The Cold, Marble Permanence Of Black Ink On White Pages. "There are many people who say that the era of print encyclopedias has passed. Let us hope that Lucifer is saving these people a nice warm spot. I want a bumper sticker: You can have my Baseball Encyclopedia when you tear it from my cold, dead hands." So sayeth Bill James about this essential tome's just-published 2004 edition. Edited by Pete Palmer and Gary Gillette, you get 1,712 wonderful pages for a mere $25. I got mine (and Baseball Prospectus 2004) today. Woo-hoo!



Here's a short interview with James. Jayson Stark on David McCarty, who is getting a barrel of ink for someone unlikely to make the big club. Still, it is a pretty cool story.