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The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract | 
| Author: Bill James
Publisher: Free Press
Category: Book
List Price: $45.00
Buy Used: $4.94
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Avg. Customer Rating:  87 reviews
Sales Rank: 461819
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 1008
Shipping Weight (lbs): 3.7
Dimensions (in): 9.7 x 7.7 x 2
ISBN: 0684806975
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.3570973
EAN: 9780684806976
ASIN: 0684806975
Publication Date: October 30, 2001
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Book Description
In 1985, when Bill James, by then already baseball's "Sultan of Stats" (The Boston Globe) and author of a bestselling annual compendium entitled The Baseball Abstract, wrote a 700-page book entitled The Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract, he produced an immediate classic. Lawrence Ritter, author of The Glory of Their Times, called it one of the three greatest baseball books ever written. Jonathan Yardley of The Washington Post wrote, "My own shelf of genuinely first-rate baseball books is very small, but a place will have to be found on it for this one." It's back. The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract, like the original, is really several books in one. The Game is a history of baseball, decade by decade, from the 1880s through the 1990s. For each decade, the New Abstract offers a bulleted summary incorporating the obvious -- highest batting average, best won-lost record by team -- and the eccentric. Included in the latter are such categories as Heaviest Player (for the 1930s: Jumbo Brown, a 6'4" 295-lb. pitcher), Most Admirable Superstar (for the 1960s: Roberto Clemente), Worst-Hitting Pitcher, Best Minor League Player, innovations in equipment, and dozens more. Also in each decade/chapter are essays on How, Where, and by Whom the game was played; uniforms; Best Minor League Teams; articles on forgotten achievements such as Wally Moses's remarkable 1936 campaign, or Jim Baumann's 72 home runs for Roswell, Texas (the minor league home-run record) in 1954. In The Players, James ranks -- and writes about -- the top 100 players at each position in major league baseball history. To support these rankings, he introduces a remarkable new statistic called "Win Shares," a way of quantifying individual performance and equalizing the offensive and defensive contributions of catchers, pitchers, infielders, and outfielders. If you've ever wondered whether Rogers Hornsby or Eddie Collins was the greatest second baseman in history (answer: neither); who made the greatest contribution to his team entirely based on his defense (Bill Mazeroski...and it's not close); how Mike Piazza, Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez and other superstars of today stack up against the legends of baseball; who were the greatest infields and pitching staffs in baseball history; or who had the career home-run record before Babe Ruth (Roger Connor, ranked #22 among the first basemen in baseball history), then The Players is the greatest argument starter -- and settler -- ever. And there's more: Reference sections covering Win Shares for each season for every player who gained at least 300 shares; and Win Share charts for twenty-four representative teams, from the 40-120 1962 Mets to the 114-48 1998 Yankees. A defining -- perhaps definitive -- look at baseball history and players' achievement...an entertaining and enlightening volume that will be referred to again and again...The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract is a triumph, an irresistible addition to any baseball fan's library.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 82 more reviews...
 An awesome book to have on your shelf August 11, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I have probably read this book 100 times. I still have the original hard cover and it is looking pretty worn, but it is one of my favorite things on my shelf. So, be warned, if you don't like books that you'll thumb through constantly, this book isn't for you.
James goes through the history of baseball in a decade-by-decade format, listing the best teams, players, and lots of interesting tidbits. Then he goes into the player rankings, #1 through #100 at each position. It will make more sense if you've read Win Shares, but honestly, even if you haven't, you'll be fine. Sometimes he doesn't give any explanation for why a player ranks where he does, other than their stats at the end of the section for that position. But even so, it's a great read.
James also includes a (controversial) section on the top 100 players of all time, with explanations for why each player ranks where they did.
If you like learning about the history of this great game, or just want to discover some players you've never heard of, this book is for you.
 Bill James Has Completely Lost It. July 2, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Bill Jame's 100 greatest players the NEW list starts around page 358 and reaches peak idiocy on page 360 where he explains that Lou Gehrig wasn't in the top ten because if he and Ruth were so good why did they only win 4 pennants in the 10 years they were teammates. What a NIMROD.
Then HE DOESN'T PICK ONE CATCHER IN THE TOP 40.
Even worse and probably the most heinous change was the move of Warren Spahn from TENTH, now get this, to 36th. Spahn won his first game at the age of 25. He won 363 games. He won 20 games 13 times.
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the man and the work that put sabermetrics on the map January 22, 2008
15 out of 15 found this review helpful
Bill James is famous for his ability to collect, publish and analyze statistics about baseball. This is the second edition of his history book covering through the entire 20th century. But as James says in his preface this is more than just an update. In reviewing the first book he found that he didn't like a number of things that he did and so he has changed. Some may think for the better others for the worse but in my case I never read his 1980s edition so I have no basis for comparisons.
James is not a professional statistician but has good statistical intuition and is respected by professional statistician who specialize in sports statistics.
James covers the rules of the game and is very detialed about the players and the rule changes and strategy changes. What I enjoyed most about the book was his lists of the all time top 100 players at each position. This is something sports statisticians think about often and using statistical adjustment techniques and Bayesian methods professional statistician like Schell and Berry have written articles and in Schell's case a book on how to do this. Schell's book includes a list of the all time greatest hitters with Tony Gwynn at the top. The book tells you how the list is constructed and teaches statistical methods along the way.
James has no formal statistical method for constructing his lists. At each position he ranks the top 100 players and does a good job of mixing the old timers with the present day players. Though subjective, this is a difficult task for anyone and James is one of the few who knows enough detail of the history and players in baseball to be up to the task. I may not agree with all of his rankings but that is part of what makes talking about baseball fun. James provides descriptions of the players on his list that may be thought of as justification for their inclusion or rank.
The list of number 1 players by position is as follows:
1. catcher - Yogi Berra
2. pitcher - Walter Johnson
3. 1st base - Lou Gehrig
4. 2nd base - Joe Morgan
5. shortstop - Honus Wagner
6. 3rd base - Mike Schmidt
7. left field - Ted Williams
8. center field - Willie Mays
9. right field - Babe Ruth
The American Statistical Association formed a section SIS (Statistics in Sports). I am a member and so are many other statisticians including Carl Morris, Hal Stern, Mike Schell, Jim Albert, Jay Bennett and Scott Berry. We all have the common ground of interest in sports (particularly baseball). The introduction of true statistical methods in sports has turned sports partly intp a science. Mike Schell wrote a statistics book about statistical adjustment of individual player statistics based on the effect of the home ball park. Albert and Bennett have also contributed books. Efron and Morris long before this movement was in full force wrote a major statistical paper for the Journal of the American Statistical Association that used predicting baseball player averages using Stein shrinking estimator (an Empirical Bayes estimator).
It is books like this that amass large amounts of baseball data and use baseball knowledge and common sense ot look at the game in a differnt way.
Very good book July 30, 2007
Baseball history, player rankings,etc. A great book for the baseball enthusiast. Bill James is the go to guy for this kind of info and this book is a great way to start. Enjoy!
The All-About Baseball Book April 12, 2007
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
Take a tour through baseball history with this decade-by-decade guide. Also included are all kinds of baseball statistics and an in-depth analysis of them.
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