It's Not Just Me - The Fallacy of Memory, Redux
So last month I wrote an entire post about how my long held memory of my first Major League Baseball game was not in fact entirely correct about most of the details, including the year, the winning team, and the key hit. I was able to look up what actually happened via Baseball Almanac and Baseball Reference.
As it happens, it's not just me. Rob Neyer has been one of my favorite baseball writers since his days on ESPN (he's now on Fox Sports) and I finally got around to getting his book Rob Neyer's Big Book of Baseball Legends. The entire point of this book is to take famous baseball stories and to evaluate them against the historical record (i.e., box scores) to see if they actually happened. As you would expect, a few of the stories hit on the dot, others are off in a few details and others are completely made up. It's enjoyably presented, and if you like baseball history, you might well enjoy this book.
Of course, you might argue that stories are just that: stories, and not meant to be taken so seriously. If you're that kind of person, you definitely shouldn't read this book. As for myself, I personally think exploring the stories doesn't hurt the stories themselves. The evidence says that Rube Waddell didn't blow up a Boston bean factory with a home run, but the story is still hilarious.
Or in other words, Print the Legend is good advice, but so is Remember What Happened.
As it happens, it's not just me. Rob Neyer has been one of my favorite baseball writers since his days on ESPN (he's now on Fox Sports) and I finally got around to getting his book Rob Neyer's Big Book of Baseball Legends. The entire point of this book is to take famous baseball stories and to evaluate them against the historical record (i.e., box scores) to see if they actually happened. As you would expect, a few of the stories hit on the dot, others are off in a few details and others are completely made up. It's enjoyably presented, and if you like baseball history, you might well enjoy this book.
Of course, you might argue that stories are just that: stories, and not meant to be taken so seriously. If you're that kind of person, you definitely shouldn't read this book. As for myself, I personally think exploring the stories doesn't hurt the stories themselves. The evidence says that Rube Waddell didn't blow up a Boston bean factory with a home run, but the story is still hilarious.
Or in other words, Print the Legend is good advice, but so is Remember What Happened.