CD-Rom -- ''Bill James Electronic Baseball Encyclopedia For Windows''

"Bill James Electronic Baseball Encyclopedia for Windows" Miller Associates (800) 654-5472 Windows 3.1, Windows 95 $44.95

The baseball season is over. Long live baseball.

If you are looking for a fascinating source of intelligent information about past major league seasons or players, you can't beat "Bill James Electronic Baseball Encyclopedia."

Based on the statistical methods and measures of the man who spearheaded the wider movement to produce meaningful understanding of baseball statistics, the product has a wealth of features (not all of which are useful).

You can look at a player's statistics by year, for his career or in seasonal notation (what his consolidated career production was for items such as doubles, homers and strikeouts over 162 games).

You can also see his Bill James-ian statistics (items such as Isolated Power or Secondary Average). You can see the same kind of data for teams and you can compare individual players or teams from any time in recorded baseball history.

You can set up filters and sorts, enabling queries such as "Who were the top 25 second basemen who played more than five seasons with the highest walk percentage?" Or "Who were the top 50 American League pitchers since 1900 for career strikeouts?"

The query screen provides for a lot of flexibility, and though the interface is a little rough, you can decode it with a little effort and, once learned, you'll appreciate its incredible abilities.

The graphing feature produces simple charts. I like graphs, but don't find the ones offered here very useful.

Though the 1996 edition (a new edition is due out early next year), this product is most valuable for people who can read good presentation of informative numbers.

If you know a serious baseball fan who uses any flavor of Windows and who wants to get beyond batting averages and ERAs, this product is a must-have.