Tony Gwynn is the greatest hitter in the history of baseball. That's the
conclusion of this engaging and provocative analysis of baseball's
all-time best hitters. Michael Schell challenges the traditional list of
all-time hitters, which places Ty Cobb first, Gwynn 16th, and includes
just 8 players whose prime came after 1960. Schell argues that the raw
batting averages used as the list's basis should be adjusted to take
into account that hitters played in different eras, with different
rules, and in different ballparks. He makes those adjustments and
produces a new list of the best 100 hitters that will spark debate among
baseball fans and statisticians everywhere.
Schell combines the two qualifications essential for a book like this.
He is a professional statistician--applying his skills to cancer
research--and he has an encyclopedic knowledge of baseball. He has
wondered how to rank hitters since he was a boy growing up as a
passionate Cincinnati Reds fan. Over the years, he has analyzed the most
important factors, including the relative difficulty of hitting in
different ballparks, the length of hitters' careers, the talent pool
that players are drawn from, and changes in the game that raised or
lowered major-league batting averages (the introduction of the
designated hitter and changes in the height and location of the
pitcher's mound, for example). Schell's study finally levels the playing
field, giving new credit to hitters who played in adverse conditions and
downgrading others who faced fewer obstacles. His final ranking of
players differs dramatically from the traditional list. Gwynn, for
example, bumps Cobb to 2nd place, Rod Carew rises from 28th to 3rd, Babe
Ruth drops from 9th to 16th, and Willie Mays comes from off the list to
rank 13th. Schell's list also gives relatively more credit to modern
players, containing 39 whose best days were after 1960.
Using a fun, conversational style, the book presents a feast of stories
and statistics about players, ballparks, and teams--all arranged so that
calculations can be skipped by general readers but consulted by
statisticians eager to follow Schell's methods or introduce their
students to such basic concepts as mean, histogram, standard deviation,
p-value, and regression. Baseball's All-Time Best Hitters will shake
up how baseball fans view the greatest heroes of America's national
pastime.
