Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

Anybody know the status of Rupert Patrick's "Statistical History of Pro Football"?

Amazon has had it up since last summer So they're actually shipping the book now? Good to know. Has anybody seen/read a copy?

Just got my copy in yesterday. Hope to find a shady spot outside over the weekend and dive in!

Cool. I just placed my order.

Wow. That is a pretty hefty price for a paperback book that is less than 300 pages long. That is what happens though when there is not that many in print.

lastcat3 wrote:Wow. That is a pretty hefty price for a paperback book that is less than 300 pages long. That is what happens though when there is not that many in print.

I ordered a textbook for a class I was taking last year and thought the same thing.
When I received the book the last page said it was printed ON THE DAY I ordered it... it may be the same with Rupert's book and many other books in the future...there is no print run and everything is "Print on Demand."

If there is not sufficient interest for a large initial run (or the publisher perceives it that way) P.O.D. allows for very short runs but there is no cost decrease in that type of printing. Binding, especially, is very expensive on a "one off" project.

Just finished the section on Running Backs. Having a statistical background I was intrigued by his All-Time career and seasonal results. I won't divulge spoilers but there were a few eyebrow-raising findings. I know the price of the book is a bit steep but I can see this will become a valuable reference source for me going forward in my research. If we get enough people here at the PFRA interested perhaps we can do a Xoom conference down the road to discuss Rupert's methodology and findings. I hope so anyway.

Would someone here, who's read the book, care to do a review? That might help.

That's American publishing for you. It costs more to print less copies of a book.