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Total Baseball: The Official Encyclopedia of Major League Baseball (Hardcover)

~ John Thorn (Editor), (Editor), (Editor), Matthew Silverman (Editor), Sean Lahman (Editor), Greg Spira (Editor)

4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (25 customer reviews)

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Hardcover Available from these sellers. Published April 30, 1995	Hardcover	--	$7.95	$0.31
Hardcover Available from these sellers. Published March 30, 2001	Hardcover, March 30, 2001	--	--	$10.00
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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

When taking on a legend, you'd better be daring, you'd better be different, and you'd also better deliver the goods. Total Baseball, the upstart reference for cyberfans, satisfies all those criteria, and then some. Like the older, more established Baseball Encyclopedia, it is a mammoth volume filled with yearly results, awards, detailed post-season and all-star accounts, and the complete career statistics of every major league player. But while the Encyclopedia is basically a book of numbers, Total Baseball also crams in hundreds of pages of words: there are essays on everything baseball. The lineup ranges from the traditional--team histories, the 100 best players, baseball reporting--to the marvelously esoteric--Jewish ballplayers, women and baseball, movies, memorabilia, and poet Donald Hall's provocative analysis of the national significance of "Casey at the Bat." A caveat: the player statistics are crammed so tightly you'll wish Total Baseball included a magnifying glass. Still, squinting is a small price to pay for so big a chunk of baseball heaven. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Baseball is on a roll, and here is the latest edition of this standard reference source to document such recent highlights as the Mark McGwire^-Sammy Sosa home-run race of 1998. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

Hardcover: 2600 pages
Publisher: Total Sports; 7 Sub edition (March 30, 2001)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1930844018
ISBN-13: 978-1930844018
Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.8 x 2.4 inches
Shipping Weight: 5.9 pounds

Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (25 customer reviews)

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #979,886 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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More About the Authors

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David Pietrusza

John Thorn & Pete Palmer

Michael Gershman

Pete Palmer

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Citations (learn more)

100 books cite this book:

Spitting On Diamonds: A Spitball Pitcher's Journey To The Major Leagues, 1911-1919 (Sports and American Culture) by Clyde H. Hogg on 11 pages
Baseball's Greatest Season: 1924 by Reed Browning on 5 pages
The American Game: Baseball and Ethnicity (Writing Baseball) by Professor Lawrence Baldassaro on 5 pages
Baseball's All-Time Best Hitters by Michael J. Schell on 5 pages
Stealing Lives: The Globalization of Baseball and the Tragic Story of Alexis Quiroz by Arturo J. Marcano Guevara on 5 pages

See all 100 books citing this book

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

	40% buy the item featured on this page: Total Baseball: The Official Encyclopedia of Major League Baseball 4.3 out of 5 stars (25)
	23% buy Total Baseball: The Ultimate Baseball Encyclopedia 4.8 out of 5 stars (4)
	17% buy The ESPN Baseball Encyclopedia, Fifth Edition 4.8 out of 5 stars (5)
	12% buy The Bill James Handbook 2010 4.4 out of 5 stars (15) $16.29

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Customer Reviews

25 Reviews

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

Average Customer Review

4.3 out of 5 stars (25 customer reviews)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars infomative and complete to more than just the players, July 15, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Total Baseball: The Official Encyclopedia of Major League Baseball (Total Baseball, 6th ed) (Hardcover)

The complete baseball reference tool. More than just stats are in this book. From ballparks, to all-star games to umpires, it's all in there. It may be a bit too big to travel with at times, but there is a lot in there.

