A tall stack of books lies at the foot of Eric Seidman's bed.

There's about 20 in all, piled together in no particular order. Titles like Moneyball by Michael Lewis, Whatever Happened to the Hall of Fame? by Bill James, and The Gashouse Gang by John Heidenry all grace Seidman's collection of America's favorite pastime.

Yet among the library of baseball novels, almanacs and biographies lies another book, slightly thinner than all the rest. Tucked just underneath a copy of The Old Ball Game by Frank Deford, with only its bright red spine drawing the observer's eye, is a book whose author just so happens to be the reader himself.

A Penn State student, avid baseball fanatic and official sabermetrician, Eric Seidman reads one baseball book each week. His own piece, entitled Bridging the Statistical Gap takes readers inside the sport's box scores and stat sheets.

Discussing various topics such as the game's clutch situations, analyzing a hitter's batting average, to settling the debate of who is truly the greatest playoff pitcher in history, Bridging the Statistical Gap provides fans with a look at baseball beyond the numbers.

"With sabermetrics and statistical analysis, people are generally intimidated by it," Seidman said, "and they have this idea that sabermetrics is this intense set of mathematical formulas only people who are stat wizards could concoct.

"But the thing is a lot of that stuff is really simple and not necessarily what the term refers to. Really in its essence it's about finding the truth, or finding what's there."

Seidman's book consists of 12 chapters, beginning with a brief foreword by ESPN.com baseball analyst Jayson Stark. Seidman reached out to anyone asking for help with his book and Stark responded.

The two talk periodically through e-mail, and even have each other's screen names on AOL Instant Messenger.

Twelve chapters. Nearly 200 pages. Countless hours of research and analysis. Quite a mountain to climb, particularly for a 22 year old sharing time as a film major at Penn State.

Not for Seidman, however. To him, the task was easy. After all, Seidman grew up in Philadelphia, rooting for both the Phillies and his favorite big leaguer, Greg Maddux.

Seidman watched other sports, represented by the LeBron James and Tracy McGrady posters taped on the wall in his apartment, still showing the fold marks from the Sports Illustrated issues he tore them out of. But baseball ruled all.

And while other kids were likely watching the games to see their favorite superstar blast a home run, or cheer their team on to a win, Seidman was busy looking deeper than that. He was concerned with the numbers.

As a sixth grader, Seidman would hang with friends after school, putting off their daily homework assignments to unwind with countless games of NHL 95 for the Sega Genesis.

He could look at the statistics on the screen, and predict each player's production down the line, then boast to his buddies about what he had concluded.

To Seidman, it was all simple math. Just looking at the figures.

"By the age of 9, people could give me fractions, and I could do batting averages," Seidman said. "I didn't understand why it was weird that I could do that, it was just the culture of my house. If my teacher were to say four over 11, I knew in my head, 'OK .364 batting average.' I wasn't a math wiz; I just knew it from watching baseball."

It took just seven months for Seidman to complete the book from start to finish. And while he says most writers space their work out over a few weeks at a time, his working style involves a disciplined schedule, even earning him a catchy nickname.

"People call me 'The Pringles Writer,' because once I pop, I don't stop," Seidman said. "I'll start something at 1:45, and if it takes me until 9 at night to finish it, then that's what I'll do."

When "Bridging the Statistical Gap" is released next month, it will be Seidman's longest publication.

The Penn State senior has written several articles for various sports Web sites and has worked at CN8 television station in Philadelphia since the age of 15.

He also writes two to three articles per week at the Statistically Speaking blog, as well as the Nerd-o-nomics column at MLB Front Office.

"I'm not a numbers freak," Seidman said. "I'm just a baseball freak who knows numbers."