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Clearing the Bases: The Greatest Baseball Debates of the Last Century, by Allen Barra
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Who was better, Mickey Mantle or Willie Mays? Who was the best right-hander of the '60s, Bob Gibson or Juan Marichal? Who is the greatest starting pitcher of all time? At his peak, who was more valuable, Joe DiMaggio or Ted Williams? If Lefty Grove, Sandy Koufax, and Roger Clemens had pitched at the same time against the same hitters, who would have won the most games? If Jackie Robinson had been white, would he be deserving of the Hall of Fame? Is Pete Rose overrated? Has Tim Raines been underrated? Who is the best hitter of the game today-- Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez, Ken Griffey, Jr.? Is today's pitching really that bad? Why can't modern pitchers go nine innings? Which are more valuable-- good starters or good relievers? How important is the stolen base? What are the myths that still surround Babe Ruth? What was the most talented baseball team of the twentieth century? Which twentieth-century championship team has been most slighted by baseball historians? What has been the real impact of black and Latin talent on Major League Baseball? Is baseball more competitive now than it was one hundred years ago? Or fifty? Or twenty-five? Who was the greatest all-around player of the last century? Find the answers here.
Clearing the Bases is the first book to tackle these and many other of baseball's most intriguing questions, plus it offers hard, sensible answers-- answers based on exhaustive research and analysis. Sports journalist Allen Barra, whose weekly sports column, "By the Numbers," has earned him millions of readers in The Wall Street Journal and whose outspoken opinions on Salon.com are discussed regularly on National Public Radio, takes on baseball's toughest arguments. Using stats and methods he developed during his ongoing tenure at The Wall Street Journal, Barra takes you to the heart of baseball's ultimate question, Who's the Best?, in this, the ultimate baseball debate book. It is guaranteed to spark thousands of heated debates and to supply the fuel for thousands more. While including bits on Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Roger Clemens, Lefty Grove, Willie Mays, and Ted Williams, among others, Barra even finds time to argue the case for great players from other sports such as Bart Starr in football and Wilt Chamberlain in basketball.
Regardless of what stand you take in these debates, you'll never think about baseball's greatest stars in the same way again.
- Sales Rank: #1095378 in Books
- Published on: 2002-05-03
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.74" h x 1.10" w x 5.64" l,
- Binding: Hardcover
- 288 pages
From Publishers Weekly
Barra's primary intent with his latest book is to spark intelligent, well-reasoned debate about some of the most contentious, if essentially insignificant, issues in pro sports. And who better to make such an effort? Writing for both the establishment (the Wall Street Journal) and the counterculture (Salon.com), Barra constantly challenges his readers to think outside the bounds of conventional sports analysis, using a seemingly innocuous but ultimately deadly combination of statistics ("the life blood of the sport") and common sense. Barra writes for thinking people, not simply by slaughtering baseball's sacred cows, but by demonstrating to the reader that anything less would be dishonest. Barra rips Babe Ruth's record to pieces, demonstrating at once that Ruth was a tremendous hitter, but that the accepted account of him as savior and "lively ball" progenitor of baseball is "an American creation myth." He uses a dazzling array of statistical comparisons among second basemen to vividly illustrate that the most popular argument against Jackie Robinson's inclusion in the Hall of Fame that he wouldn't be there if he had been white is nothing but racist rhetoric. Barra even manages to undermine his own religiously held belief in the superiority of Willie Mays, using a thorough statistical analysis to demonstrate Mickey Mantle's incomparable greatness. It is a rare sportswriter who can cite Branch Rickey and Irish writer/revolutionary Se n O'Faol in in the same work, but Barra does it with ease for an audience that has learned to demand nothing less.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Barra, a popular sports columnist for the Wall Street Journal and Salon.com, holds forth on a variety of baseball subjects and debates, from the mysterious disappearance of the high leg-kick by pitchers, to spirited comparisons of all-time greats like Ted Williams and Joe DiMaggio, Roger Clemens and Lefty Grove, and Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays, to an unveiling of Barra's stealth candidate for Player of the Century. (You'll never guess.) With an introduction by Bob Costas and even a couple of football opinion pieces thrown in for good measure; for all sports collections.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Membership in the fraternity of sports fanatics requires one to possess finely honed debating skills. Mantle or Maris? Ruth or McGwire? 1927 Yankees or the 1999 Yankees? Barra, a columnist for Salon, the Wall Street Journal, and the Village Voice, provides considerable insight into many of the most hotly debated topics of baseball's last 100 years. For example, he tries to set aside his childhood prejudices to pick the greatest center fielder of all time based on statistics and awards. Who's the greatest? The Mick, in a runaway. Barra also lists baseball's most overrated and underrated players, reassesses the career of Giant pitcher Juan Marichal, and examines whether Roger Maris should be in the Hall of Fame. Other highlights include a crisp essay on the inability of today's starting pitchers to complete a game ("Why Can't They Go 9 Anymore?"). Barra is passionate, opinionated, perceptive, and a fine writer. A worthwhile addition to any sports collection. Wes Lukowsky
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Most helpful customer reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful.
