Joe DiMaggio captured the1941 American League MVP Award after his 56-game hitting streak made headlines much of the summer. Ted Williams, despite his .401 batting average, finished second. In 1998, Sammy Sosa beat out Mark McGwire for the National League's award despite McGwire's record-setting 70 home runs that season. On a handful of occasions, the voters gave the hardware to a pitcher, though pitchers have their own version of the MVP in the Cy Young Award. The bestowing of the MVP award is one of the most anticipated announcements in major league baseball. Yet much controversy also shrouds this coveted title. What athletic characteristics, feats, records and statistics distinguish a player as an MVP award winner? How many players are in the running, and how is it decided which player will receive the distinction? This biographical dictionary profiles every MVP ballplayer from 1931 to 2001, providing detailed statistics, personal background and career highlights. A summary of each general baseball season for both leagues is provided, and the other top four contenders for MVP that year are also listed with the number of votes each player received.

The definitive work on the language of baseball—one of the “Five Best Baseball Books” (Wall Street Journal). Hailed as “a staggering piece of scholarship” (Wall Street Journal) and “an indispensable guide to the language of baseball” (San Diego Union-Tribune), The Dickson Baseball Dictionary has become an invaluable resource for those who love the game. Drawing on dozens of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century periodicals, as well as contemporary sources, Dickson’s brilliant, illuminating definitions trace the earliest appearances of terms both well known and obscure. This edition includes more than 10,000 terms with 18,000 individual entries, and more than 250 photos. This “impressively comprehensive” (The Nation) book will delight everyone from the youngest fan to the hard-core aficionado.

1970- issued in 2 vols.: v. 1, General reference, social sciences, history, economics, business; v. 2, Fine arts, humanities, science and engineering.

From its colorful beginnings more than a century ago, baseball's annual Most Valuable Player Award has become the most prestigious (and contentious) individual honor in the sport. No accolade means more to players, fans or the media. No other award can claim a voting history so rich in alleged snubs, grudges, conspiracies and incompetence. Examining the most controversial ballots, this book attempts to settle some arguments and answer some compelling questions: Which of the so-called "worst MVPs" holds up to modern statistical analysis? Who cast the single worst vote in MVP history? Does racial bias influence the vote? Who really deserved the award in a given year?

For the fourth year, ESPN, the worldwide leader in sports reporting, joins forces with Information Please, North Americas favourite sports reference source, to create the most sophisticated, hip, and informative sports almanac ever published. Like its hugely successful predecessors, with more than 125,000 copies sold, this new volume combines great sports writing from Chris Berman, Dan Patrick, Kenny Mayne, and others, easily accessed facts, in-depth statistics, hundreds of photographs, and thousands of charts and tables. It reviews the top 10 highlights for each sport, reflects every notable change in the sports world over the past year, and gives a full recap of the World Series and major competitions for professional and amateur alike. Weighing in at more than 950 fact-filled pages, this amazing volume is a source of endless entertainment and solid information for fans who cant know or read enough about the sports they love. Information Please Sports Almanac has existed for over fifty years. It is newly compiled every year by a full-time staff with contributors from the best sports writers in the continent.

Grandstand Baseball Puzzles is a celebration of Americas pastime. It enthusiastically takes the puzzle solver through a year of baseball by presenting crosswords and logic puzzles of varying difficulty with themes relevant to each month of the year. The puzzles are like no other sports puzzle book before it as they contain an unprecedented amount of trivia, statistics, and commentary. You will, without a doubt find yourself picking up your favorite baseball reference book or searching through baseball statistics websites as you attempt to conquer each of these puzzles. How well do you remember the 1980s? Who are the heroes and goats of the great Fall Classic? Do you know those Yankees or Red Sox legends as well as you think you do? Find out the answers in the most elaborate accumulation of baseball trivia puzzles to date, Grandstand Baseball Puzzles.