Customer Reviews

The Ballplayers: Baseball's Ultimate Biographical Reference

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
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This book is not about baseball statistics. It is about ballplayers and it has profiles of all sorts of ballplayers from the famous to the forgotten. It is a great reference for readers who want to know something about an Ike Boone, or a Buzz Arlett. Or something about the career of Ted Williams or a Mudcat Grant. This book, however, is flawed. It has mistakes that it should not have such a ignoring Bob Gibson's 1964 WS victory and then saying that Mudcat Grant in 1965 was the first black pitcher to win a WS game. Still it overcomes it flaws and provides profiles of the great and the not so great.

I think this is a very good reference book for anybody wanting a short biography of the individuals who have played major league baseball. There's a drawback, though, in that with a work this all-inclusive, what's covered is the surface biography: enough to get you started, but nothing deeper. Still, the editor deserves great credit for putting this book together. This is a good way to quickly look up individual players. The book needs to be updated.

This massive volume is the best desk reference book of its type available. It is laudable in its breadth and depth, covering even those players whose careers may have been brief but in some way noteworthy. Its primary shortcoming is its age. It simply needs to be updated.

This quite possibly may be the best baseball book out there. I've had my copy since day 1. Still great reading when your searching for info on the old timers or just want to increase your baseball knowledge . Just recently found out the current value. Will never sell it.