I like reading Bill James. A lot of good info, some provocative thoughts, and some tidbits to die for.
I have all 3 editions of the Historical Baseball Abstract, his Bill James Guide to Baseball Managers, and 1 or 2 other books.
Some of his articles (like the one on Ernie Lombardi) are treasured.
He has a soft place in his heart for The KC Royals and despises Charlie Finley from the old KC Athletics days.
While I despise ranking players, he really educated me on differences between eras, ball park illusions, and more.
While enjoyable he can be woefully inconsistent. With one comparison he may look at the best 3 seasons, with another comparison he may look at the best 7 seasons, etc. He will be all over park illusions in one comparison, then almost ignore them in the next comparison.
He once had Willie Mays ranked 3rd or 4th in career/peak for CF, then had him the third best OVERALL player (only behind Ruth and Wagner). He said I can never see why Gibson was rated over Marichal and had Marichal rated higher BOTH peak and career, then rated Gibson better in a combined ranking!?! He said McCovey should be rated above Killebrew, then a few books later rated Killebrew over McCovey. ETC ETC ETC
He was all over Kaline out homering Clemente 399-240, but ignored the facts that Kaline had 3,000 more AB than Clemente and played in a MUCH easier home run park than Clemente. The same park (Forbes Field) that he eloquently described the negative home run factor in his comments on Mazeroski.
He had Billy Martin prominently pictured on the cover of his Guide to Managers, then virtually did not say a word about him in the book.
Overall, I truly enjoy and benefit from reading him, but I take his rankings with a grain of salt.
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