Numbers, names, facts. What good would a baseball encyclopedia be without them? In his foreword, ESPN baseball correspondent Peter Gammons says, "In baseball, statistics and numbers matter. They really matter." This is why
The 2005 ESPN Baseball Encyclopedia contains more than 1,700 pages of statistics and numbers covering 16,213 major league baseball players from 134 years of baseball.
There are 16 sections of the encyclopedia covering the batter register, the pitcher register, the managers, team rosters, the historical record from 1871 to 2004, the All-Star games, big league ballparks, and other topics. Most sections are arranged alphabetically by player or team name or chronologically by date, and most begin with a two- to four-page section description complete with the historical significance of the topic, definitions, and any abbreviations used.
New to this edition is the section "Black Baseball and the Negro Leagues," which lists the "top 100 players," Hall of Famers, and players with "Hall of Fame-Caliber Careers" in addition to providing statistics and information on home ballparks for big-league-caliber teams from 1920 to 1954. Other new items include coverage of the days spent on the disabled list; the College World Series, Little League and American Legion champions; and spring-training venues. Biographical information and Hall of Fame voting data have been expanded.
The encyclopedia is not only a lesson in baseball history but also a lesson in math. Many complicated baseball formulas and computations are explained throughout the book. For example, ".2*(PO - SO + .4*(A - CS) - E + DP + PB/2)" is a formula used to determine the fielding rates for the catcher position.
A Web site [http://www.247baseball.com] provides updated statistics for the encyclopedia, which is recommended for public libraries and baseball enthusiasts. Heck, at $24.95, buy a copy for the local baseball pub, too; it's cheaper than a round of beer! Sue Polanka
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