A Fan's-Eye View of the Baseball Hall of Fame: A Critique of Baseball's Greatest Institution Paperback – August 24, 2016

I bought this for my baseball fan husband. He has everything and when he wants something he gets it for himself. He was so surprised and thoroughly enjoyed this book. He has enthusiastically repeated the stories to friends and/or pulled out the book to show them. We have this in our queue to buy for those "hard to buy for " family and friends.

This is a book about who deserves to be in the hall of fame. When I was a kid I played lots od strat-o-matic and intuitively understood things such as difference in eras and home ballparks as well as the value ofawalk. All these were brought to my mind by Bill James, who in the opinion of these writers invented fancy new stats. The authors rely overly heavily on the old stats. Joe Morgan is penalized for batting only 271. No mention is made that he played his early career in the worst hitters ballpark[ Houston Astrodome] during the extreme pitchers era of the 60s. He compares Koufax who pitched in a pitcers ballpark in the 60s favorably against Pedro Martinez who pitched in a hitters ballpark during the steroid hitter. If he used the readily available stat of ERA+, he would have discovered that Pedro from 1997-2003 had just about the best ever. Koufax had a 5 year period in which he led the league in ERA. Taking into account ballpark factor, he would have only led the league twice. He was great but Pedro was greater. In addition, this book loves compilation stats like 3000 hits and 300 wins. It considers Phil Niekro and Don Sutton to be 2 of the best 15 pitchers of all time. They were good pitchers over long periods of time. Sutton might have won over 300 games but was only 68 games over 500. Niekro only 44.Pedro barely won 200 games but was over 100 games over 500. There are all sorts of other odd assumptions in this book. I'm only about halfway through.

Very well-written and the authors making a compelling case for reform of the balloting for the baseball Hall of Fame. I hope that the executives of Major League Baseball and the Baseball Writers Association of America read this book and seriously consider the recommendations that the authors makes.

Every year when the votes are tallied for players to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, there is controversy. How was Ken Griffey, Jr. not a unanimous selection? How did Robin Ventura receive a vote? Who is worthy of being enshrined in Cooperstown and who is not?Like any published list, there will be agreements and disagreements, but the authors establish their base criteria on which statistics make a player worthy of the Hallowed Halls, and which ones fall short, while explaining their views in a manner that both the hardcore sabermetricians and casual sports fans can understand.“A Fan’s-Eye View…” is so much more than a subjective list about who should be in the Baseball Hall of Fame and who shouldn’t be. This one-of-a-kind publication also thoroughly and concisely, examines the current and former paths players have taken to ultimately receive the “Hall of Famer” moniker, as well as other deserving players who have been snubbed by the writers and various committees. The authors propose solutions to reform the voting process instead of simply complaining about the current election methods.This book was an absolute treat for this lifetime baseball fan to read and will help generate a new wave of family, friend (and Twitter), arguments over who truly deserves to be inducted. Highly recommended for any sports fan, sports writer, or anyone who is a fan of integrity.

Great book for any kind of fan, casual to hardcore. It is a fun and thought provoking read.

Fantastic read for anyone into sports and especially baseball. Loads of information and facts you're sure to learn something.