Baseball's Greatest Controversies: Rhubarbs, Hoaxes, Blown Calls, Ruthian Myths, Managers' Miscues and Front-Office Flops (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780786493685)

To the uninitiated, baseball is a simple sport: the pitcher throws the ball, the hitter tries to hit it, and the fielders try to catch it. But what happens before, during and after those basic actions causes more arguments than can be found in any other sport. Most of these disputes are settled quickly; a few survive for generations, still able to spark heated debate decades later.

Did Babe Ruth call his home run in the 1932 World Series? Was "Shoeless" Joe Jackson a victim or a perpetrator of the Black Sox Scandal? And who really won the batting title in 1910? These and 23 other of the game's most heated controversies are analyzed in this work. The background for each of the debates is given, as well as a full discussion of the historical implications of the decisions. After all, disputes have been a part of the national pastime since Abner Doubleday laid out the first baseball diamond in 1839. Right?