Personally I found it fascinating to see just how much the rules and equipment, and in particular the ballparks, change how the players played the game and give each period its distinctive character. It also includes an equivalent section on the Negro Leagues and lots of pieces about various players and teams in the minor leagues. James specifically sets out to include both the broad sweep of the history, but also the little details of games and players which make the whole thing designed for the fans much more than the academics. The second section is an assessment of the top 100 ball players in each of the positions, using his 'Win Shares' formula (basically a way of calculating each individual players contribution to his team's victories - it gets explained in much more detail in the book). Again, it has lots of interesting details and anecdotes to flesh out the statistics.The book is quite big and most readers will probably prefer to dip in and out. However, it does form a cohesive and logical whole which equally supports cover-to-cover reading.I have both the hardback and the kindle version. The hardback version is brilliant. The kindle version, considered purely from the design point of view is only fair. There are occasions where tabulated information is hard to read, or in a place slightly distant from the text it refers too. Similarly, the sidebars which work so well in the hardback version haven't always been ported across whole to the kindle version, so there are times when there is a baseball anecdote interrupted by a discussion of 'Baseball Uniforms in the 1960s' in its entirety and then resumed. I can't think of an instance where this lost me entirely, but it did break the flow.However, both versions are highly recommended to all baseball fans.

If you appreciate the quality baseball writing around today (such as baseball prospectus) then you simply must own this book. I've recently started finding some of Bill James' older work (the Baseball Abstract series from the '80's) and this book picks up his legacy and then takes it further. James offers insights into each decade of baseball, breaking it down with interesting notes and stories that aren't just your typical "and then so and so won the world series", but actually bringing the era's to life. It is written engagingly, humourously, and it really is a joy to read. You can tell that James' still loves to dispel common (mis)conceptions about the game of baseball, and does it in thought provoking fashion. The second half of the book sees James rank the top 100 (!) players at EACH position. An impressive task, and one he carries off as you would expect.This is the book of the year for the inquisitve baseball fan. Do not miss it.

Information overload. So much baseball stuff in here. It's pretty overwhelming. Good to use as a quick reference.