Thank you, McFarland, for providing this book for review consideration in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Mr. Book just finished Baseball’s Who’s Who Of What Ifs: Players Derailed En Route To Cooperstown, by Bill Deane.

This is a very good book about players who had a chance at the Hall of Fame before their careers got derailed. In some cases, like Rick Ankiel and Karl Spooner, they starred very briefly before things fell apart. But, in most cases, the players were putting together better resumes like Cesar Cedeno, Jose Fernandez, Al Rosen, Herb Score and Brandon Wood before everything turned around.

There was also a section on honorable mention, for those who didn’t make the cut of 40 players to get their own chapter as well as those whose careers were cut short by death but were unlikely to make the Hall of Fame anyway (such as Thurman Munson and Steve Olin), and also a brief section on Hall of Famers who had their careers cut short (such as Sandy Koufax, Roberto Clemente, Lou Gehrig).

Most of the stories were very enjoyable to read.

Another highlight of the book was when Deane, who had served as the Hall of Fame’s Senior Research Associate at the time, told the behind the scenes story of the 1991 rule change that made players who are on the ineligible list also ineligible for the Hall of Fame.

I give this book an A. Goodreads requires grades on a 1-5 star system. In my personal conversion system, an A equates to 5 stars. (A or A+: 5 stars, B+: 4 stars, B: 3 stars, C: 2 stars, D or F: 1 star).

This review has been posted at Goodreads and my blog, Mr. Book’s Book Reviews

Mr. Book finished reading this on September13, 2024.