STATS All-Time Major League Handbook edited by Bill James, John Dewan, Neil Munro, and Don Zminda STATS, Inc., 1998 The STATS All-Time Major League Handbook is in many ways similar to the Macmillan Baseball Encyclopedia and Total Baseball. But unlike those two works, it contains no essays, no information about league leaders from different years, no charts.

What is does contain is player stats and lots of 'em. A huge number of statistics. An amazing number of statistics on every player who ever played Major League Baseball. "If you look up Steve Carlton in the Macmillan Encyclopedia, you'll see 625 statistics describing his career, 25 statistics for each of 24 years, plus a totals line," Bill James writes in the introduction. "They offer 375 statistics to describe his pitching, 100 more for his hitting, and 150 more for his defense. If you look up Steve Carlton in Total Baseball, you'll see 625 statistics, 25 statistics per year, for 24 years, plus a totals line. They dropped some things; they added some things. If you look up Steve Carlton in these pages, you'll find 1,795 statistics describing his career, 896 describing his pitching, 675 on his hitting, and 224 describing his fielding. That is the choice we made: to cram as much statistical information as was humanly possible between the covers of one book."

As a result of such breadth (some would say excess), the book is thick, heavy and expensive. It is not for the casual fan, but for the obsessed, those who want to have easy access to every possible statistic by every possible player.

Are you interested in a wide range of a pitcher's hitting statistics? This is where you'll find them. Do you want lifetime fielding statistics that go beyond fielding percentage? This is the book that has it.

In addition to basic statistics, the Handbook lists such sabermetric favorites as runs created, runs created per 27 outs and range factor. It also lists information about what years a player was an All-Star, won a Gold Glove or was presented with one of the major awards. It identifies for you every players rookie year and mentions who is in the Hall of Fame and how they got there (veteran's committee, BBWAA, etc.). It also has home/road home run splits and caught stealing data.

Perhaps the most interesting feature of the STATS All-Time Baseball Handbook is one that allows you to compare players of different eras. For a pitcher, for example, it lists not only his ERA but the league ERA for the same period. You can quickly see how much better or worse than the league a pitcher was for his career or for any individual season. A similar comparative number is given for runs created/27, range factor and fielding percentage.

This kind of stuff is great if you're a stats junkie or you love engaging in historical debates about a player's relative worth. For a general reference, though, you are probably better off going with Total Baseball--it's less expensive and includes more analysis than the Handbook and is of better overall quality than the Encyclopedia.

STATS All-Time Baseball Handbook may be available for purchase on the net at one of these sites.

--Justin, March 15, 1999