Monthly Archives: March 2014

Base Ball Pioneers and Base Ball Founders by Peter Morris et al, editors: a short review

These books are primarily about clubs who played early baseball–that is, the New York game. The Massachusetts game gets some coverage as many New England clubs began playing that version before accepting the national consensus, and other varieties of the sport get occasional mentions, but except in a couple club essays there’s little discussion of the reasons the New York game prevailed. This is a book about clubs and regions, and only incidentally about the sport’s roots and rivals.

Continue reading

Posted in Baseball CrankSpace, Bookworm Alley | Tagged | 1 Comment

The Baseball Analyst Issue 8, edited by Jim Baker: a review

The eighth Baseball Analyst, dated October 1983, is quite strong. It featured six analytical pieces and a delightful “letter to the editor” by Dallas Adams commenting on Issue 7 (more favorably than I did, by the way). And this is the issue that Bill James launched Project Scoresheet, which eventually wrought a revolution in baseball analysis. All in all, it’s a difficult issue to fault.

Continue reading

Posted in Baseball CrankSpace, Bookworm Alley | Tagged , | Leave a comment