The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract

The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract

When Bill James published his original <i>Historical Baseball Abstract</i> in 1985, he produced an immediate classic, hailed by the <i>Chicago Tribune</i> as the €œholy book of baseball.€ Now, baseball's beloved €œSultan of Stats€ <i>(The Boston Globe)</i> is back with a fully revised and updated edition for the new millennium.<br><br>Like the original, <i>The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract</i> is really several books in one. The Game provides a century's worth of American baseball history, told one decade at a time, with energetic facts and figures about How, Where, and by Whom the game was played. In The Players<b>,</b> you'll find listings of the top 100 players at each position in the major leagues, along with James's signature stats-based ratings method called €œWin Shares,€ a way of quantifying individual performance and calculating the offensive and defensive contributions of catchers, pitchers, infielders, and outfielders. And there's more: the Reference section covers Win Shares for each season and each player, and even offers a Win Share team comparison. A must-have for baseball fans and historians alike, <i>The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract</i> is as essential, entertaining, and enlightening as the sport itself.