Reviews for The Baseball Encyclopedia : The Complete and Definitive Record of Major League Baseball

The average rating for The Baseball Encyclopedia : The Complete and Definitive Record of Major League Baseball based on 2 reviews is 5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2014-07-21 00:00:00 SCOTT MACLELLAN I have the Ninth Edition, up to the late 1990s, I think. This is the essential reference for baseball fans, especially stat junkies. I suppose you could do about as well browsing baseball-reference.com without flipping pages, but where's the fun in that, when there's joy in exploring where your fingers randomly take you, in a book bigger than the New York City phone book? You could spend years of your life exploring the statistical pleasures of this book, contemplating the lives and games of baseball's players, great and small. You know that scene in Field of Dreams where James Earl Jones' character Terence Mann is sitting in the bleachers at Ray Kinsella's farm/baseball diamond in Iowa, studying a copy of The Baseball Encyclopedia, intoning reverently about the meaning of the game? That's one of my favorite moments of the film--and it's also how I discovered this book. That scene is why The Baseball Encyclopedia now holds a permanent place on my bookshelf. Baseball fans are a congregation. The ballpark is our cathedral, the game is our liturgy, and this book is our bible.

Review # 2 was written on 2007-09-18 00:00:00 Alphonse Nguyen I only mention this, the finest baseball stats collection to be found, to remind all of you to look up my relative Ossie Orwoll, "The Iowa Ghost," who's a very minor footnote in Philadelphia A's history: Oswald Christian Orwoll (Born November 17, 1900 in Portland, Oregon, Died May 8, 1967 in Decorah, Iowa) is a former pitcher & first baseman for the Philadelphia Athletics who has a career 6-7 record in 39 games pitched (8 starts) and a .294 batting average in 94 games. He was part of Connie Mack's 1929 World Series team, but did not appear in any games. On November 29, 1930 he was traded by the Philadelphia Athletics with Homer Summa to the Portland Beavers of the Pacific Coast League for Herb Lahti, who never appeared in a major league game. Ossie's Philadelphia teammates included Jimmie Foxx, Mickey Cochrane, and Lefty Grove. He also played halfback for the Milwaukee Badgers of the NFL. Ossie has a baseball field named for him in Decorah, Iowa. Cool, huh?