The Greatest of Their Times

Opinions vary wildly on the subject of baseball's greatest players. Many books have explored the topic, but few delve into baseball's official performance data as thoroughly as this one. The authors analyze the peak performance records of every Hall of Fame player across different eras of baseball history. Using statistical comparisons, they select the Hall's best players at each position for era all-star teams from 1901 to 2020, including standout Black players who starred in the Negro Leagues prior to the racial integration of Major League Baseball in 1947. The book also considers controversial players excluded from Hall membership due to behavior deemed detrimental to the integrity of baseball (consorting with gamblers and use of performance enhancing drugs) but whose performance records still stand.

The authors enliven their statistical comparisons with narrative overviews of different baseball eras; provide humanizing background stories about each era's greatest players; and discuss the ways in which baseball reflects, and has sometimes influenced, American culture, including darker aspects of the game's history of racism, gambling, and drug use.