Out of Left Field: Over 1,134 Newly Discovered Amazing Baseball Records, Connections, Coincidences, and More! [Paperback]

Jeffrey Lyons (Author), Douglas B. Lyons (Author), Bob Costas (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 3, 1998

With an introduction by Bob Costas of NBC Sports, Out of Left Field is the perfect book for the baseball fan who has read it all.  Jeffrey and Douglas Lyons's three years of research have dug out a diamond mine of fascinating, never-before-seen gems, such as:

Themajor league team that broadcasts all of its games in London
The mother and son who both played pro ball
The .252 hitter who had an entire town named after him
The only big-leaguer directed by Alfred Hitchcock

With a question and answer format, Out of Left Field is the one book that diehard baseball fans will savor from cover to cover.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

This book will help settlle all your baseball bets! A compulsive fan's dream come true, this compendium is full of the most obscure records, coincidences, and general oddities of the great American pastime. Here are a couple of trivia warm-ups: Who is the oldest player to get a hit in the majors? (Minnie Minoso of the White Sox, at age 53.) The first man to bat on television? (The Red's Billy Werber at Ebbets Field in 1939.) The best ballplayer to come out of Prague? (The great Jim Thorpe! However, please note, Thorpe was from Prague, Oklahoma.) Out of Left Field is packed full of countless historical baseball tidbits that the devoted baseball aficionado will find truly priceless.

From Library Journal

Movie/theater critic Lyons, former co-host of Sneak Previews on PBS, and brother Douglas, a lawyer, grew up trying to top each other's trivia questions. What puts this book ahead of other trivia compilations is its deft organization. Chapters include hit records, highs and lows, the World Series, the Hall of Fame, and more. Young adults will especially enjoy this book, and it is recommended for school and public libraries desiring to add humorous factbooks to their collections.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Three Rivers Press (March 3, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812929934
• ISBN-13: 978-0812929935
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,248,911 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars 3 base error, July 23, 1999

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Out of Left Field: Over 1,134 Newly Discovered Amazing Baseball Records, Connections, Coincidences, and More! (Paperback)

This book is so filled with errors that the authors and editor should be ashamed. Some of the more glaring examples: they identify Gene Conley as the only man to play on a NBA and MLB championship team in the same city - Boston. While Conley did play on a world series winner it was the Milwaukee Braves in '57 - not the Boston Braves who left that city in '53. He did play for the NBA winning Celtics a little later. They also state that all world series games were played between 1947 and 1956 in New York City. They fail to remember that the famous Philadelphia Phillies Whiz Kids were in the '50 series. Those are just two of many unpardonable errors which riddle this book. An old fashioned editor with a little knowledge of baseball is needed. I hope Mr. Lyons, esq. is not as sloppy in his legal briefs as he was in compiling this mess.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Very Sloppy Work, January 26, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Out of Left Field: Over 1,134 Newly Discovered Amazing Baseball Records, Connections, Coincidences, and More! (Paperback)

In addition to the several glaring errors mentioned in the two earlier customer reviews, I'd like to point out that Paul Molitor is not the only designated hitter to score more than 100 runs in a season Edgar Martinez did it three times, including two seasons of 121 runs, which is more than Molitor ever achieved in the DH slot.

Uninformed, misleading and lazily researched books like this only give baseball publishing a bad reputation.

3.0 out of 5 stars Fun, Entertaining, but Imperfect, April 11, 2010

By 

K.A.Goldberg (Chicago) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Out of Left Field: Over 1,134 Newly Discovered Amazing Baseball Records, Connections, Coincidences, and More! (Paperback)

The authors compiled 1,134 facts, tidbits, and stumpers for all baseball fans. The book is mostly good, but has a glaring weakness in that there are more than a couple errors of fact. On the good side, the book is a trivia book with a more educational feel, as some of the answers are informative explanations rather than short answers. Who was baseball's youngest World Series MVP? What cousin of Babe Ruth's wife went on to a hall-of-fame career primarily with the Cardinals? What was the first team to print player names on uniforms? There are many such questions that will amuse, befuddle, and stump even the most hardcore baseball fans. Aficionados will spend hours with this informative, readable book, and will come away with better knowledge and ready to discuss with their friends. Unfortunately, as has been stated in other reviews, the book has some errors of fact, among the most glaring being the first Jewish MVP (Hank Greenberg 1935, not Al Rosen 1953), and run scoring DH's (Paul Molitor outdone by Edgar Martinez). Sadly, when you find a few errors, you wonder how many may exist. Still, this is a fun, informative book.