How great is Roger Clemens? Why isn’t Moises Alou in the 2005 World Series? Why is it so remarkable that Jermaine Dye is in the 2005 World Series?

Subjects like these and much more are found in “Baseball… Then and Now,” the new baseball history book by Clayton State University Director of University Relations John Shiffert, available just in time for the climax of the current baseball season – the World Series. Based on his previous book, “Baseball: 1862 to 2003,” this latest work from PublishAmerica (MailScanner has detected a possible fraud attempt from "www.publishamericia.com" claiming to be www.PublishAmerica.com) compares present day baseball players – including current headline makers Clemens and Dye -- to players from the past.

Take the Astros’ Rocket, for instance. A premier strikeout pitcher, along the lines of past greats Nolan Ryan and Steve Carlton. But, Clemens has done something neither Ryan, nor Carlton, nor anyone else has done – recorded his 4000th strikeout in his 300th win. How rare is that? Find out in “Baseball… Then and Now.”

The White Sox’ Dye has also done something remarkable… bounced back from an historically bad 2003 season to bat third and play right field for the White Sox in the 2005 World Series. How bad was Dye’s 2003 season? Only Ray Oyler’s 1968 year with the Detroit Tigers can match it.

Clemens and Dye are in the current World Series. Alou, a former star with the Astros, is not. Maybe it has something to do with the time he ran afoul of a treadmill in 1999. That event is in the chapter on odd injuries, along with John Smoltz burning himself while trying to iron a shirt he was wearing at the time.

“Baseball… Then and Now” looks at 13 sets of great players, 11 sets of not-so-great players, and reviews two excellent baseball books, both associated with the late Lawrence Ritter. The book also includes a Foreword by Baseball Prospectus columnist and former Bill James assistant Jim Baker.

“Baseball is a game of people,” says Shiffert, a Lafayette Hill, Pa., native and Newnan, Ga., resident, and a long-time baseball historian and sportswriter in addition to serving as Clayton State’s director of University Relations since August 1995. “This is a review of present players that ties them to players baseball’s past… Pete Rose and Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner and Alex Rodriguez, Dazzy Vance and Curt Schilling, Steve Blass and Rick Ankiel.

“However, I also try to keep in mind that baseball is a game, and games are meant to be fun, so there are chapters on odd injuries and Moonlight Graham.”

“Baseball… Then and Now” can be pre-ordered through the PublishAmerica website (www.PublishAmerica.com). At present, copies may also be ordered by calling PublishAmerica at (301) 695-1707. “Baseball… Then and Now” will also be available soon through wholesalers Baker & Taylor, Brodart and Ingram, in bookstores, and through on-line stores such as Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com.

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