The Sporting News Selects Baseball's Greatest Players: A Celebration of the 20th Century's Best (Sporting News Series) [Illustrated] [Hardcover]

Ron Smith (Author), Willie Mays (Foreword), The Sporting News (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Start sharpening your debating chops. Any list that tries to rank the best who ever played the game in numerical order is just begging for a fight, and this coffee-table-sized offering virtually dares you to take a whack at its chin. The fun part about it is that it's intriguing enough, surprising enough, and persuasive enough to hold its own.

Pretty much everyone agrees that the Bambino's No. 1--and Smith doesn't topple over any ledges disputing that--but from No. 2 on, he gets interesting. He slots Willie Mays into the place position, and rounds out the top 10 with Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson, Hank Aaron, Lou Gehrig, Christy Mathewson, Ted Williams, Rogers Hornsby, and Stan Musial. Joe DiMaggio hovers at No. 11, and 300-game-winner Early Wynn is the list's closer. Several Negro League stars make it despite never getting a chance to play in the show, and of those still in uniform, only Tony Gwynn, Greg Maddux, and Barry Bonds crack the top 50; Mark McGwire (91) and Ken Griffey, Jr. (93) seem like comparative clubhouse stragglers.

Each of the 100 players is extolled with a full-page photo and facing-page text that serves up a quick tour of his career and accomplishments. Individual stats are collected and relegated to the end of the volume, but lots of fascinating numbers are woven throughout. There are also a bunch of top 10 lists offered up by players (some of whom are among the "100 Greatest") and managers that cry out to be challenged, making this one baseball book that can supply your mind and your lungs with an equally vigorous workout. --Jeff Silverman

Product Details

• Hardcover: 220 pages
• Publisher: Sporting News; illustrated edition edition (October 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0892046082
• ISBN-13: 978-0892046089
• Product Dimensions: 11.3 x 9.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #696,802 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A baseball collector's keepsake!, January 19, 2000

By 

Michael J Woznicki "Michael J Woznicki" (Holland, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Sporting News Selects Baseball's Greatest Players: A Celebration of the 20th Century's Best (Sporting News Series) (Hardcover)

My favorite sports is baseball, so reviewing this book was an easy choice. As with all books that rank the best of all time, the listing are subjective, although this list is very close to my personal choices. Sporting News is a respected name and that adds credibility to the book.

Starting with Babe Ruth, as most baseball ranking do, right to number 100 Early Wynn, there are stories, photos and quotes that make this book one the best. I was impressed by the vast collection of pictures throughout the book.

The book has a top 100 timeline of players, the All Time top 10 selections lists, all decade teams, top100 breakdowns and a top 100 quiz included in the book as well. For every baseball fan and purest, this would make the prefect gift or collectors item.

A great addition to my library, a book that I will share with my children for years to come, Baseball's 100 Greatest Players needs only to add a video to make the set complete!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Sporting News Selects Baseball's Greatest Players, January 2, 2002

By 

AVID READER "AJ" (QUEENS) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Sporting News Selects Baseball's Greatest Players: A Celebration of the 20th Century's Best (Sporting News Series) (Hardcover)

GREAT BOOK, GIVEN AS A GIFT AND HE LOVED IT. READS IT AVIDLY EVERYDAY. WIFE TOLD ME HE ABSOLUTELY LOVES IT. I AM SURE IT WILL BE LOVED BY THE AVID BASEBALLL FAN. MAKES A GREAT GIFT OR IF YOU ARE JUST BUYING IT FOR YOURSELF ENJOY EVERY PICTURE AND LINE YOU READ.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Baseball's 100 Greatest Players, October 28, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: The Sporting News Selects Baseball's Greatest Players: A Celebration of the 20th Century's Best (Sporting News Series) (Hardcover)

Baseball is my favorite sport, and I love debating the greatest players of all time just like everyone else. And The Sporting News does a solid job of ranking the players, and offering why. The pictures are a wonderful addition to the text. And while they overvalue players like Rogers Hornsby and Pete Rose and undervalue players like Lou Gehrig, Honus Wagner, and Stan Musial, the idea of the book like this is to provoke arguments. Foolishy, they did not separate pitchers and position players, and I wish they would have written a little bit more about each player, but overall this is a great book. One final note: For the most part I believe that baseball's greatest players came from the bygone days, but Cal Ripken's 78 ranking in this book is an absolute travesty. He is a top 30 player. Overall, a great book.