I believe this is the edition in which James introduced, or at least seriously elaborated, his concept of "range," in order to prove how lousy a shortstop Larry Bowa was. ( )

I think not Bill's strongest outing, but (of course) worthwhile. Some of this material was recycled from earlier, self-published, editions. Lots of emphasis on park factors in this edition. Many of James' opinions have become baseball's accepted wisdom, which is of course Bill's lifetime accomplishment.

Part of the fun with these is knowing how things worked out. He predicted the O's imminent demise, but probably missed by a year (he expected 1983, but hedged his bets. His evolving understandings of, say, Dennis Eckersley is intriguing. He's absolutely nasty about Sparky Anderson, which probably (or partially) explains Anderson's low opinion of James' work.

This short review has also been published on a dabbler's journal. ( )