Total Baseball is a 2,301 page baseball encyclopedia first compiled by John Thorn and Pete Palmer in 1989. By its fourth edition, Major League Baseball endorsed it as its official encyclopedia.[1]: 169 The encyclopedia contains seasonal and career statistics in numerous categories for every Major League Baseball player, as well as historical, opinion, and year-by-year essays. Thorn wrote one of the chapters and edited the rest while Palmer, in collaboration with Thorn, provided the statistics.