The latest and greatest in ESPN.com baseball guru Rob Neyer's Big Book series, Legends is a highly entertaining guide to baseball fables that have been handed down through generations.
The well-told baseball story has long been a staple for baseball fans. In Rob Neyer's Big Book of Baseball Legends, Neyer breathes new life into both classic and obscure stories throughout twentieth-century baseball -- stories that, while engaging on their own, also tell us fascinating things about their main characters and about the sport's incredibly rich history. With his signature style, Rob gets to the heart of every anecdote, working through the particulars with careful research drawn from a variety of primary sources. For each story, he asks: Did this really happen? Did it happen, sort of? Or was the story simply the wild invention of someone's imagination? Among the scores of legends Neyer questions and investigates...
Did an errant Bob Feller pitch really destroy the career of a National League All-Star?
Did Greg Maddux mean to give up a long blast to Jeff Bagwell?
Was Fred Lynn the clutch player he thinks he was?
Did Tommy Lasorda have a direct line to God?
Did Negro Leaguer Gene Benson really knock Indians second baseman Johnny Berardino out of baseball and into General Hospital?
Did Billy Martin really outplay Jackie Robinson every time they met?
Oh, and what about Babe Ruth's "Called Shot"?
Rob checks each story, separates the truths from the myths, and places their fascinating characters into the larger historical context. Filled with insider lore and Neyer's sharp wit and insights, this is an exciting addition to a superb series and an essential read for true fans of our national pastime.
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 / 5.0
Another solid effort:
You can count on Rob Neyer for an interesting, informative and entertaining read when it comes to his Big Books. This is his third in the series (Lineups and Blunders being the first two). While it's interesting, I think it's the least interesting of the three. It's not necessarily Neyer's fault. The premise of the book is that Neyer takes some legendary tales and tracks them down (much easier today thanks to the Society of American Baseball Research (SABR) retrosheet web site and some digitized... more info
Great read for the baseball enthusiast!:
This is the perfect gift for the man or woman you know who has enjoyed baseball all of their lives. Whether reading about the famous players or actually having lived during their times, it brings it all vividly home to the reader. There are wonderful anecdotes and stories and scenes painted for those legends that grow only stronger over time.
fickle memories:
This is certainly an enjoyable book--but take it in small doses! It does a fine job--anecdotally--of addressing the problems of memory and embellishment and "improving" on stories. There are about 60 chapters, each of which presents a story--usually a recollection from a book about how player X did this-and-that. Neyer then tries to check out the validity--the internet and other resources are a great help. So, for example, Tris Speaker says that the Indians were leading the Yankees by 1 run in the 9th... more info
Fact or Legend:
If you believe the line out of the great western, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, "When the legend becomes fact, print the legend", then you might have some problems with this book. Rob Neyer obviously spent ALOT of hours checking on the validation of several player stories from past books and articles. He proves that either some players have faulty memories, or some players like to appear to have faulty memories to make themselves look more heroic in stories. Either way, the book is still a very good... more info
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