The Dickson Baseball Dictionary (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780393066814)

Hailed as "a staggering piece of scholarship" (Wall Street Journal) The Dickson Baseball Dictionary is the most complete resource on the lexicon of baseball in the English language. More than twenty-five years in the making, with the help of more than 400 baseball and lexical experts, this masterful third edition, expanded by more than 30 percent, with over 10,000 terms and 18,000 definitions, provides the comprehensive history and meanings of words and phrases from around the world of baseball.

Drawing on dozens of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century periodicals, as well as contemporary sources, Paul Dickson's brilliant, illuminating definitions trace the earliest appearances of our most treasured baseball expressions ("tearin' up the pea patch," "can o' corn," "catbird seat," etc.). Termed "baseball's Webster," Dickson has spent nearly a decade painstakingly revising and writing new definitions, for words both well-known and obscure, including those introduced by Latin-American ballplayers, and statistical expressions relating to fantasy baseball and the SABR/Moneyball era. More than 200 photos throughout the book--many rare and previously unpublished--illuminate various historical and contemporary terms.

Because of its deep and broad coverage, its authoritativeness and its rich and colorful descriptions, The Dickson Baseball Dictionary will prove indispensable to baseball fans and word lovers alike.

Author: Paul Dickson
ISBN-10: 0393066819
ISBN-13: 9780393066814
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Language: English
Published: 02/01/2009
Pages: 1008
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 4.34lbs
Size: 10.31h x 7.35w x 2.33d

Review Citation(s):
Library Journal Prepub Alert 11/01/2008 pg. 45
Library Journal 05/01/2009 pg. 98
Choice 08/01/2009
Booklist 09/01/2009 pg. 132