Who's Better, Who's Best in Baseball? [Paperback]

Elliott Kalb (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 16, 2005

Guaranteed to spark debate among baseball diehards with its controversial pick for #1

"Elliott Kalb's work is beyond excellent. He thinks in story lines and uses numbers to make compelling and often original points."--Bob Costas

In the world of major-league sports, Elliott Kalb, a.k.a "Mr. Stats," is the Sultan of Stats, the Tsar of Trivia, and the Final Word in armchair-athlete disputes. Now, hot on the heels of his controversial bestseller Who's Better, Who's Best in Basketball? comes a book that is guaranteed to raise both hackles and cheers from baseball fans from coast to coast. More than a book of lists, Who's Better, Who's Best in Baseball?:

• Interweaves numbers, facts, and anecdotes to offer a grand perspective on the entire history of the sport and its 100 all-time greatest of the greats--including players from the Negro Leagues
• Features interviews with MLB experts, players, and coaches, including Bob Costas, Bud Selig, Vin Scully, Joe Buck, Tim McCarver, Johnny Bench, and others
• Argues the popular debate--what means more, modern training and modern medicine, overall athletics, popularity, or genetics?

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Get into the great baseball debate with HBO's "Mr. Stats."

If Babe Ruth played today, could he dominate modern players? Could Ty Cobb adjust to today's game? What if Roger Clemens and Randy Johnson had to pitch to the likes of Ted Williams and Stan Musial? Who was better--Willie Mays or Mickey Mantle? Joe DiMaggio or Stan Musial? And, in the battle for the all-time #1, can anyone beat out Barry Bonds? These are just a few of the hotly debated questions in Who's Better, Who's Best in Baseball? that will fire the blood of baseball fans.

Ornery, opinionated, and brimming with baseball intelligence, Elliott Kalb, a.k.a. "Mr. Stats," pounds the pavement, talking with Major League Baseball experts, players, and coaches--including Joe Buck, Tim McCarver, and Johnny Bench--to bring you the ultimate ranking of the top 75 players. Reconciling modern statistics with the past, comparing positions, and accounting for the many changes of a century-old game wasn't easy. But they don't call him Mr. Stats for nothing.

The absolute authority in armchair athletes' disputes, Kalb interweaves numbers, facts, and anecdotes to flesh out the most provocative question in every baseball fan's mind: Who's the best? You might disagree with his choices, but Kalb loves a good argument. Are you ready to take him on?

About the Author

Elliott Kalb is "Mr. Stats" at ESPN, TNT, and HBO. Formerly with NBC for 15 years, Kalb is a five-time Emmy-winner and a one-time writer for the greatest play-by-play announcer in baseball history, Vin Scully. Kalb has his own website, www.elliottkalb.com, and writes a weekly column for HBO.com. He lives in New Jersey with his wife and kids.

Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill; 1 edition (February 16, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071445382
• ISBN-13: 978-0071445382
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,496,857 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars "Mr. Stats" needs to check his facts, August 15, 2005

By 

Seamhead (Portland, OR USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Who's Better, Who's Best in Baseball? (Paperback)

This is the first Elliott Kalb book I've read and I'm extremely disappointed with the numerous errors that pepper this book throughout. Younger readers who are trying to learn something about the greats of the game will be inundated with incorrect or contradicting information and readers who consider themselves somewhat educated about baseball history will soon become annoyed at the mistakes, which seem to adorn every single page. Kalb states in one player's comments that the first All-Star game took place in 1934 (incorrect), then in another player's comments writes that the first All-Star game was played in 1933 (correct). Confusing, no? This is one of many examples that I found.

It appeared that some errors were the result of just plain laziness, while others came from poor research. In the Mike Schmidt chapter, Kalb writes: "In 1977, he (Schmidt) scored 114 runs on his .274 batting average. That's the record for most runs scored on a sub-.280 average in baseball history." Not only is that NOT the record, it's not even close. The record is held by Hub Collins, who scored 148 runs while hitting .278 in 1890. In fact, there have been 73 times in baseball history that a batter scored at least 114 runs while hitting below .280. And if you ignore the 19th century and only consider modern-day (1900-present) players, Red Rolfe holds the record with 143 runs scored on a .276 average in 1937. The feat has been accomplished 36 times since 1900 and Schmidt is tied for 32nd (and last) place. This may be nitpicking, but it's errors like this that make me not take this book seriously.

My second point of contention is that Kalb rarely "sells" his opinions why he thinks one player is better than another. He states facts (sometimes even correctly), and compares the numbers and contributions of each man, then leaves most of the job to the reader to decide who was better. But I bought the book hoping that "Mr. Stats" could convince me why one player should be considered better than another or perhaps change my mind about some of my own opinions. Instead he came on with all the conviction of a wet noodle.

I'm not going to bash Kalb for his rankings because, frankly, they're based on his opinions and he's entitled to them. Just because I may disagree doesn't make him wrong and me right. But his infatuation with Barry Bonds and insistance on bringing up his name every chance he could, became overbearing at times. We get it, Mr. Kalb. You think Barry Bonds is the greatest player of all time. It's bad enough that I had to read about it on the first page, let alone be constantly reminded of it on every other page.

As you can tell by now, I wasn't impressed with the book at all and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. It wasn't particularly well written and there are too many errors and inaccuracies to receive my endorsement.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Fair Read, August 13, 2005

By 

oxymoronsrule - See all my reviews

This review is from: Who's Better, Who's Best in Baseball? (Paperback)

There were a few aspects of this book I did like. It was very informative, and as a young baseball fan I was opened up to four or five baseball player that I had never heard of before. Plus, there were several good points in this book. Hank Aaron was very underappreciated.

I have to say though, the bad outweighs the good in this book. Barry Bonds is not the greatest player to ever play baseball, I do not think that this cannot be given to one particular player. Plus, it irked me when Kalb said,"If Bonds took steroids it was to become the best player he could become." What a horrible and stupid statement, it left a distate for me during the rest of the book.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars One Man's Fancy, March 21, 2006

By 

Earle Williams - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Who's Better, Who's Best in Baseball? (Paperback)

This book is interesting because it does what it sets out to do--start a dialogue about the subjects. However, the book is filled with errors, and the opinions are those of just one person, although a number of baseball people's opinions are cited. Who is "better" or "best" ultimately becomes subjective, of course. Kalb seems to be an apologist for Bobby Bonds, possibly because the book was published before any truly "smoking gun" was pointed at Bonds, or possiblty just to incite controversy. But to push for Binds in what seems like nearly entry is just too much. And to give great weight to MVP or performance in World Series is absurd (check, for example, Ted Wiliams). There is also a huge contradiction. Kalb suggests that Oh would have performed about the same in the US as in Japan, but he denies that same potential to early players and to those in the Negro leagues. If Oh faced less potent pitchers, so did the others. Also, Kalb does not account for the expansion of major league baseball in any really substantial way, except to assume that, because of expansion, all the weak players are gone. One could argue exactly the opposite. (For example, how strong would teams be if both major leagues still had only eight teams to field the top players? Isn't that what used to happen?) Kalb does point out that the players today are bigger, stronger, and better trained (he does not make much of better equipment, though), and then he ruins that by seeming to condone steroids and the like (just Bonds making himself the best he could be) without factoring in how someone like Ruth or Musial or Mays or Aaron might have performed on steroids.