It's baseball bliss when you play hardball.

• Position: What's New? - The Hardball Times Baseball Annual 2007 - Product/service evaluation

The Hardball Times Baseball Annual 2007 brings together two groups of the national pastime's most ardent devotees--opinionated, articulate sports columnists and rational, slide-rule-wielding statisticians. The result is pure baseball bliss. The book begins with fascinating articles written by baseball brains that not only give fans the low-down on the 2006 season--all hail the world champion St. Louis Cardinals!--but delve into the grand old game's history and future.

The division races, post-season battles, impact of steroids, and the first World Baseball Classic all are given their due, as are the top minor league players, the evolution of Tommy John surgery, Atlanta Braves General Manager John Schuerholz (architect of 14 straight division winners), the history of the Federal League (remember the old Brooklyn Tip-Tops); and MLB's competitive balance (seven different World Series champs the last seven seasons, including them we still can't believe it--Boston Red Sox and Chicago White Sox winning back-to-back titles in 2004-05, repeating their feat of 1916-17 and ending a combined 174-year wait for a world's championship. In addition, the fact that 11 different teams have filled out the 14 possible Fall Classic spots during the last seven Octobers provides a wonderful rebuke...