Comprehensive guide to the best players, pitchers, and fielders in baseball history at the 150th Anniversary of the Major Leagues (1871-2020). The ultimate compendium for the baseball fan, including All-Time teams for your favorite franchise from the Yankees to the Dodgers and every team in between. Ranks for every franchise of their best batters, pitchers, and fielders, too. Great book for the baseball fan in your life. Includes the Top 500 batters, Top 250 pitchers, and the Top 150 Fielders at every position through the history of the sport, and the Top Seasons of All-Time and team. Expect a bunch of stats, and rankings.

When Pedro Martinez won his first Cy Young Award with the Boston Red Sox in 1999 many people in the baseball world claimed it to be one of, if not, the greatest pitching achievement of all-time. Though a remarkable campaign it hardly ranks as the greatest ever. This book lists in order the top 150 pitching performances for a single season between the years 1900-1999. Based on the grading system developed for this book Pedro’s season ranks as the 45th best season for a pitcher. Who is the greatest pitcher in the history of baseball? Is it Walter Johnson or Christy Mathewson? Some may argue for Roger Clemens or Nolan Ryan. The debate as to the best ever will continue but the chapter comparing pitchers of today and yesteryear will offer some new insights. This book will truly interest the baseball enthusiast because it offers clear and interesting data. Plus the measuring stick used for the rankings is not based on opinion, potential or favoritism but rather on fair and unbiased criteria. Eighty-seven pitchers (biographies included), from the famous to the one season wonders, make up the list of the greatest 150 pitching seasons. Included as well are brief summaries of an additional 130 pitchers.

Everything you would want to know about America's favorite game. Many pictures and stats, makes a great gift for the baseball enthusiast.

Propounding his "small ball theory" of sports literature, George Plimpton proposed that "the smaller the ball, the more formidable the literature." Of course he had the relatively small baseball in mind, because its literature is formidable--vast and varied, instructive, often wildly entertaining, and occasionally brilliant. From this bewildering array of baseball books, Ron Kaplan has chosen 501 of the best, making it easier for fans to find just the books to suit them (or to know what they're missing). From biography, history, fiction, and instruction to books about ballparks, business, and rules, anyone who loves to read about baseball will find in this book a companionable guide, far more fun than a reference work has any right to be.

Where do Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa's 1998 seasons rank in comparison with the greatest performers of all-time? When McGwire hit his 70th homerun in 1998 the baseball world went nuts. He shattered a record that had stood since 1961 when Roger Maris of the New York Yankees hit 61 HR's to break Babe Ruth's record of 60 that stood since 1927. Sosa chased McGwire during the season and finished his campaign with 66 homeruns, which would have broken the record. Would someone from the 1999 season mount an assault on the record books? The arguments and discussions as to who is the greatest player past and present will go on forever. Comparisons have been made Willie Mays vs. Hank Aaron, Joe Dimaggio vs. Ted Williams, Ty Cobb vs. Babe Ruth and today, Barry Bonds vs. Ken Griffey, Jr. Who's better? Are the players today better than their counterparts of the 20's, 30's, 50's or even the 70's? How do you compare one era with another? Today, equipment is much better and ballparks and the conditions are better. Motivational factors couldn't be any more different. For the most part the 'old-time' ballplayers played for the love of the game first. Yes, throughout history there have been salary squ

In “a worthy companion to . . . Boys of Summer,” a Pulitzer prize winning journalist “exploits the power of memory and nostalgia with literary grace” (New York Times). From award-winning New York Times columnist Dan Barry comes the beautifully recounted story of the longest game in baseball history—a tale celebrating not only the robust intensity of baseball, but the aspirational ideal epitomized by the hard-fighting players of the minor leagues. On April 18, 1981, a ball game sprang eternal. For eight hours, the night seemed to suspend a town and two teams between their collective pasts and futures, between their collective sorrows and joys—the shivering fans; their wives at home; the umpires; the batboys approaching manhood; the ejected manager, peering through a hole in the backstop; the sportswriters and broadcasters; and the players themselves—two destined for the Hall of Fame (Cal Ripken and Wade Boggs), the few to play only briefly or forgettably in the big leagues, and the many stuck in minor-league purgatory, duty bound and loyal forever to the game. With Bottom of the 33rd, Barry delivers a lyrical meditation on small-town lives, minor-league dreams, and the elements of time and community that conspired one fateful night to produce a baseball game seemingly without end. An unforgettable portrait of ambition and endurance, Bottom of the 33rd is the rare sports book that changes the way we perceive America’s pastime—and America’s past. “Destined to take its place among the classics of baseball literature.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “Bottom of the 33rd is chaw-chewing, sunflower-spitting, pine tar proof that too much baseball is never enough.” —Jane Leavy, author of The Last Boy and Sandy Koufax

Who's the greatest slugger of all time, Babe Ruth or Ted Williams? Where do Derek Jeter and Cal Ripken Jr. rank on the list of the best shortstops? At third base, would you rather have Mike Schmidt or Brooks Robinson? Is Fenway or Wrigley the better ballpark? This book will end many arguments-and start some new ones. Sports Illustrated's has polled its Major League Baseball experts to determine the ultimate Top 10 in more than 20 categories. The rankings appear alongside stunning photography and classic stories from SI's archives. This is the best of the best in the major leagues, or, more simply, Baseball's Greatest.