Errors and Fouls : Inside Baseball's Ninety-Nine Most Popular Myths

Baseball is the most storied of American sports, but not all the stories are true. Likewise, most baseball traditions are wonderful. But not all of them. The game’s most basic elements have often been misrepresented, misunderstood, and misremembered through the years. All along, fiction has coexisted with fact, hyperbole has mixed with history, and exaggeration has been mistaken for explanation. Meanwhile, baseball’s yen for tradition has left many fans and even baseball commentators unduly attached to stale ways of thinking. In Errors and Fouls, Peter Handrinos breaks from the past and provides an entertaining antidote to its outmoded ideas and excessive nostalgia. Handrinos examines the underlying issues that affect all fans: modern game tactics, playoff formats, and baseball economics. He supplies new ideas that counter broadcasters’ laments about how ballplayers are supposedly unprepared to bunt, why teams deserve to make the playoffs, or whether ball parks rip off taxpayers. While boldly busting myths, he tackles all major topics: fan polls to free agency, recruiting to revenue sharing, the talent pool to the ticket prices. The author’s contrarian analysis and witty writing makes Errors and Fouls essential reading for anyone wanting to know how today’s baseball world really works.