You “complete” me

Those who have followed this blog regularly know my disdain for superlatives in baseball book titles, words like “best” and “ultimate.”

But the one that really grinds my gears is “complete.”

In some rare cases, it might be accurate.

Overall, however, that’s just not right.

Until a thing is, well, complete — that is, totally done — can a book ever be “complete?”

• The Baseball Encyclopedia: The Complete and Official Record of Major League Baseball

Anything statistical cannot be considered complete unless

Here are just a few examples. Some are instructional in nature, others are more historical or statistically driven.

• The Complete Baseball Scorekeeping Handbook, Revised and Updated Edition
• Baseball Field Guide, Fourth Edition: An In-Depth Illustrated Guide to the Complete Rules of Baseball
• The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball: A Complete Record of Teams, Leagues and Seasons, 1876-2019, 4th ed.

So if something is “revised,” can it be complete?

• Complete Baseball Player
• The Complete Guide to Pitching (although teaching methods are always being fine-tuned)
• Complete Idiot’s Guide to Baseball
• The Complete Book of Baseball Signs and Plays

Until baseball is no longer being played, books like these encyclopedia can’t really be considered “complete,” can they? I give some leeway to titles like The Complete Handbook of Baseball 1990 because they’re based on a single incident that is done. Similarly, books that consider a specific time frame such as Forfeits and Successfully Protested Games in Major League Baseball: A Complete Record, 1871-2013 and Topps Baseball Cards: The Complete Picture Collection (A 35-Year History, 1951-1985), Complete Book of 1989 Baseball Cards and Baseball Memories 1930-1939: A Complete Pictorial History of the “Hall of Fame” Decade focus on one set of data points. Ring Around the Bases: The Complete Baseball Stories of Ring Lardner is accurate unless someone discovers new old stories by the late great sportswriter.

But these? Nope. “Life,” in the form of new seasons and games, goes on

• The Midsummer Classic: The Complete History of Baseball’s All-Star Game (published in 2001)
• The Complete New York Yankees: The Total Encyclopedia of the Team (1998)
• Cubs by the Numbers: A Complete Team History of the Chicago Cubs by Uniform Number (2016)

I could go on, but you get the point.