Arguing about the merits of players is the baseball fan's second favorite pastime and every year the Hall of Fame elections spark heated controversy. In a book that's sure to thrill--and infuriate--countless fans, Bill James takes a hard look at the Hall, probing its history, its politics and, most of all, its decisions.
Whatever Happened to the Hall of Fame
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
James examines the history, politics and voting decisions surrounding the controversial elections to baseball's Hall of Fame.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Review
George F. Will Bill James has a genius for igniting fascinating baseball arguments, and an enviable talent for winning a lot of them. This book demonstrates why, were there a Cooperstown for baseball conversationalists, James would already be enshrined there.
Daniel Okrent Once again, typical James: informative, insightful, amusing, and utterly persuasive. It will, I should add, be absolutely infuriating to the remaining baseball Luddites who don't realize what a genius Bill James is.
Richard Corliss Time For 452 sizzling pages, the game's premier stats solon and most passionate fan stir-fries the old debate about who does and doesn't deserve to be [in the Hall of Fame].
Dan Gutman Newsday Let's just let Bill James decide who belongs in the Hall of Fame. He's proven that he knows more about baseball than anybody in the whole world....
Daniel Okrent Once again, typical James: informative, insightful, amusing, and utterly persuasive. It will, I should add, be absolutely infuriating to the remaining baseball Luddites who don't realize what a genius Bill James is.
Richard Corliss Time For 452 sizzling pages, the game's premier stats solon and most passionate fan stir-fries the old debate about who does and doesn't deserve to be [in the Hall of Fame].
Dan Gutman Newsday Let's just let Bill James decide who belongs in the Hall of Fame. He's proven that he knows more about baseball than anybody in the whole world....
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Customer Reviews
“ James argues for the enshrinement of George Davis as the best player not in the Hall of Fame (written in 1995), and like magic Davis is enshrined this year. ”
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
37 of 39 people found the following review helpful
By William Hare
Format:Paperback
After reading "Politics of Glory" I would like to nominate Bill James for Hot Stove League Commissioner. The Hot Stove League is where baseball hungry fans spend their winter days arguing that "My favorite player is better than yours!" James approaches baseball arguments the way a Philadelphia lawyer evaluates lucrative contracts, by examining every point with microscopic clarity.
A book about the Hall of Fame, with its unending controversies over just who is truly deserving of entry and who is not, is ideal grist for the analytical mind of James. He covers many controversies, two of which surround Dodger pitcher Don Drysdale and Yankee shortstop Phil Rizzuto. Drysdale had been voted into the Hall by the time James wrote his book while Rizzuto was elected just as James was completing his final chapter. The evaluations of both players were so thorough that James concluded his analysis of Drysdale by covering the tall right-hander's performance in pennant stretch drives of the Dodgers as well as in the twelve games James deemed the most crucial of his career excluding World Series performances. Rizzuto's Hall of Fame worthiness was ultimately evaluated by a statistically microscopic comparison of the Yankee star with his counterpart New York contemporary at shortstop, Pee Wee Reese of the Brooklyn Dodgers.
In addition to comparing and contrasting players both in and out of the Hall, James also delves into the politics of Cooperstown. He decries the period of the fifties and sixties for what he deems less than deserving choices made by the Veterans Committee. James pinpoints the reason as the leadership influence of Frankie Frisch, the great infielder of the Cardinals and Giants, whose love affair with the game of his playing days continued even when he was managing teams years later. James notes that the "Fordham Flash" was less than a hit with his players for constantly proclaiming that "The players of my days were much better than the players now." Frisch's period on the Veterans Committee resulted in numerous former teammates being selected, including choices James statistically debunks as inadequate, including three former St. Louis Cardinals, pitcher Jess Haines, first baseman Jim Bottomly, and outfielder Chick Hafey.
Reading James improves a baseball fan's instincts for looking beyond the sheer numbers, such as park advantages, i.e.: Did a pitcher perform in a home park favorable to pitchers or hitters or did a hitter play half his games in a stadium with short or long fences? James comes up with some convincing arguments by searching in places where most fans have never treaded.
