<i>The Baseball Encyclopedia</i> (review)
1991; University of Hawaii Press; Volume: 14; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1353/bio.2010.0412
ISSN1529-1456
Autores Tópico(s)American and British Literature Analysis
Resumo272 biography Vol. 14, No. 3 If there is any one slight drawback for the English reader it may be that the Bibliographies are composed in French and deal almost exclusively with French subjects. Under the Authors and Subjects section, for example, few non-French make the list. Woody Allen and Virginia Woolf join a select list of canonized foreign authors about whom French speakers might be likely to write. The materials surveyed are also limited by the language in which they were composed and do not include a complete listing of other potentially unlimited non-French sources. Lejeune's broad definition of "littérature personnelle et récits de vie" opens the door to any number of popular artifacts (Self magazine, Oprah, Geraldo, True Confessions, to name but a few) whose inclusion in such a bibliography might make for an impossibly unwieldy and difficultto -compile collection. On the other hand, by limiting his topic to language rather than scope, he provides us with an invaluable research tool, a mine of ideas for the study of popular culture, and a fascinating portrait of contemporary France. In this non-narrative , objective listing of sources, we can see developing a collective search for personal narratives to replace failed ideologies and a questioning of the very notion of historical narrative as we have known it. Surprisingly, Lejeune also provides us with what we least expect from a solid research bibliography: a good read. William Burgwinkle University of Hawaii at Manoa Rick Wolff, editorial director. The Baseball Encyclopedia. Eighth edition, revised, updated, and expanded. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1990. In the midst of the general disorder of human existence and the special disorder of any given baseball season, the numbers provide an orderly structure—at bats, hits, runs batted in, chances, errors, earned run average. The numbers also bridge the gap between the experience of the players on the field and the experience of the spectators in the stadium or in front of the TV set: Cecil Fielder and baseball fans in general could share in Fielder's pursuit of 50 home runs over the 1990 season, even if the payoff was not the same. The numbers, by themselves, can be satisfying; yet, there are anomalies. At the end of the 1990 season, Jeff Torborg was named manager of the year in the American League. Even though his team, the Chicago White Sox, won 25 more games in 1990 than they did in 1989, the numbers do not add up. During his ten-year major league career, Torborg was a mediocre player (a career .214 batting average with eight career home runs and three career stolen bases). As a manager, his record is not any better. He took over the Cleveland Indians from Frank Robinson after 58 games of the 1977 season and managed them through 95 games of the 1979 season, when he was replaced by Dave Garcia. The Indians had a combined record of 157-201 (.438) while he was manager. When he returned to managing for the 1989 season, the White Sox went 69-92—for a .419 percentage, 19 points under Torborg's managing record with Cleveland. Even with a 94-68 season (.580) in 1990—the third best record in baseball—Torborg's career as a manager stands at 320-361 (.470), 41 games under just breaking even. With the Eighth Edition of The Baseball Encyclopedia sitting massively on the shelf above my Macintosh (and responsible for the stats I just quoted), I am not questioning the wisdom of the Baseball Writers of America, but rather the limits and the uses of the kind of statistics that the Encyclopedia provides in such profusion. Tor- REVIEWS 273 borg may indeed have been the American League's Manager of the Year, but you will not find the justification in Torborg's numbers. The question of what Torborg's numbers can tell us would seem to be central to the question of how useful the Encyclopedia is as a biographical research tool. The two largest sections of the Encyclopedia and a shorter third section are organized around individual players and managers: the "Manager Register," the "Player Register," and the "Pitcher Register...
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