Historical Dictionary of Baseball is a comprehensive reference work of all things baseball and includes noteworthy players, teams, rules, owners, leagues, and more. A volume in the ongoing Historical Dictionaries of Sports series, the work is designed as “the perfect starting point for anyone doing research”. The book aptly fits the definition. The work comprises an editor's foreword, brief preface, four pages of acronyms and abbreviations, a 22 page chronology, a lengthy introduction, an A to Z dictionary, 12 appendices, and an extensive bibliography. The heart of the 500 plus pages is the 24 chapters representing each letter of the alphabet, except X and Z. Historical Dictionary of Baseball is a commendable and well-done work of interest to school, public, and other libraries serving a clientele interested in athletes and sports.
Historical Dictionary of Baseball is historical in that it covers the early formation of the game and includes detailed entries of players, managers, teams, executives, stadiums, organizations, awards, technical terms, and leagues (minor, major, college, Negro, girls). It is contemporary in that its coverage is current through 2012. The work is international in its perspective, but the focus is primarily on the USA, “noting the connection between the United States and baseball is amazingly strong”. The author, Lyle Spatz, has written several books on baseball as well as numerous contributions to encyclopedias and other writings. Spatz provides extensive cross-references, indicating other named entries in boldface type, see also references for related topics that do not appear in an entry, and see references to other entries that deal with the topic.
The chronology and the introduction do an excellent job of providing the necessary broad context for understanding the game of baseball. The first in the chronology is from 1791, and the last entry is from 2012 and listing nine significant events, including a new Wild Card postseason format. The only year with a longer entry is 1920, with ten entries, including the purchase of Babe Ruth by the New York Yankees and the indictment of eight Chicago White Sox players for conspiring to lose a World Series. The introduction covers the history, rules, growth, and business of baseball. The introduction traces baseball's complex origins and rightly dispels the myth that Abner Doubleday created the game. The work includes data from Baseball-Reference.com (www.baseball-reference.com) and The Elias Book of Baseball Records.
The meat of Historical Dictionary of Baseball is the just over 900 entries in the A to Z dictionary. Entries for individuals have birth and death dates, birth and death places, and relevant baseball facts about each individual. The first entry, Aaron, Henry Louis “Hank” is three paragraphs and includes all major accomplishments and a brief mention of his time in the Negro National League. The entry on McGwire, Mark David is two paragraphs and closes with a mention of charges that he used performance enhancing drugs. Entries for terms, for example Curveball and locations, Fenway Park, are usually a paragraph.
Following the dictionary proper are 12 useful appendices of lists that include: World Series Results, Career Leaders in Games Played, Career Leaders in Batting Average, Players with 500 Home Runs, Career Leaders in Runs Batted In, Career Leaders in Runs Scored, Players with 3,000 Hits, Career Leaders in Games Pitched, Pitchers with 300 Games Won, Career Leaders in Earned Run Average, Career Leaders in Strikeouts, and College World Series Winners. The extremely thorough bibliography is divided into eight major subject areas: Introduction, Major Leagues, Minor Leagues, Negro Leagues, Women's Baseball, College Baseball, Baseball in Other Countries, and Selected Websites.
The publication of the Historical Dictionary of Baseball comes on the heels of several other baseball-related reference works including The Cambridge Companion to Baseball (Cassuto and Partridge, 2011) (RR 2012/238) and Sports Hall of Fame Encyclopedia (Blevins, 2013) (RR 2013/031). The three works, while sharing some overlap, are actually quite distinctive. Historical Dictionary of Baseball is more traditional and reference oriented in its approach with the emphasis on A to Z entries, some as short as a sentence or two, while others might cover two-three pages, while The Cambridge Companion to Baseball is largely essay or chapter-like in its format with a distinctive approach that includes looking at baseball from the lens of social, artistic, historic, and economic perspective. The works serve largely to provide a good balance and are complimentary in approach.
Historical Dictionary of Baseball is a very solid reference work. The work is broad in that the chronology and introduction provide needed breadth, while the 900 entries are rich in detailed coverage. It is an authoritative starting point for facts and figures significant to baseball. The audience for this work includes sports aficionados and fans, local residents interested in local teams, fact checkers, and studious youngsters to name a few. Historical Dictionary of Baseball is recommended for libraries and sports fans alike.
