ebooks The Baseball Talmud: The Definitive Position-by-Position Ranking of Baseball's Chosen Players by Howard Megdal in History

Review

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful. Great book for all baseball fans... not to mention this 47yr old Jewish baseball fanatic!By CustomerThis book could easily be a tough read with all the heavy statistics on board; but thanks to Megdal's brezzy and funny style it's a pleasure!An example of the humor is this line used when talking about Sid Gordon's ability to draw a walk... "This is a recurring theme for so many Jewish players - unlike Eliot Spitzer; they grasped the value of not paying for something they could get for free."Sure; many could squabble over where he ranks the players... but basically he's got it down. He ranks the players much like Jayson Stark does in his great book; "The Stark Truth". (...where he ranks Sandy Koufax as the most overrated left handed starting pitcher ever; and Hank Greenberg as the most underrated first baseman of all time. Talk about food for debate!)This is one of those books that I just can't put down. The only major criticism is the omission of catcher Johnny Kling... probably the greatest catcher of his time. (Early 1900's for the Chicago Cubs) Now I know that there's still some who don't think he was Jewish; but most feel the preponderance of evidence clearly points to Kling as a Jew. (See Gil Bogen's engrossing bio "Johnny Kling" which features some well researched; compelling evidence... as well as a heartwarming foreword by Ernie Banks!)Overall Megdal's "Baseball Talmud" is quickly turning into one of my favorite baseball books!Buy it!0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Maybe call it "The Jewish Baseball White Pages Directory." It's that boring.By Still a Phillies PhanJust a listing of Jewish ballplayers; with a lot of fantasizing about what might have been had they played in different times; different ballparks; or had avoided injuries. Very few anecdotes about what made them top ballplayers or how they dealt with anti-Semitism; just a few awful jokes about Jewish mothers. So much more the author could have done; but didn't. Really a poor excuse for a book; and a crime that the title should exploit the word "Talmud." There is nothing Talmudic about this book; because very little deep thought seems to have been put into its writing.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Fun Book; lots of surprisesBy Low HertzThis book was fun to read. Lots of susrprises and virtually unknown players.Once you get past a hand full of players; from Kofax; Greenberg; there aren'ttoo many stars.It appears that only Kofax had the guts to take a high holiday off.