John Mercurio is an 87-year-old man who began writing in 1980 when he wanted to know who had more records between Babe and Ty Cobb. He could not find a record book with this information so he called the Baseball Hall of Fame and asked for their help. He was informed this book does not exist and no one knows how many records they have. They encouraged him to do the research and after 5 years, he not only had every record of Ruth and Cobb, but every season and career record of every player in baseball history. Harper & Collins published his first book in 1989 which was entitled, "A Chronology of Major League Baseball Records....1876-Present." They also published his second book, "Record Profiles of Baseball Hall of Famers." In addition, they published two team record books, "A Chronology Of New York Yankee Records....1901-Present" and "A Chronology of Boston Red Sox Records....1901-Present." These books did 1.5 million in sales. John has also done chronology research for all 30 major league baseball teams and has recently completed the research in the sports of Football, Basketball, Hockey, Golf, Tennis and the Olympics. Since no one knew how many records Babe Ruth had created, John also published a book which includes every one of Ruth's records and the players that broke his records and all of the unbroken records he still has after 88 years. Typical record books eliminate old records when new ones are created, but John's books never eliminate records but instead add all new ones to existing chronology lists so that no players or their records are ever forgotten and the history of records is forever preserved.
