The Biographical History of Baseball

Rating:
Summary: It doesn't hit for average.
Review: Ok, I didn't have any high expectations when I purchased this book. After all, any project with Jerome Holtzman involved is going to be hit or miss. Unfortunately, this one misses much more than it hits.

I've always heard that some of the greatest stories don't come from the superstars. Sometimes, they are found in the lesser stars or the ones who had just a brief moment in the spotlight. Unfortunately, many of these players and their experiences are sacrificed for long-winded accounts of players that had been written about in excess over the years.

Don't get me wrong -- there is some interesting information here. However, I've found a number of errors in dates, statistics and references. In addition, the book seems to have been rushed to print without the benefit of thorough proofreading.

The good thing? It's fairly inexpensive. Unfortunately, you get what you pay for here.

Rating:
Summary: Doesn't fix the errors of the first edition
Review: When the first edition of this book came out, it was a breath of fresh air. It carved a niche in the market by covering not just baseball players but baseball people. But it also had loads of mistakes. I had looked forward to the second edition hoping that the factual errors would be fixed. Unfortunately, very few of them were fixed. Incredibly, this book still clings to myths such as the story of Ford Frick attaching an actual asterisk to Roger Maris' home run record. Dewey and Accocella's writing is certainly more consistent than that of competing volumes, so it is unfortunate that they didn't take advantage of the opportunity a second volume presented them to fix the mistakes that are almost inevitable in a first edition. Also, some of ther additions/subtractions are puzzling - why was Dusty Baker in the first volume and not in this volume when his baseball career has only gotten more significant since the first edition?