Salon: King Kaufman’s Sports Daily: Rob Neyer’s Big Book of Baseball Legends

“Rob Neyer’s latest “Big Book” debunks some baseball legends and confirms a few, all without spoiling the fun.”

And more important, these stories remind us that we know things like this about guys like that. They tie us to all the other baseball stories, and all the people who tell them and listen to them. Details aside, they’re all about the same thing, about being part of a crowd that cares about the same thing. Because you’re not getting past the table of contents if you’re not part of that crowd, the crowd that cares about baseball.

It’s fun to tag along with Neyer as he plays detective in the pages of his “Big Book of Baseball Legends,” mostly because of his breezy, conversational style and considerable wit. And it occurs to me as the Babe and the Emp lead a rousing chorus of “Oh, Clementine,” arm in arm atop the Hard Knox Cafe bar, that I disagree with Bill James. All this accuracy isn’t sad. The details are fun, and ultimately the details don’t matter.

I’m sure you noticed something improbable in my own story about lunch with Babe Ruth and Emperor Norton. You caught me, didn’t you?

The Hard Knox Cafe’s on Third Street, not Potrero Avenue.