Barra's "Clearing the Bases" covers the bases
By Paul Cool
Allen Barra's "Clearing the Bases" engaged this reader. Sure, the controversies have been tackled many times before (Mays v. Mantle; Ruth the greatest player? Why cant pitchers go 9 innings anymore, etc--that is why they remain baseball's greatest debates--but Barra's ability to (1) approach the debates from every conceivable angle and (2)marshal all the relevant statistics are just the beginning of this book's strengths. Barra could write about the history of the white powder used down the base lines and make it interesting. He is honest, he is funny, and his writing is both crisp and accessible. He is a combative bloke who will hammer you with his certainty and, in the next breath, acknowledge the flaws in his own arguments. I turned first to the chapter comparing Grove, Clemens and Koufax. I had planned to go to my grave convinced that Sandy Koufax, at his peak, was the greatest pitcher ever, but Barra argues, all too convincingly, that I might be wrong. I've tried to pick his arguments apart, but I am losing that game. Barra himself weighed in on some of these debates [e.g., Mays v Mantle] with his own preconceived notions, only to find that his methodology has led him to new discoveries and new notions. He is as honest with himself as he is with the stats. It has been suggested that the book adds nothing to what Bill James has already said. Well, James disputes that: in his cover blurb, Bill James writes, "Barra pushes aside the accumulated debris of a century's assumptions to see things as they were....A wonderful collection of thoughts and essays." So Bill James in effect says "buy this book." As Bob Costas says, "Next time you debate these questions with someone, make sure you've read this book first."
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful.
If you like to think and argue about baseball, just order this now...
By M J Heilbron Jr.
If you are the type of person who enjoys the serious discussion of baseball comparisons...like, "Who's better: Mays or Mantle?" Or "Who's the best _____ in baseball ever?" than this is pretty much an essential purchase for you. Just go click on the order button and you'll be fine.
Barra's book is a series of short "arguments" or meditations on various subjects. Most of them are on baseball, although he tosses a few about football and basketball in at the end. They are written as if he was given a theory, and he feels compelled to provide proof or evidence of said theory.
For example, he takes on the hallowed legend of Babe Ruth, tries to break it down into comparisons which debunk some of the "myth" surrounding his legacy, and then surprisingly, ends up validating much of his greatness.
He has some interesting insights, like the segment on the 1919 Cincinnati Reds. Who knew they were so good? He has an elegant discussion comparing Joe DiMaggio with Ted Williams.
There were startling (for me) revelations and discoveries; players who I never appreciated, like Lefty Grove, Juan Marichal and Tim Raines.
His defense of Mike Schmidt as one of our all-time greats reads like a fantastic legal closing argument. You will walk away convinced that Schmidt may be one of the, if not the most, underrated baseball players ever.
The whole Mantle/Mays thing gets a bit bogged down in statistical analysis, and in the end, I came away with they were both so freaking great, we can leave it at that. I do agree that Mays isn't as revered as Mantle, and he probably should be.
The short football chapters (and one basketball missive comparing Chamberlain to Russell) at the end are interesting, but out of place. I think they're inserted to show he can write and think about other sports. Read them separately, at a later date.
There's a lot of good stuff here: an appreciation of Roger Clemens that avoid fawning, Minnie Minoso's unrecognized stature as a cultural icon, practical ideas regarding on-base percentage/average...
... what keeps this from a five-star book is that sometimes the book gets inundated in statistical gobbledygook and loses it's momentum. Don't get me wrong: I love stats and numbers like any self-respecting baseball nut. It's just that sometimes there's a bit TOO much here...but maybe this is a minor quibble.
Baseball fans will love this stuff...I sure did.
19 of 20 people found the following review helpful.
Disappointing
By tin2x
This book has a great premise, which is to use statistics to question some of the "great" debates of baseball and generally shed some new light on the subject. It is a fascinating idea. However to me it feels rather poorly executed.
The chapters seem to go from statistics to anecdotes, to statistics, to anecdotes with no clear path. The problem with this approach is that Barra never even settles on one or another as being his criteria for settling his dabates. On this level this book is highly unsatisfying. For example in comparing Ted Williams to Joe DiMaggio he "proves" that one batter was clearly the statistically only to decide that he would choose the inferior player for intangible reasons if he could go back in time. Considering that in other chapters he uses numbers almost exclusively, to argue that the 1919 Black Sox shouldn't have been favorites no matter takes away the necessary bias. Essentially the author uses numbers that prove his point, but often only presents the data he puts forth in his argument.
In the chapter I found most unsettling the author examined the legacy of the 1986 New York Mets. He does nothing less than insult Sid Fernandez for his weight problems and dismisses Dwight Gooden's career tail off as solely due to drug and alcohol problems. He compares Gooden's early career to that of Roger Clemens and rightly points out that Gooden was the better pitcher at the end of 1986 based on statistics and essentially relates his subsequent pitching performances to his personal demons. However if the reader were presented with career statistics they would see that Gooden pitched approximately 500 innings in his first 2 seasons. The man led the National League in innings pitched in his second season with 276. Add to that Gooden's high strike out totals and high complete game figures and one could argue that Gooden suffered from arm abuse as well as drug problems. To fail to mention such data seriously hinders the credibility of the author's arguments. It makes me curious as to what pertinent information is left out of his other analyses. As such I cannot place much weight on the particular merits of the authors arguments as they present very skewed statistics.
I know statistics can say whatever you want them too. It's even easier when you don't get to see all the numbers. A nice idea but poorly executed. It may present the greatest baseball debates, but it does not end them.
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