The second edition of this book is a big upgrade from the first edition, which was a huge project on its own. This edition not only contains names of virtually every existing team from the 1800's up to the present day, but also contains complete standings of all leagues, major and minor from 1884 through 1996.

The editors of this book did an amazing amount of research for this book and it shows. In addition to each league's standings, there is also a list that shows each major league team's farm system (From the 1930's on to the present). Some teams like the St. Louis Cardinals of the 1930s had as many as TWELVE minor league farm teams! With each team are listed their won-lost records, their attendance figures, and the team managers.

It's fascinating to look at how each team in a league did over a 10, 20 or even 30 year period, or how different leagues came and went. Along with each league standings are lists of league leaders in batting and pitching.

Each section of the book is divided into decades and at the beginning of each section is a summary of the period. There's a tremendous amount of reference information listed in the beginning of the book (ie teams listed by league, city, state and counties and leagues from year to year).

At the back of the book are listed all-time records for active and inactive leagues. Standings for independent leagues, (which became popular in the mid 1990s) which aren't always available in other baseball reference books are included here.

Any minor league history fan will love this updated and vastly improved book.

Also recommended are any of the Bill O'Neal minor league history books and also The Grand Minor League by Dick Dobbins.

this book will entertain the baseball fanatic for hours...it is especially useful, if you are researching your town or city's involvement with America's pastime... i highly suggest you give a copy to anyone that you know that has played professional baseball...

this book carries you on a city by city tour of professional baseball in N. C. Once the capital of minor league professional baseball (in the forties) N. C,fans saw the early careers of hundreds of future major leaguers Eddie Mathews, Richard Culler, Hoyt Wilhelm, Billy Goodman, the real Crash Davis ( not the character in Bull Durham) and hundreds more. The photographs are vintage. Any baseball fan that is interested in the history of minor league baseball will find a gold mine not only about the players but also community leaders and the efforts they made to keep minor league baseball alive. The book is in good readable form and baseball fans, social and cultural historians will find it enlightning as well as enjoyable

Although this book is compact it is too heavy to carry if one is on a walking tour. I can read a newspaper without glasses, but with glasses I had trouble with the type. It is not in an orderly format nor is there is a good section on hotels.

I have had great experiences with the DK Guides. I use it extensively in my trip planning and this is the guide I take on the trip.

This guide provides execllent information about local sites throughout Beligium. It gives very clear guidance concerning what you can find and access information. It also helps you to locate the sites with indexed maps and diagrams.

I have found that this and the other DK Guides are bit weak in providing guidance about what to see. That is, it offers little qualitative information--everything sounds equally wonderful. And we all know this is not necessarily the case.

So I always find another guide that has more opinions and recomended tours to determine what to see. I espiecially look for guided the provide suggested walking tours. This has worked out well for the most part. I use other guides to plan the trip and the DK Guide in the country.

It has very usable maps although sometimes too limited in scope and you may require a local map to get around beyond the central city. Also, because the book is a bit heavy and too large to fit in a jacket pocket after the first day or so I leave it in the hotel and rely on the local map when walking about.

The one topic I find most reliable is DK's restaurant recommendations. The two places I tried in Brussels were fantastic and offered everything that the guide described. I have had equal success with DK's restaurant recommendations in other cities/countries.

I think this is an indispensible travel guide as long as you know what you are using it for--planning or background info, etc.

Very good book for the ones who want to get to know in details this wonderful country which has been active part of the contemporany history of our world.

It gives you information from the wolrdly famous French wineyards to tips about travelling in to the Romanish sites spread over around the country.

Its write style is very accesible to everyone who wants to start travel books reading and deep explore the frontiers around the globe.