Did Babe Ruth Call His Shot? and Other Unsolved Mysteries of Baseball

by Paul Aron

Advance Praise for Did Babe Ruth Call His Shot?
""Aron has found the Rosetta stone to all of baseball's enduring mysteries, and he skips it along the pond with utter disregard for the ducks. His fortunate readers will have so much fun they may not even notice that they are becoming, page by page, real experts. Here is surefire water-cooler ammo.""
--JOHN THORN, editor of Total Baseball
""Paul Aron puts a distant replay on the most famous controversies in baseball history. This is more fun than if he'd been there with a camcorder.""
--ALLEN BARRA, author of Clearing the Bases and Brushbacks and Knockdowns
""Paul Aron has hit a home run for baseball fans. He dissects the evidence on baseball's 28 most charming mysteries. The result is a well-written, enjoyable, enlightening tour of the last hundred years of baseball history.""
--ANDREW ZIMBALIST, author of Baseball and Billions
""Paul Aron's book on elements of baseball is both wise and fun, illuminating and entertaining.""
--ROBERT ADAIR, author of The Physics of Baseball
""The essential last word for every fan who loves to debate baseball fact and fiction.""
--MICHAEL SHAPIRO, author of The Last Good Season

Genres: Baseball

232 pages, Paperback

First published February 11, 2005

About the author

Paul Aron is senior editor at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. Previously he was a reporter for The Virginia Gazette and executive editor at Simon & Schuster.

Reviews

[Leslie · Rating 5 out of 5]

The title question and many of the other famous questions from baseball history are herein researched thoroughly by Paul Aron.

Unbelievably, he makes a common mistake. He writes: “In 1986 the Red Sox would be one strike away from winning the World Series, and Mookie Wilson’s ground ball would somehow skip through Bill Buckner’s legs.” The facts of the case: The game was in extra innings and the score was tied. Even if Buckner had made the play for the third out to end the inning the game would have continued with the score tied.

[Joel Ready · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a delight, broken down into bite-sized chapters, each well-researched and written. I appreciated Aron’s lawyer-like ability to take both sides of each controversy and show multiple ways to consider the evidence. I was impressed by his breadth of reading also. Any fan of baseball will enjoy this book.

[Aaron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun. Picked it up with Caleb's new found love of baseball. Some good reminders in here. Broken up into 5 minute chunks.

[Mason · Rating 4 out of 5]

Do you want to know the answers to baseball’s unsolved mysteries? Instead, this non-fiction book provides enough insight about a mystery on both sides of the argument. Then the choice is up to you to draw your own conclusions using your own opinions and beliefs. I personally like that the author, Paul Aron, listed all the resources that he used in his writings at the end of the chapters. I chose this book because I am an avid baseball fan, but I think the cover needs a little work. One thing that I learned from the book was how older baseball players acted. Aron wrote that Babe Ruth said, “Maybe there should have been two books, one for kids and one for adults,” about his biography. This provided an eye opener to the actions that baseball players did before the 20th century.
The storyline of the book was perfectly done because he divided the different stories by chapters. Some of the characters that Aron talks about makes me think that some baseball players are less of a superstar as they seem. I don’t think this is the best book I have ever read, but it was one of the best non-fiction books that I have read. I prefer the fiction mystery books, but this was a nice change instead. This book is kind of like a documentary because it is about history. If I had friends that liked baseball and reading, then I would recommend this book to them because it is fit for anyone. Overall, for when you have free time and enjoy baseball, this book is a must read for you.

[Marshaferz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of the chapters are interesting, some less so, but on the whole, well-researched and fun. Worth it for the "further reading" recommendations at the end of each chapter.