The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract

In many ways, this book is a necessary complement to Leonard Koppett's Concise History of Major League Baseball. Koppett's book is essentially a narrative history of baseball, with a view to telling a story. James, however, is interested in the framework of baseball -- how rules, attitudes and historical situations have affected the play on the field.

Some are offended by James' approach, which tends to use statistics rather than anecdotes to make points. Such criticism, however, writes off a central aspect of the game, one that has been around nearly as long as the game itself -- that baseball is in part a game of numbers. Each individual game is certainly exciting in and of itself, and individual feats of skill and daring may come from show more any player at any time.

However, baseball is a game that is played in both individual games and in seasons. In this it does not differ from basketball, football or other team sports. But unlike those sports, baseball has emphasized the long-haul since the beginning of the first league in the 1880s. Part of its thrill is in trends seen over time. Both James and Koppett recognize this, and each arranges his book to take advantage of it. James' point, however, is that most trends over time are invisible to the naked eye. Some are only apparent when we look at the numbers.

Statistics in baseball have been around as long as Henry Chadwick, and have been the best way to grasp the sport for over a century. In his historical abstract, James simply applies new measuring tools to an old game.

Many of the tools he uses, such as Win Shares, have been supplanted in sophistication by Baseball Prospectus' VORP (value over replacement-level player) and WARP (wins above replacement-level player). However, his approach is valid and interesting. His writing is very readable and jocular, if occasionally self-congratulatory. However, the reader should come out the other end of this weighty tome with a deeper appreciation of the game and without endangering the visceral enjoyment of simply watching nine innings. show less

Basically, almost 1000 pages of the most self-indulgent writing you will ever see, including James' opinion on pretty much everything from A to Z, with a heavy emphasis on some pretty conservative social comments. I won't say that I didn't enjoy it--I pretty much couldn't put the book down, but there are so many disappointments here. Mostly these come when you get to a player you are interested in and find that James has gone off on another one of his tangents or provided a cryptic one-sentence comment. The book is also incredibly dated, of course, but that's a bit less of a problem, since the players in the steriod-fueled decades that followed don't interest me that much. I haven't actually paid attention to baseball in the last 25 show more years at all. So, why am I reading this book at all? Nostalgia, perhaps. It was fun remembering some players I had completely forgotten about. James metrics are a bit out of date, however, compared to the latest ones in use.

Also, for what is the 5th printing, it is full of typos and printing errors. show less

A magnificent book on the history of baseball. The book is divided in two sections, the first is the game broken out by decade, the second explores the best players by position. The stories are remarkable, the scope stunning. James's ability to put time and context into an easy to read format is amazing. I have read and re-read this book many times and each time find something new. Very highly recommended.

I don't know why I buy James's books. I guess I keep hoping I'll find something that isn't there. Maybe some soul.

James is the founding father of sabermetrics, which reduces the game of baseball to a numerical formula.

It's kind of fun to read his analyses of great players of the game. He does does create a great historical context for baseball in the beginning of the book, and some of the comparisons he makes between players are interesting. However, some of the conclusions he draws I simply don't agree with. I love baseball as an aesthetic activity, and Bill loves something else. He's wrong.

A great reference for arguments about the best players "of all time" at any position. This is the book that sets out the argument for "win shares" as an individual statistic and summarizes the changes in the game from the late 19th century to the present. Surprisingly easy to read, and riddled with tasty morsels, but in the end, not exactly as filling as its heft would make you expect.

A must-have from the incomparable Bill James. The tone can be annoying--James is too often jovial--but his arguments are first rate.