On the baseball shelf at your local bookstore there is a sizeable gap between gargantuan reference titles like The Baseball Encyclopedia (and it's modern cousin, Total Baseball) and big, fat books of baseball trivia. The Baseball Maniac's Almanac, a revised, repackaged edition of Bert Sugar's 1990 statistical bouillabaisse done for Thomas Dunne/St. Martin's, admirably fills that gap. Part straight reference, part trivia, it is absolutely the greatest, most unusual compendium of baseball stats and facts ever compiled in a single volume. Ever wonder which players born under each zodiac sign have hit the most career home runs? Ever go sleepless pondering the list of major leaguers with palindromic surnames? Ever wrack your brain trying to think of which pitchers have hit home runs in the same game they threw a no-hitter in? Yes? Well suffer no more! In addition to covering all the trivia related to the traditional fielding, batting and pitching statistics kept, Sugar has also collected data concerning the Hall of Fame, annual awards, managers, player-relatives, The World Series, all-star games, and a truly unforgettable section titled "miscellany," in which you can learn which major league players have borne the same surname as the town they were born in. Broken down into easy to access chapters and subsections, The Baseball Maniac's Almanac, with its thousands of lists and tables, is the perfect companion to any statistical baseball encyclopedia or general trivia book. As well as charting the fascinating achievements (and shortcomings) of individual players, an entire section (180 pages) has been dedicated to team-by- team data (Mookie Wilson, for instance, is the New York Mets all-time leader in runs scored, stolen bases and triples). The perfect gift for the baseball nut in your life, The Baseball Maniac's Almanac is an addictive read sure to spark conversation and debate wherever baseball is spoken.