Brushbacks and Knockdowns: The Greatest Baseball Debates of Two Centuries - Softcover

Allen Barra...a wonderful baseball writer.

---George Will

Allen Barra is back with Brushbacks and Knockdowns, his newest retrospective of baseball history and folklore. Risking barroom riots, his essays question, Who was a better hitter, Babe Ruth or Barry Bonds?, Who is the best player not in the Hall of Fame?, Who was the most valuable team player in baseball history? (Hint: His name rhymes with Yogi ), and Is baseball s talent pool shrinking?

And for the first time, Allen Barra will make some projections on the greatest players and most innovative new trends in the first half of the twenty-first century. He uses statistics to give decisive answers to Who s Right, The Owners or The Players? He also addresses the issue of steroids in baseball---how they undermine statistics and the fan s faith in the integrity of the statistics that have been the game s lifeline for more than a century.

In Brushbacks and Knockdowns, Barra takes on baseball s toughest arguments. Readers will never think about baseball s greatest stars, situations, and matchups in the same way again.

Praise for Brushbacks and Knockdowns

Barra...has outdone himself in this latest book. His stances on a variety of hot-button issues are sure to cause arguments, agreement, and even outrage.

---USA Today

Jolts readers into reconsidering baseball s clichés. For those fans who love to argue the merits of baseball s greatest players and teams.

---The Philadelphia Inquirer

[Barra] poses provocative questions and goes at them from all sides, setting up an argument, knocking it down, circling back to look from yet another angle.

---The Los Angeles Times

Praise for Clearing the Bases

If you love the game for what it is...step up and dig in. ---The New York Times

The book...is a real hackle raiser, but utterly fascinating. ---The Boston Globe

Barra s clear-eyed analysis makes Clearing the Bases one of the most thought-provoking books on the game to appear in some time. ---Bookpage

Barra...worships at the altar of statistics, where he isn t afraid to sacrifice a sacred cow or two. ---The Washington Post