Sports Illustrated baseball's greatest

Sports Illustrated (SI) has produced another handsome, oversize book in the same style as its Football's Greatest. For this volume, a panel of SI writers led by longtime columnist Tom Verducci attempts to end arguments (or start them) by assembling lists of the top ten greatest players by position as well as of managers, teams, games, and numerous other categories. The majority of the book is focused on position players and pitchers. For each position, the ten best ranked players are covered on a page or a spread with a large, vivid photograph, a brief overview of the player's career, and a lengthy quote from an existing SI article written about the player. Some players additionally have a full reprinted article on them from the magazine's archives; these are a treat to read. The team and other nonposition player categories (e.g., best sluggers, best designated hitters) are organized in much the same way. Several of the categories at the end of the book, "Best of the Rest" (e.g., uniforms, rivalries), are merely single-page lists. VERDICT While the actual rankings may stir some arguments, fans enjoy heated discussions; plus they'll all agree upon the high quality of the photographs. This will make a great addition to most baseball collections.-Brett Rohlwing, Milwaukee P.L. (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.