Historical Dictionary of Baseball

Lyle Spatz

• Publisher: Scarecrow Press
• Year: 2012
• eBook ISBN:
  9780810879546
• Edition: 1

Dating back to 1869 as an organized professional sport, the game of baseball is not only the oldest professional sport in North America, but also symbolizes much more. Walt Whitman described it as "our game, the American game," and George Will compared calling baseball "just a game" to the Grand Canyon being "just a hole." Countless others have called baseball "the most elegant game," and to those who have played it, it's life.

The Historical Dictionary of Baseball is primarily devoted to the major leagues it also includes entries on the minor leagues, the Negro Leagues, women's baseball, baseball in various other countries, and other non-major league related topics. It traces baseball, in general, and these topics individually, from their beginnings up to the present. This is done through a chronology, an introductory essay, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 900 cross-referenced entries on the roles of the players on the field—batters, pitchers, fielders—as well as non-playing personnel—general managers, managers, coaches, and umpires. There are also entries for individual teams and leagues, stadiums and ballparks, the role of the draft and reserve clause, and baseball's rules, and statistical categories. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about the sport of baseball.

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Editor’s Foreword
• Preface
• Acronyms and Abbreviations
• Chronology
• Introduction
• A
• B
• C
• D
• E
• F
• G
• H
• I
• J
• K
• L
• M
• N
• O
• P
• Q
• R
• S
• T
• U
• V
• W
• Y
• Appendix A: World Series Results
• Appendix B: Career Leaders in Games Played
• Appendix C: Career Leaders in Batting Average (Minimum 3,000 Plate Appearances
• Appendix D: Players with 500 Home Runs
• Appendix E: Career Leaders in Runs Batted In
• Appendix F: Career Leaders in Runs Scored
• Appendix G: Players with 3,000 Hits
• Appendix H: Career Leaders in Games Pitched
• Appendix I: Pitchers with 300 Games Won
• Appendix J: Career Leaders in Earned Run Average (Minimum 1,000 Innings Pitched)
• Appendix K: Career Leaders in Strikeouts
• Appendix L: College World Series Winners
• Bibliography
• About the Author