Steven Goldman (2)

This is a good biography of Stengel's life up to the point he took over the Yankees, exploring his training and apprenticeship with John McGraw, other managerial influences, and why his abilities were underrated by many--though not all--before he blossomed in the 1950s. It also, of course, explores how his comedic personality both interacted with and disguised his baseball leadership abilities.

His subsequent career with the Yanks and Mets is only lightly touched. That's not what the author show more was exploring. And for this reader that's OK.

The book's well researched and has many footnotes. Unfortunately the footnotes are not closely tied to the text; they're just a long list at the end of the book with quotes from the text to show where they relate. I really don't like this method, and gigged my rating a half-point for that reason.

And this book's ebook setup is pretty annoying, probably mostly because it was an early ebook. The reader has too little control over the formatting, and too few clues about where s/he might be in the chapter. I don't gig books for this, but I do feel free to complain. show less

Another solid effort from the Baseball Prospectus team - as for me this is a must buy every year before Spring Training. The gold standard of baseball statistical analysis annuals- and BP has added a scouting tinge to both their annuals and website over the last two years which has been much appreciated. I still wish they would spend a few bucks and hire a good copy editor. Typical modus operandi for this book is having different writers focus on a single team, which inevitably leads to some show more chapters being much stronger than others. That's to be expected for a book the size of the BP annual that must be churned out in just a few short months. But spelling issues and the repeating of the same tired baseball cliches plague the book for the 2nd straight year, and this becomes plainly evident to someone who reads it cover to cover. show less

Sabermetric guide to the 2008 professional baseball season, with essays and player projections for each team, as well as essays on baserunning, outfielder arm strength, and pitching counts.