I just discovered this book. In 1995 when it first appeared it was probably state of the art, but now some of the stats need to be updated because they don't match what's in the new edition of Total Baseball, etc. Otherwise this book is terrific.

Anyone out there know if this book is scheduled to be updated or reissued? Some of the stats are no longer current or consistent with what's in other reference books and I'd sure appreciate it if they were. Otherwise this book is blue ribbon all the way even if I wish it gave more on Va.'s only major league team ever.

The baseball element in this book is only part of its charm. The author, with help from the publisher, has also assembled an aesthetic treat for the reader. As the cover suggests, the book is an artful prose and pictorial rendering of an early epoch in our National Pastime. A must I would think for every even mildly serious collector--and that is how I'd describe myself. I'm very glad to have found it and added it to my shelf.

I got this book, and expected it to be a fun read, and for awhile it was. It's got some great ancedotes on how the various rules in the baseball rule book have come up.

However, as the book wore on, it got more tedious. Some of them are very funny, and I enjoyed the book in places, but I felt it too tedious of a read for my personal enjoyment.

That's why I gave it three stars instead of a lesser rating. I expect others will enjoy it, but for me *PERSONALLY*, I felt it was tedious.

This is a decent reference, if only for the rules at the back. Those rules are organized throughout the book with neat historical commentary on many of them, either with actual incidents or with reasons for why some rules came to be the way they are.

This book gives the reasons why there are 39,337 words in the rules to Major League Baseball. Do you want to know why the pitchers' mound is 60' 6"? Read the book. It covers most of the rules and how they developed through the years. If you love baseball and want to know all about it, this is a must read. If you like baseball, you may want to borrow the book from the library.

The book does have some great b/w pictures.

The version of this that I read was published in 1981, so it's a tad out of date, but the most compelling parts of the book are doubtless still present in later versions. This book makes a bold claim, and while I don't know that there can be any single Ultimate book on baseball, this one comes reasonably close.

The book splits itself into nine "innings" (though newer versions may have changed this format), splitting baseball history into nine segments and accompanying each historical section with an excellent essay on subjects pertaining to the relevant era. Some of the essays are on subjects like Enos Slaughter's Gas House style of play with the Cardinals, or Fenway Park, or the Brooklyn Dodgers of old, or Connie Mack. In all, the history is pretty thorough and very enjoyable for fans of the game.

Most baseball books are written with a nasty, thinly-veiled contempt for the contemporary game of baseball. "Too many home runs", these authors sniff, "not enough hit-and run". TUBB has none of this attitude present in the historical bits, though it does come through in some of the essays. In the latter innings of the book, the historical chapters describe the evolution of the game very ably, and even suggest that the modern game is more interesting and balanced than ever before, due to the all-around athleticism of many players.

I'm borrowing the 1981 edition of TUBB from my dad, but I will probably buy the Expanded and Updated 2000 version for myself. This is a great book for baseball fans, especially those of us whose earliest baseball memories involve people like Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire and Dwight Gooden... it's good for us whippersnappers to learn some history.

The ttiel sounds a tad off-putting, but the book delivers. It's an excellent combination of narrative history, idiosyncratic essays and beautiful photos about the national pastime. The style has been often duplicated since but never equalled

Not your typical whodunit. The protagonist is named Richard Barwegan. At one point in the book he calls himself "Spec" Sanders. Maybe I'm the only one old enough to know this, but the story is full of characters named after players in the old All America Football Conference. The author missed an opportunity when he didn't work in Angelo Bertelli's name somehow. A truly weird book.

This book is great i love it, it has lots of jokes that anyone can do and they are all soooooo funny, its horrible that its out of print but you should still try to get it