Customer Reviews

The Dickson Baseball Dictionary (Third Edition)

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The new and revised Dickson Baseball Dictionary is a must have for every baseball scholar or casual fan of the game. This third edition is revised with more than 10,000 entries, 18,000 definitions, and more than 250 photos - a masterpiece! This third edition is the definitive and authoritative guide to all baseball terminology. If I had to choose just ten baseball books for my library, the Dickson Baseball Dictionary would be one of them.

It is often an over-used phase "this is a must have book." But in this case, the phrase aptly fits. So many interesting phrases and terms in this new edition, it boggles the mind that one sport has so many distinct terms. Where to start? I spent two hours just flipping the pages when it first arrived, and I barely got past the first couple hundred pages. Some of my favorite terms include: a bowling ball pitch, Bud Black market, a Six-o'clock hitter, a Bugs Bunny change up, the ever familiar ducks on the pond, a Linda Ronstadt pitch, and the place I often sit at games - the Uecker seats. Since I have an interest in the Athletics and their irascible former owner Charlie Finley, I was please to see orange baseballs and the Kansas City pennant porch in the book as well.

The book provides not only multiple definitions to many, many terms, but provides incredible details on the phrase or term's history and origins. There is no other baseball book like this one on the market today. Author Paul Dickson has done a truly masterful job of searching for new and interesting terms over the past ten years including many new words and phrases from Latin-American players, fantasy baseball expressions, and terminology from the shameful steroid era.

You can hear a very compelling interview with author Paul Dickson on NPR's All Things Considered at this link: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=101356924.

Dickson, with help from hundreds of eager baseball writers and scholars, has again produced a delightful, thorough and anecdotal volume of diamond terms ancient and timely. I've authored eight baseball history books myself, and I bow to Dickson's accomplishment. It's certainly a historically great contribution to the joys and learning of baseball.

This is an incredible compendium of terms and phrases used in baseball, and even if you know the game very well or an avid fan, I can pretty much guarantee there will be something new in here for you, whether it is a phrase or the genisis of the phrase.

The decision to buy this book is really a can of corn and if you are undecided, just remember that when you get to a fork in the road you should take it.

Well done and lots of fun.

How do you improve - significantly - on something that is already first-rate?

Speaking for myself, I honestly don't know, but you could ask Paul Dickson, because he seems to have the answer. Otherwise, he could never have come up with his third edition of "The Dickson Baseball Dictionary".

As one who purchased and read - cover to cover, I must confess - the previous two editions of Mr. Dickson's formidable work on the rich, vast and altogether fascinating vernacular of baseball, I can truly say that this latest incarnation of his superlative work of lexicography is mind boggling in its scope, and thoroughly excellent in its execution.

Don't kid yourself by thinking you don't want or need to have it simply because you may already have a previous edition. This latest one is the real deal: no doubt about it. So do yourself a favor and buy it, and tell all your friends of like mind about it as well.

Trust me, they'll thank you for it.

Paul Dickson's latest book confirms -- as if confirmation were needed -- that he's the Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Ted Williams, Hank Aaron, yeah, and Yogi Berra, of baseball language and lingo. The Dickson Baseball Dictionary, is more than just a new edition, it's a completely revised, updated, expanded grand-slam achievement. Fans of the game will find it more useful than Google when it comes to definitions, origins, usages, history and anecdotes of the language of the great game. I checked my dog-eared first and second editions, and they're rookies compared with this new dictionary, weighing in at over four pounds, with a whopping 10,000 terms. Great photos and illustrations are eye-catchers on just about every page. Dan Webster, eat your heart out! Every baseball-loving kid -- and Mom and Dad -- will make excellent use of this book for years to come, in season and off. I know I will.

Robert Skole
Boston

This is more than a Webster's dictionary, more than a baseball history, more than an encyclopedia. It is a wonderful, even indispensable, reference work about exploring the evolution of our greatest game. He not only defines terms and concepts, Paul Dickson also peels back the history and evolution of team names, archaic terms and ideas, jargon, slang, and other concepts. Dickson is at his best as an etymologist providing terms, deciphering their various meanings, and illuminating their evolution over the history of the game. This book is full baseball lore and new ideas about the game.

This is a superb book. All fans of baseball should read it. Paul Dickson is a well-known baseball writer and historian. This third edition of this seminal work establishes him as the leading definer of the sport as well. While the two earlier editions were pathbreaking, this new version--significantly expanded, completely revised, and altogether updated--raises the bar to the highest standard ever.

The Dickson Baseball Dictionary's place as the definitive resource on the language of baseball is well established. While the second version still stands up well, the nature of the subject means that it was in need of revision now that ten years have passed since it was published.

Dickson and his supporting cast of over 400 contributors have succeeded in making this third edition a genuine upgrade on the previous version. The number of terms covered has increased from 7,000 to over 10,000 and, most importantly, the additions have been very well chosen.

The most substantial development is the inclusion of many terms from fantasy baseball and the statistical analysis of the sport. These topics have risen in prominence greatly over the last ten years and this needed to be reflected in the dictionary. Some of the terms relate to quite complex ideas, yet the definitions and explanations provided are succinct and clear.

The new terms fit seamlessly into the familiar format that has been used in previous editions. The Dictionary serves as both an extremely useful reference book as well as an entertaining guide to the unique language used in the sport, accompanied by many photos and pictures along the way.

If you are interested in the language of baseball, or simply want to learn more about the game, this is the book for you

The words of baseball's terms transcend sport. Think: hit a home run, strike out, throw a curve, touch base, bush leaguer, etc., etc. Then there are all the catchphrases we use every day such as No joy in Mudville, Bronx cheer, catbird seat and Who's on first? The story behind all of these commonly used terms can be found in Paul Dickson's superb Baseball Dictionary. Its range and relevance is what makes The Dickson Baseball Dictionary so much more than a compilation of sports terminology from a single sport. Rather it is a meticulously researched compilation of terms that originated on the baseball diamond but have flown off its playing fields into general discourse in so many instances. Where would today's political palaver be without inside baseball, pivot, keep your eye on the ball or cover all the bases? The background of these terms are all here along with that of thousands more. Whether as a reference book, browser's delight, or serious work of etymology, The Dickson Baseball Dictionary is a treasure. Its author has hit a home run.

Ralph Keyes, author of The Quote Verifier: Who Said What, Where, and When and "Nice guys finish seventh": False phrases, spurious sayings, and familiar misquotations

Another home run of a book. Nobody writes about the national pastime and language better than Dickson.

This new edition (published in 2009) of Paul Dickson's classic baseball dictonary is 4.2 pounds of pure joy. Paul worked for more than a decade to track down every baseball term in existence -- and the origin thereof -- and he has put together a book that is both a solid reference book and a wonderful read. Dickson's Baseball Dictionary will be within reaching distance when the Orioles' season starts, and I intend to delve into it whenever the game lags -- and probably during bases-loaded situations as well. The first two editions were superb in their own right; the third edition takes baseball scholarship to a new and exciting level.

Joseph C. Goulden
Washington, DC