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| Total Baseball: |
| The Official Encyclopedia of Major League Baseball |
| Edited by John Thorn, Pete Palmer, Michael Gershman and David Pietrusza |
| From Amazon.com Once the upstart reference for fans, Total Baseball, now in its sixth edition, has evolved into the official encyclopedia of Major League Baseball. It's not hard to see why. Like its older cousin, the Baseball Encyclopedia, it is a mammoth volume filled with yearly results, awards, detailed postseason and all-star accounts, and the complete career statistics of every major-league player through 1998. But while the Encyclopedia has basically remained a book of numbers, Total Baseball crams in hundreds of pages of words: there are essays on everything baseball. The lineup covers the bases from the traditional (team histories, baseball reporting, and the 400 best players) to the marvelously esoteric (baseball families, baseball movies, and women and baseball). Sadly, some terrific veteran pieces—poet Donald Hall's provocative analysis of the national significance of "Casey at the Bat," an essay on baseball and the law, an account of Jackie Robinson's signing, and a comprehensive chronicle of rule and scoring changes—have been retired, so don't banish your Fifth Edition to left field. Happily, their replacements are equally all-star: a Robert Creamer essay on Casey Stengel, greater coverage of the game outside the United States, a thorough Bartlett's of baseball quotations, and Warner Fuselle's engaging history of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" and other noted arias. Finally, a caveat: the player statistics are crammed in so tightly you'll wish Total Baseball included a magnifying glass. Still, squinting is a small price to pay for so Ruthian a chunk of baseball heaven. |
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| JOHN THORN is one of the country's foremost baseball experts and historians. He created the original edition of Total Baseball in 1989 with Pete Palmer, has written a multitude of baseball books since 1974, is a frequent guest on ESPN when the subject of baseball history and records is on the front burner and was the principal consultant on Ken Burns' epochal documentary series, Baseball. Thorn lives in Kingston, New York. PETE PALMER is baseball's premier statistician. In 1984 he worked with Thorn on the groundbreaking book, The Hidden Game of Baseball, which eventually led to Total Baseball. Palmer lives in Hollis, New Hampshire. MICHEAL GERSHMAN, a co-founder of Total Sports and a co-editor of Total Football, passed away on January 4, 2000. DAVID PIETRUSZA is the author or editor of over two dozen books, many of them on baseball. Despite the fact that he is indeed a writer — or "A WRITER!!!!!" as Ted Williams put it during their first meeting — Pietrusza and the Splendid Splinter worked together on several projects, culminating in Teddy Ballgame: My Life in Pictures. Pietrusza has co-edited Total Baseball and Baseball: The Biographical Encyclopedia. His Judge and Jury: The Life and Times of Kenesaw Mountain Landis captured the 1998 CASEY Award as best baseball book of the year. |
| —Jeff Silverman |
| Total Baseball (Vol. VI) Contents PART ONE Introduction The History 1. Team Histories, Frederick Ivor Campbell and David Pietrusza 2. Ballparks, Philip J. Lowry 3. Major League Attendance, Robert L. Tiemann 4. The 400 Greatest Players, Michael Gershman 5. Casey Stengel, Robert Creamer The Players 6. The Home Run Race, Gary Gillette 7. Baseball Families, Larry Amman 8. Greenberg to Green: Jewish Ballplayers, David Spaner 9. Streaks and Feats, Jack Kavanagh 10. Awards and Honors, Bill Deane 11. All-Star Game, Frederick-Ivor Campbell with Matthew Silverman 12. Postseason Play, Frederick-Ivor Campbell with Matthew Silverman Other Leagues 13. Black Ball, Jules Tygiel 14. The Minor Leagues, Bob Hoie 15. Japanese Baseball, Yoichi Nagatta and John B. Holway 16. Baseball in the Caribbean, Rob Ruck and Eduardo Valero 17. Baseball in Canada, Bruce L. Prentice 18. Baseball in Australia, Robert Laidlaw 19. Baseball in Korea, Thomas St. John 20. Baseball in Taiwan, Jeffrey Wilson 21. Spring Training, Myles E. Friedman 22. Women in Baseball, Debra A. Shattuck The Game Off the Field 23. Baseball and the Law, Gary D. Hailey 24. The Amateur Free Agent Draft, Allan Simpson 25. Fantasy Baseball, Don L. Daglow, Jack Kavanagh, and Garth Chouteau 26. Reel Baseball: The Movies, Bob Carroll and Rob Edelman PART TWO The Registers, Leaders, and Rosters The Player Register The Pitcher Register The Annual Record, Rosters, and Highlights, Pete Palmer and James Charlton The All-Time Leaders Lifetime Leaders Single Season Leaders The Manager Roster The Coach Roster The Umpire Roster, Larry R. Gerlach The Owners and Officials Roster, David Pietrusza Appendixes 1. Baseball Quotations, Sean Lehman 2. Notes on Contributors 3. Glossary of Statistical Terms 4. Team and League Abbreviations |
| Other Baseball Books by David Pietrusza |
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