* Bookshelf Review: The Bill James collection

March 21, 2010 · 8 comments

Knowing I would have a lot of down time during my recent Jamaica trip, I loaded up on the baseball books, no small feat since I was only taking a carry on and a Jack Bauer bag. Among the titles: the new Roger Maris bio by Calvin and Peary; Baseball America Prospect Handbook 2010; Fay Vincent’s latest collection of interviews, and The Bill James Gold Mine.

The last, published by ACTA, turned out to be the most enjoyable and frustrating at the same time.

On the one hand the legendary author provides his usual keen wit and observations among the 18 full essays covering such topics as “Comparing Starting Pitchers Across History,” “The 300 Group Total,” “The Right Place for an RBI Man,” and “The Attribution Problem (in Baseball and in Life).” There are also dozens of nuggets within the 30 major league team profiles (get it, Gold Mine? Ha.) which are basically samples from his online subscription presence, and therefore incomplete. Of course, to have all that information would mean about 5,349 pages. wonder how much something like that would cost?

It’s quite interesting to find the info you can’t get anywhere else: how many pitches a batter takes or how often a pitcher uses a particular uses a particular pitch, or how a fielder helps or hinders his team. Depending on the reader’s degree of seriousness, the Gold Mine might suffice. It’s like candy; a little makes a nice treat, but too much can make you sick, unless you’re a real afficianado.

Another quibble: James uses terms in the book that may be explained on the website, not are not within the confines of the published collection. For example, what’s a “long at bat”? How do you determine a player’s “temperature?” A gloassary would have been useful and appreciated.

The other James title is his Handbook, which is basically a collection of stats with no editorializing. Sorry, but this info is available just about everywhere, albeit arranged slightly differently. There. That’s the whole review for this one.

For more information, visit the publisher’s website.

CNATI.com, a Cincinnati-centric sports blog, ran a two-part Q&A on James recently. Part one is here, part two here.

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1 Mark Ahrens March 22, 2010 at 9:20 am

Ron,

I haven’t gotten the Maris biography yet, but the editorial reviews are all positive and the story seems like a good one. Interested to see how you like it as well as Fay Vincent’s 3rd oral history book.

MA

2 Mark Ahrens March 22, 2010 at 5:20 am

Ron,

I haven’t gotten the Maris biography yet, but the editorial reviews are all positive and the story seems like a good one. Interested to see how you like it as well as Fay Vincent’s 3rd oral history book.

MA

3 Ron Kaplan March 22, 2010 at 8:06 pm

Frankly, Mark, I’m not a big fan of Vincent’s recent books. If it weren’t for the name recognition — if I was the editor, for example — I don’t think this would have been published. It says right up front that the comments of the players haven’t even been edited that much to preserve their context. Although I understand that philosophy, it seems a bit lazy to me. A good voice recognition software program could have produced the same results. I’m also curious about the “cast of characters” chosen for the book.

4 Ron Kaplan March 22, 2010 at 4:06 pm

Frankly, Mark, I’m not a big fan of Vincent’s recent books. If it weren’t for the name recognition — if I was the editor, for example — I don’t think this would have been published. It says right up front that the comments of the players haven’t even been edited that much to preserve their context. Although I understand that philosophy, it seems a bit lazy to me. A good voice recognition software program could have produced the same results. I’m also curious about the “cast of characters” chosen for the book.

5 Mark Ahrens March 23, 2010 at 2:01 am

Vincent is no Lawrence Ritter you say :-). I haven’t read the Vincent series but I absolutely loved Glory of our Times, including chapter on Goose Goslin (from my Senators!).

Have you read Harvey Frommer’s oral history “Growing Up Baseball”?

6 Mark Ahrens March 22, 2010 at 10:01 pm

Vincent is no Lawrence Ritter you say :-). I haven’t read the Vincent series but I absolutely loved Glory of our Times, including chapter on Goose Goslin (from my Senators!).

Have you read Harvey Frommer’s oral history “Growing Up Baseball”?

7 Ron Kaplan March 23, 2010 at 2:50 pm

According to Rob Neyer in his Big Book of Baseball Legends, Ritter wasn’t even Ritter. That is to say, his methods of “fine-tuning” the interviewees’ memories and anecdotes were a bit questionable, which is the opposite of what Vincent seems to have done.

And , yes, to Frommer’s book. Nicely done.

8 Ron Kaplan March 23, 2010 at 10:50 am

According to Rob Neyer in his Big Book of Baseball Legends, Ritter wasn’t even Ritter. That is to say, his methods of “fine-tuning” the interviewees’ memories and anecdotes were a bit questionable, which is the opposite of what Vincent seems to have done.

And , yes, to Frommer’s book. Nicely done.

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