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)

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.

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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: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,012,521 in Books (See Bestsellers 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

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

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.

5 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Something here ain't kosher., May 6, 1998

By	[e-mail] "wolfie_and_kansas" (Toto, Guam) - See all my reviews

This is another boonie dog book review from Wolfie and Kansas. While there is no canine angle to "Out of Left Field" by Jeffrey and Douglas Lyons, we have noted in prior reviews that we like to read books about humans playing fetch. On the whole, "Out of Left Field" is well above average for baseball trivia books. However, we are posting this review to show that even boonie dogs can catch an error if it is obvious enough.

Lyons and Lyons assert that Al Rosen, the 1953 AL MVP, was the first Jewish MVP. Hank Greenberg once said, "When you're playing, awards don't seem like much. Then you get older and all of it becomes more precious. It is nice to be remembered." Lyons and Lyons were not nice to the memory of the Hall of Famer and war hero who won the AL MVP award in 1935 and 1940.