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10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars One glaring problem, January 28, 2002

By	W. Wayne Marlow (Schofield Barracks, Hi United States) - See all my reviews

This is a vital book if one is a serious baseball fan. It has all the key (and not so key) stats from every season of big league ball. It also has team histories, greatest player profiles, and an overview of the game's history by John Thorn. So yes, I recommend this. However....
The editors made a decision to revert to the 1876 and 1887 scoring methods. (In 1876 walks were outs; In 1887, they were hits). So Tip O'Neill is now listed as having the best batting average ever (.492 in 1887).
While I disagree, I could respect the decision if it were consistent. However, the editors themselves can't even agree. In the Braves' team history, it says that Hugh Duffy's .440 mark in 1894 is the best average ever. This completely contradicts the book's listing of all-time top averages.
Furthermore, saves did not become a stat until 1969, so if Thorn & Co. were serious about going with how things were scored in a certain year, there would be no saves listed before that season.
Finally, if it is revealed that batting averages from a given year were in error, the correct totals are listed instead. But (and this is just plain nuts), if the correct totals result in a change to the batting champion, they list the person with the lower average first! For instance, for the year of the Cobb/Lajoie controversy, it lists the batting leaders as:
Cobb .383
Lajoie .384
Total Baseball recognizes that Paul Hines led the NL in average, home runs and RBI the same year. Yet it refuses to list him as a Triple Crown winner because that year it was erroneously believed he did not lead the league in average! Such silliness is not in keeping with an otherwise excellent reference.

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12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars It swings and misses!, April 23, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Total Baseball: The Official Encyclopedia of Major League Baseball (Total Baseball, 6th ed) (Hardcover)

After visiting the Total Baseball website, and reading glowing reviews by others who read the book, I was hopeful that Total Baseball would be the end-all of statistical tomes. I was completely disappointed. Fielding statistics are almost non-existant. Hitting and pitching stats are pared down to a bare minimum of the common ones. The web site carries more thorough batting and pitching stats for free. I guess now that Total Baseball is the official book of Major League Baseball, they decided to do away with the effort that got them there in the first place. This wouldn't be the first time people got lazy once they figured they were all that. I was so disgusted that I returned the book. I wish they would put the complete batting, pitching, and fielding stats on a CD and sell it, and get rid of this annoying piece of weight training equipment. At least put a handle on it for easier carrying!

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars Too Many Hokey Stats
If you're a baseball stats junky (like me), how can this not be the perfect book?

They decided to add a whole bunch of hokey stats, while leaving out some of the vital one's... Read more

Published on September 9, 2002 by Literary Larry

5.0 out of 5 stars The best baseball reference book
Total Baseball is definitely a must for every baseball fan, from hardcore to casual. And it can be a gateway for many who haven't enjoyed the blessings of this beautiful game... Read more

Published on May 17, 2002 by Rafael R C

4.0 out of 5 stars Yearly Update is needed...
This is the Holy Writ of baseball's statistical gurus. The problem is that they ohly update about every other year. Read more

Published on March 16, 2002 by John Alft

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't Leave Home Without It
This is without a doubt the best baseball reference book you can buy until the next edition is published. Read more

Published on December 12, 2001 by acnoth

5.0 out of 5 stars Exhaustive and authoritative
This reference has more or less picked up the torch from the late lamented "Baseball Encyclopedia," and is indispensible for serious fans (and probably casual ones as... Read more

Published on May 24, 2001

4.0 out of 5 stars Total Baseball VII - Good reading for editors
The good folks at Total Baseball have once again offered a hefty volumn for the curious baseball fan to dig into - and you need not be a baseball savant to enjoy this thing... Read more

Published on May 24, 2001 by nk

5.0 out of 5 stars All you could ask for
For babseball statistics nuts, "Total Baseball" is as good as it gets.

Published on August 6, 2000 by Brian D. Rubendall

5.0 out of 5 stars If only it were a textbook for a dream grad-school course!
"Total Baseball" is fantastic, pure and simple. It does have its short-comings, of course (for example, I agree that full, basic fielding statistics are a necessity,... Read more

Published on June 16, 2000 by Luke Jasenosky

5.0 out of 5 stars Simply the Best
Just read the articles, and you will realize why the Total Baseball is the best a baseball fan can get!

Published on April 14, 2000 by Chang, Brett

5.0 out of 5 stars Good for Baseball Nuts and Normal People
I am doing my own study on baseball's greatest players, this book has been invaluable in this regard. Read more

Published on April 10, 2000 by Bill Robens

› See all 25 customer reviews...

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