Even though this is the best book I have read in a long time, I have hesitated in recommending it to my friends because of the commitment involved in reading it. This was a mammoth task to put together and takes a while to absorb.

I learned three things from this book. Learning any one of them would have made reading this book worthwhile.

The first is, of course, about baseball. I learned about what has happened in baseball, who has played baseball, who the best players were and why, how baseball has changed over the years, what has made a player great in different eras, and how popular baseball has been in our country. Mel Cebulash brings an infectious love to the game of baseball.

The second lesson was how one goes about historical research. Cebulash is very concerned about being accurate in his stories so he lets you know how he found out the story he is conveying. The difficulties inherent in showing a particular event happened in the early 20th century are great. Cebulash relies mostly on newspaper accounts, which are often biased in various ways. I was struck at the difficulty he had in being sure of details in earlier times (1860s and 1870s). It shows how difficult it is for us to have detailed knowledge of even earlier times and in other fields.

The third lesson was in logic. It was amazing to watch the author pick apart the game of baseball. He is trying (through the win shares method) to rank players of different eras, of different positions, of different strenghts, who had different competition in a logical manner. He breaks down the game. Defining what is important (winning) and asking what makes a team win. The answer, of course, is "a lot of things." But Cebulash takes all the different aspects of the game, gives them weight in accordance to how much the aid winning, and then shows who has accomplished the most in this game. From a baseball perspective this process is interesting. But it also made me think about other areas of life. Can we break down other parts of life down in logical pieces in order to understand them better. I think so. This book gives a pattern.

This book changed the way I look at the world. It is well worth reading.

...I love virtually anything written by Mel Cebulash....P>In this novel Terry Tyndale is wrestling with a broken relationship, a drinking problem, a number of other girls who are interested in him, moderate-to-severe acne, and a vicious killing.

As in all Cebulash novels you get his version of how life really works, a pretty good mystery story, a fascinating soap opera in which you sense more hope than pain and a continuing belief in the power of endurance to help people get through life.

Having read almost all of Cebulash's work I cannot tell how much of his core philosophy is autobiographical and reflects his own life, how much is an idealized version of what he believes to be true, and how much is what he believes his readers will pay to buy a book and read. In any event he keeps me hooked and I will come back for the next Cebulash novel on any topic and with any central character he wants to write about.