Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

Very interesting book on baseball managers. Interestingly presented. However, I disagree with his selection as the worst managerial year ever and feel that he did not adequately document his case.

Some people complain that James relies on numbers too much sometimes - this book obviously took some writing and research, and uses very little in the way of numbers - I also wish it would've been available in paperback one day but that isnt likely to happen. James writes about a number of famous managers and their managing tendencies - I'm curious to how he got his info and where from on their tendencies - if you need to find a book on baseball managers, this is the one to buy.

Why is this book is out of print?
Why did it never go paperback?
I'm a fan of nearly all Bill James' work; but this is his best. I found it in the public library and had to buy my own copy online for about $30, used.
This is absolutely Bill James' most effective integration of numbers and age-old baseball questions. He must have been very pleased to write this and very disappointed that it didn't find a more enthusiastic audience.
Let's hope he ignores the sales numbers, goes with his gut, and puts out a new edition.

This was a good effort from Bill James, butit left me wanting more. There were a lot of key managers that could have been addressed in greater detail