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207th out of 273 books
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138 voters
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Rob Neyer's Big Book of Baseball Legends: The Truth, the Lies, and Everything Else
by
Rob Neyer
<big><p align="center"> 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 l
...morePaperback, 352 pages
Published
April 1st 2008
by Fireside
(first published 2008)
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In this book, Rob Neyer factchecks some of the many stories that have been told about baseball over the years. I personally love reading Rob Neyer's work, though one may need a certain level of baseball OCD to enjoy something like this. The bulk of the writing is going through boxscores and game accounts.
If you are a huge baseball dork, you'll like it, otherwise you'll be bored to tears (I liked it!).
If you are a huge baseball dork, you'll like it, otherwise you'll be bored to tears (I liked it!).
Eh, this book was pretty good but I expected it to be better. Not really sure why I expected more, because all the Neyer books I've read have disappointed somewhat. (Though I keep reading because I've been an avid reader of his blog on ESPN for ten years).
Anyways, there's some great baseball stories in here (which is why I give it 3 stars) and Neyer tediously fact checks them. Did it happen or not? Most of the time, it didn't happen the way the storyteller told it. The essence...more
Anyways, there's some great baseball stories in here (which is why I give it 3 stars) and Neyer tediously fact checks them. Did it happen or not? Most of the time, it didn't happen the way the storyteller told it. The essence...more
Although the point of this book is to fact-check apocryphal baseball stories (many of which appear in classic and supposedly authoritative books like October 1964), it ends up being about something far bigger than that: the nature of truth itself. Neyer dances around but doesn't avoid this issue, with questions of memory and veracity raised in every chapter. We are left to answer for ourselves whether some version of the truth--as found in the record--is preferable to legends that, however fa...more
The title of this book is a little deceiving -- what Neyer takes on here aren't really "legends" for the most part, just the sort of yarns and tall tales that old ballplayers are famous (infamous?) for. And he sometimes seems to lose the spirit of things as he nitpicks away at stories that were clearly never meant to be taken as historically accurate in the first place.
That said, it's fun to watch Neyer dig deep into the stacks of history to pull out facts and figures from...more
That said, it's fun to watch Neyer dig deep into the stacks of history to pull out facts and figures from...more
I'm a huge baseball fan, to the point where I fancy myself a bit of an historian. Also, I have read just about every word Rob Neyer has written for ESPN.com in the past 12 years. So, you'd expect that I'd love this book, right?
You'd be wrong.
Each self-contained chapter is 2-3 pages long, which is nice, and makes it easy to flip through quickly, but the topics are awful. Players you've never heard of (even me, in some cases), and players you never cared about.
...more
You'd be wrong.
Each self-contained chapter is 2-3 pages long, which is nice, and makes it easy to flip through quickly, but the topics are awful. Players you've never heard of (even me, in some cases), and players you never cared about.
...more
This is a very fun book. The stories are very entertaining on their own, but the fact checking and stories that come from the research make it even more enjoyable. All baseball fans should check this book out.
If you are a big baseball fan, you will love this book. Lots and lots of fun, and an awesome trip through the intersection of baseball lore and modern baseball research, but only for baseball geeks...
You know, I have to say this book was fairly boring. And I'm a Neyer guy who loves baseball. But 300 pages of debunking intricacies of baseball stories, most of which are > 60-years-old? Kinda of tiresome.
The author researched the tall tales told by and about ballplayers since the beginning of baseball. It was interesting to read the stories as they were told by the ball players but the author's input after researching it was pretty dry and boring. Although it was interesting I can't give it more than three stars... I fell asleep a few times while reading it.
This was definitely my favorite of Rob's "Big Books" and a fun read overall. It's best digested in small doses, because otherwise the process--story, background, analysis, result--can get a little repetetive. I'd certainly recommend it to anyone who enjoys old baseball stories and tall tales.
A fun read that reinforces the truth that old-timers can't help but make crap up. If it sounds too good to be true, it is.
The very definition of a coffee table book. Great read when you have a few spare moments.
My favorite of the Neyer Big books.
Matt Adams
marked it as to-read
Garret Craig
marked it as to-read
Megan
marked it as to-read
Brendan Riker
marked it as to-read
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