Who are baseball's all-time greatest players? That's a question the game's fans never tire of trying to answer. Position by position, and with statistics at the ready, fans go around the diamond arguing the merits of, for example, Ty Cobb versus Bobby Bonds, Babe Ruth versus Roberto Clemente, Lou Gehrig versus Mark McGwire, Honus Wagner versus Cal Ripken Jr., Yogi Berra versus Johnny Bench, and Lefty Grove versus Sandy Koufax.
 
In A Team for the Ages, Robert W. Cohen takes these contentious comparisons to a new level of insight. Using an intriguing method which draws on familiar baseball statistics (including those for the 2003 season), but which also incorporates many often-overlooked factors, Cohen eloquently and entertainingly begins by choosing two separate all-star teams. The first covers the years 1900 to 1950; the second, the years 1951 to 2003. Then, by matching up those first two squads, he presents the roster of baseball's all-time all-star team.
 
Cohen's choices may well surprise even the most knowledgeable students of the game. But one thing's for sure: both serious and casual fans will find A Team for the Ages an invaluable-and fun-contribution to the baseball bookshelf.
 
Published 2004
Hardback