24 of 27 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Back in the 70s, when Tony Kubek was considered a baseball savant, Bill James began popularizing a rigorous statistical analysis of baseball. In the 80s, when the pedantry of the Elias Baseball Analyst team threatened to remove the ideas from the study of the game, James kept chugging along with his yearlies, and the Historical Abstract (another must read). Later he produced this, probably his best work. For anyone who shakes his head at a player or manager dismissing another's opinion by saying "He never played the game;" for anyone who is not cowed by the received truth of an inside "authority" or eyewitness, for anyone who loves baseball and thinks we can do better by using the tools at our disposal, Bill James is a godsend. If you're a big baseball fan and you don't know who he is, get this for yourself. It will open up your appreciation of the game, its history, and the numbers and debates that keep its history alive.
12 of 14 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
Quite simply one of the best baseball books ever. Written with the serious fan in mind this book puts to rest many of the debates about who should and shouldn't be in the Hall of Fame. It is hard to argue to James' logic in every one of the cases he sites.
The idea that James has some sort of hidden agenda, as one reviewer states, is absurd. What could James possibly have against Freddie Lindstrom or Travis Jackson? Besides regular statistics, James does use first hand accounts in helping to determine whether or not someone should be in the Hall of Fame. However, he does not put much credence in something an old teammate says 40 years later. The fact is that James points out obvious discrepancies between the number of HOFers from the 20s and 30s and other decades, and in particular in the number of teammates of Veterans Committee members in the Hall of Fame.
This is just one of the many issues detailed here. All in all this book is a must read for anyone interested in the Hall of Fame.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
This book is not for beginners
I have always been intrigued by Bill James. He is most likely the premier baseball scholar of all time. Read more
Published on April 5, 2011 by Patrick M. Carroll
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent Book For An Intro To Bill James' Work
Serious students of the grand old game and its magic are by now well familiar with the name Bill James. Read more
Published on February 5, 2011
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fascinating Perspective
Bill James has a way of analyzing the game of baseball like no other statistician or baseball guru in the world. Read more
Published on September 26, 2010 by Larry Underwood
1.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent Book - But It's Old
Great book. Only problem is I already own it and have read it.
More than ten years ago, in the middle of my initial Bill James kick, I bought 'The Politics Of Glory. Read more
More than ten years ago, in the middle of my initial Bill James kick, I bought 'The Politics Of Glory. Read more
Published on May 31, 2009 by Duke C. Cullinan
1.0 out of 5 stars
This book had a chance and James choked in the clutch!
The Baseball Hall of Fame is full of paradoxes and Bill James turns into a literary paradoxical decomposition throughout this effort. Read more
Published on November 23, 2007 by Joyce H. Cooper
5.0 out of 5 stars
Maybe The Book That Did It For Me
This book may have been the one that finally sold me on Bill James - he asks alot of logical questions about who should and shouldn't be in the Hall Of Fame and I buy most of what... Read more
Published on June 27, 2007 by Jeffrey C. Bullock
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent!
Good info inside, the Hall of fame looks likme a social club of some veterans players
Published on November 3, 2006 by Mario H. Rodriguez
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fame That Has Too Much Shame
I have been sceptical about the Baseball Hall of Fame ever since the enlightened power structure selected Satchel Paige as the first Negro League Baseball inductee, but wanted to... Read more
Published on October 4, 2006 by County Lineman
4.0 out of 5 stars
Outstanding research and thought-provoking prose
Baseball's "uber-statistician" Bill James has put together a painstakenly detailed look at Baseball's Hall of Fame process for determining membership. Read more
Published on June 20, 2006 by coachtim
3.0 out of 5 stars
Would be a better book if he weren't trying a hatchet job on Rizzuto!
Actually, I liked a lot about this book. But early on, he claims that he doesn't mean the book to be a putdown of Phil Rizzuto, and he then proceeds to put Rizzuto down in chapter... Read more
Published on January 19, 2006 by Bruce R. Gilson
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 17
books:
See all 17 books this book cites
3
books
cite this book:
- Baseball in '41: A Celebration of the "Best Baseball Season Ever" by Robert W. Creamer on page 139, and page 220
- Men at Work: The Craft of Baseball by George F. Will on page 12, and page 15
- The St. Louis Cardinals: The Story of a Great Baseball Club (Writing Baseball) by Frederick G. Lieb on page 42, and page 163
- Baseball's Hall of Fame by Ken Smith on page 39, and page 347
- The Boston Red Sox : 100 Years -- The Official Retrospective by The Sporting News on page 9, and page 137
See all 17 books this book cites
- Baseball's All-Time Best Hitters by Michael J. Schell on page 228, and Back Matter
- For Arguments Sake by Ron Henrich on page 143, and Back Matter
- The 10th Man: The Fan in Baseball History by Donald Dewey in Back Matter
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