Outsider Baseball

February 15, 2014

Examining what he calls professional baseball's "shadow world" that existed during a span of three-quarters of a century, Simkus (Outsider Baseball Bulletin) intriguingly looks to the Negro Leagues, the minors, and independent pro and semipro ball. Drawing on his own sabermetric-inflected system, the author evaluates players, teams, and leagues, with the majors serving as the sports' Holy Grail but hardly the only venue where stellar baseball took place. In the process, he calls attention to still-too-little-recalled stars such as Frank Grant, who battled against Jim Crow strictures; early leagues, both major and not; and competition between black and white players. Simkus also recalls stories like that of Jimmy Clinton, who more than held his own against major leaguers but chose to remain a legendary semipro player while drawing a salary as an insurance salesman close to that garnered at the time by Ruth and Cobb. Outsider Baseball celebrates black slugger Josh Gibson, while refuting commonly held perceptions that he belted more homers than Ruth. VERDICT An interesting but confounding work--with unifying threads somewhat lacking--that is perhaps strongest in its analysis of black baseball.--RCC

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