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Showing posts with the label Zander Hollander

Before The Internet Sports Fans Had Zander Hollander

There is an absolutely  fantastic feature in the New York Times  this week about Zander Hollander. For nearly three decades he wrote annual "Complete Handbooks" about hockey, baseball, football and basketball. He wrote over 300 sports books over 45 years. I have most of the hockey books, though a couple of seasons are very hard to get a hold of. These books were the bible of sports back then, spreading statistics and player biography information that simply was not compiled in such a "complete" and "handy" format until the internet came along. Sports fans of that era owe Hollander a debt of gratitutde. This story, authored by Pete Croatto, is a celebration of Hollander's work and life. But it does have a sad ending. From 1971 to 1997, Hollander edited sports yearbooks, brick-sized tomes known as Complete Handbooks, which in the pre-Internet era were almost holy objects to a certain type of sports-crazed youngster. Here, in one glorious place, w...