The BILL JAMES GUIDE TO BASEBALL MANAGERS: From 1870 to Today [Hardcover]

Bill James (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 14, 1997

A comprehensive guide thoroughly debunks the mystery of professional baseball management and its personalities, includes essays on everything from Casey Stengel's impact on attendance to relief pitching, and provides sidebars, statistics, and cartoons. 30,000 first printing.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

James has built a career on finding the art and wisdom in baseball's numbers. Here he answers--in words as well as the numbers to back them up--everything you've ever wanted to know about dugout skippers, from the game's dinosaur days in the 1870s right up to today. Dividing his book into decade stretches, James examines the best managers of each time period, analyzing their contributions, detailing their styles, pointing out quirks, dissecting strengths and weaknesses, and comparing them with others. Along the way, he adds some fascinating essays--on the Dodger farm system, for example, the influence of Ned Hanlon, and the worst single managerial job of all time. Like all of James's work, it's filled with charts and statistics that open doors to both the managerial mind and baseball's inner workings. --Jeff Silverman, Sports editor

From Library Journal

The manager's job is to organize the work of all the team members, and anyone whose job is to manage will readily recognize the delights and frustrations of looking after "the boys of summer." Prolific baseball writer James has compiled a who's who of baseball managers from 1870 to the present day, organized by decade. Each section is essentially a snapshot featuring the most successful managers with profiles, statistics, and detailed explanations as to why each stands out from the rest. A delightful collection that will satisfy baseball fans of all ages.?Larry Little, Penticton P.L., British Columbia
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Scribner (May 14, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684806983
• ISBN-13: 978-0684806983
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 7.6 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #372,229 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great book about a neglected topic., June 5, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: The BILL JAMES GUIDE TO BASEBALL MANAGERS: From 1870 to Today (Hardcover)

There are a few other books that deal exclusively
with baseball managers and I've read most of them.
None deal with the subject as objectively or with as
much detail and enthusiasm as Bill James' new offering. Besides the
celebrated managers of baseball history such as Stengel,
McGraw, Mack and others, there are great pieces on lesser
known managers such as Bill McKechnie, Fred Haney, Spencer
Abbot and Billy Southworth. James also details a few objective
ways to discuss and evaluate a manager's accomplishments.
The book maps out the trends of various managerial strategies
such as the sacrifice bunt and the use of a bullpen. Anyone who
loves baseball will find this book hard to put down. And it'll make
you think. As James says "managers are fascinating people" and this
book makes for many hours of fascinating reading.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars he's done it again, September 11, 1997

By 

Brian Maitland (Vancouver, BC, Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The BILL JAMES GUIDE TO BASEBALL MANAGERS: From 1870 to Today (Hardcover)

Without a doubt, Bill James is THE man who can best shed light on those forgotten heroes of yesteryear and today along with focusing on what or who are the greats. By tackling the subject of mgrs. he's added another feather in his cap regarding baseball history. The book is simply chock full of astute observations, great stats, and even better off-the-wall stories. The way the book is laid out also does not overwhelm you because it covers the entire history of the game. James breaks it down by decade and gives you a good feel for the eras and the managers who made them. I can hardly wait to see what James tackles next.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good book about a topic that doesn't receive much attention, October 21, 2009

By 

John J. Franco (Swissvale, PA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The BILL JAMES GUIDE TO BASEBALL MANAGERS: From 1870 to Today (Hardcover)

How exciting can a book about managers really be? I am a huge fan of the Bill James Historical Abstract and I like a lot of James' other work (What Happened to the Hall of Fame, etc). So I was willing to give this book a try. 4 stars is probably generous - 3.5 would be better - but James does as good a job as can be expected given the material he has to work with. I really am a huge baseball fan but I found this to be a bit dry at times.

The format is similar to the Historical Abstract - it has the "Decade in a box" feature which provides some common data about each decade. Interspersed with the decade boxes are articles about managers and other happenings from the decade.

James profiles about 20-25 managers in much greater detail - examining their tendencies, their styles and the players who played for them. The manager profiles are definitely the best part of the book.

James does attempt to come up with a rating system for managers, which is pretty good. He also attempts to come up with what he thinks would be a useful statistical record for managers. This book was written in the mid-90s, and the proposed stats are almost a mirror image of what Baseball Prospectus manager profiles each year. Give James a point there if they really are working from his template.

If you want to learn more about baseball history from a different perspective, this is a great book to check out. I just wish that James had covered more managers in detail, since that was the best section of the book. Maybe someday we'll get an updated paperback version that includes Joe Torre and some of the more interesting old-time managers.