When I first got into blogging, I read a few books and looked at some websites that offered advice on how to attract readers. One of the most consistent things they all said was to write lists – top 10 lists, favorites lists, least favorites lists, and so on. It gives people something to argue about. It implies value: that one thing is better than another because it’s rated higher. If nothing less, it says that my favorite is better than your favorite.

It’s hard to argue with the basic logic of that theory; lists are readily available almost anywhere you look. Radio stations count down the hottest songs of the day or week, ESPN showcases the Top 10 plays of the day on Sportscenter.

The “Most Wanted” series from Potomac Books has a new addition – David Vincent’s Home Run’s Most Wanted: The Top 10 Book of Monumental Dingers, Prodigious Swingers and Everything Long Ball.

Vincent is where triviality meets history: he is the person that can provide not only close-up views of an individual home run, but a context to frame groups of the over 250,000 home runs that have been hit in Major League Baseball. Jayson Stark from ESPN.com refers to him as ‘The Sultan of Swat Stats.” If you need to know anything pertaining to home runs – and I mean anything – David Vincent is your go-to guy.

The importance – or maybe the perceived importance – of the home run can’t be understated. How many people were watching Sosa and McGwire race to break Roger Maris’ record, or followed Barry Bonds when he broke that mark and then eclipsed Hank Aaron’s career mark? How many baseball fans wouldn’t bat an eye if you asked them the importance of the numbers 762, 755, and 714?

David Vincent (Photo by Dixie Tourangeau)

But beyond those home runs lie countless others, hit by thousands of players who you may have never heard from – players that only hit one in their entire career, or players like Frank Sigafoos, who on April 21, 1929 had the only home run he ever hit in his career called back because of a balk.

Vincent combs his archives to come up with lists that run the homerun spectrum – from which president had the most home runs hit during his time in office, to home runs hit in the latest innings, to players with the longest last name to ever hit a home run. It’s pretty mind-boggling how many ways you can slice and dice 250,000-plus home runs dating back into the late 19th century.

Which makes you wonder – do you really want to read about all these? Unless you share Vincent’s love of the long ball, the answer likely is no. In some ways, that is kind of a shame – given how much love the long ball gets. But when factoring in time and energy, the point of triviality quickly approaches.

This certainly isn’t to discredit Vincent’s work – he’s answered many a question of fans and journalists, and the baseball community is better served having him a part of it. But while we need his work and knowledge, I can’t say I’d recommend needing to put 271 pages of it on your bookshelf.

Reading it will certainly make you full of trivia, but the way the book is written left a lot to be desired. It’s certainly not prose – Vincent adds about a hundred words to each person or home run on his lists, and while they’re informative and provide some context, they’re also written in a way that seemed kitschy to me. Some of the words try and capture the slang of baseball, but didn’t succeed. I almost felt like I was reading a book aimed at the very novice fan, not someone who should already have a decent knowledge of the game and wanted to dig into the history books. While the language doesn’t get in the way, it certainly didn’t help the book along.

Which brings in the question of where the book goes – and that really isn’t anywhere. It’s a book of lists, plain and simple. I wish I could say more, but it didn’t really end with a bang or anything out of the ordinary.

Home Run’s Most Wanted provides more than most baseball fans would ever care to know about the home run and the trivialities that can be dug out when sifting through all the data. It’s a good trivia book, and one that if you share Vincent’s passion for the home run you should enjoy, but one that otherwise might be left on the shelf.