TORONTO - In celebration of the 15th anniversary of the most acclaimed baseball reference book ever published, the publishers of Total Baseball have created an edition that encompasses the most sweeping changes since the franchise was launched in 1989.

From its inception, Total Baseball has been the first choice for fans seeking the most authoritative source for records, statistics, and insightful essays on the sport. With this Eighth Edition, Total Baseball: The Ultimate Baseball Encyclopedia (May 1, 2004; Sport Classic Books; $59.95), not only tells the story of America's pastime in words and numbers, but also in more than 200 photos, including more than 60 color images in the new Total Baseball Gallery. Total Baseball has been hailed by The New York Times as having "everything you always wanted to know from a baseball encyclopedia." The Eighth Edition is packed with even more facts and figures, and now comes in a fresh, more colorful package.

Baseball historian John Thorn, a co-creator of the first Total Baseball 15 years ago and editor of each edition since, returns to the helm for the Eighth Edition. Thorn, who gained notoriety in May with his discovery of a reference to the sport in an 18th century Pittsfield, Mass., bylaw, is joined this time by experts Phil Birnbaum, and Bill Deane. They, along with contributors Rob Neyer, Alan Schwarz, Donald Dewey, Nicholas Acocella, and Peter Wayner, have created the largest-ever edition of Total Baseball at more than 2,600 pages. In addition to photographs, other new features include: (1) the addition of Win Shares - the revolutionary statistic created by Bill James to measure each player's contribution to his team's victories - to the Player and Pitcher Registers; (2) unique narrative reviews of every season in major-league history dating back to 1871 that recount the newsmakers, champions and award winners for each year; (3) reprints of classic essays on the biggest stars and best teams of the first half of the 20th century from the archives of the former SPORT magazine; (4) several new essays authored by a host of baseball experts on contemporary issues, including:

• An intriguing assessment of Barry Bonds and his place in history, by John Thorn
• An assessment of the "Moneyball" phenomenon, separating fact from fiction, by Peter Wayner
• A thought-provoking ranking of the greatest teams of all time, by Rob Neyer
• An examination of the 100 most important figures in baseball history by Thorn and Alan Schwarz

In addition to hundreds of pages of new material, the editors have also revised and updated several outstanding essays from past editions of Total Baseball, including "Jackie Robinson's Signing," "Baseball and the Law," "Black Ball," and "Ballparks Past and Present." There also is a comprehensive look at baseball's early history in essays detailing the invention of the game, its formative years, the Civil War era, pioneers of the game, and the creation of the major leagues.

As in the past, the Player and Pitcher Registers of Total Baseball feature the career record of all 16,003 players and pitchers in major-league history. With the inclusion of Win Shares and Total Baseball's own statistic, Total Player Wins, in the Eighth Edition, readers will find measures of each major leaguer's impact on the game not available from any other source.

With its comprehensive statistical content, thoughtful and provocative prose from baseball's leading writers, and dramatic photography, the Eighth Edition of Total Baseball: The Ultimate Baseball Encyclopedia upholds the tradition of its predecessors and goes beyond them to become the best Total Baseball ever.

John Thorn, one of the country's foremost baseball historians, wrote his first baseball book thirty years ago and since then has created a great many more, including Treasures of the Baseball Hall of Fame and The Armchair Book of Baseball. He co-founded Total Baseball in 1989, has written for several periodicals, and was Senior Creative Consultant to the Ken Burns documentary Baseball.

Phil Birnbaum is editor of By the Numbers, the statistical analysis newsletter of the Society for American Baseball Research. A native of Toronto, he currently resides in Ottawa where he works as a software developer.

Bill Deane is a freelance baseball researcher and writer who spent eight years as Senior Research Associate for the National Baseball Library & Archive. He has published seven books and more than 200 articles for a variety of publications, and was a recipient of the 1989 SABR-Macmillan Baseball Research Award.

To arrange an interview with an editor of Total Baseball, contact publicity@sportclassicbooks.com.

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