Through Library Thing’s Early Reviewer program I got a copy of Craig Robinson’s Flip Flop Fly Ball. I just read it yesterday.

From my review at LT:

This is a hoot. Baseball has always been the most statistics-laden sport in America, but Craig Robinson has charted, graphed and manipulated some of the data long kept but mostly ignored and turned them into wonderfully whimsical visuals. For example, he’s created a line graph of ball park elevations, which shows Denver at the far right and overwhelming the rest of the page as one might expect. But who knew that the Giants’ AT&T Park isn’t at sea level but actually 65 feet above it? After all, if you’ve seen a game there or seen it on TV you know that McCovey Cove is right behind the right-field wall; how could it be anything but at sea level? But it is. The two parks closest to sea level? The ones in Florida, at 10′ in Miami and 15′ in Tampa.

Thus are relatively meaningless statistics turned into appealing visual displays, and the entire book is filled with ones like it. It’s a joy to read and view.

Go pick up a copy and page through it.