Clearing the Bases The Greatest Baseball Debates of the Last Century

Who was better, Mickey Mantle or Willie Mays? At their 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? Who was the greatest all around player of the last century? Clearing the Bases is the first book to tackle these and many other of baseball's most intriguing questions and offer hard, sensible answers---answers based on exhaustive research and analysis. Sports journalist Allen Barra, whose weekly sports column "By the Numbers" has earned millions of readers in the Wall Street Journal and whose outspoken opinions in 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, one guaranteed to spark thousands of heated debates and to supply the fuel for thousands more.

Allen Barra writes a column for the Wall Street Journal and Salon.com. He is a frequent contributor to the New York Times and is also heard regularly on Major League Baseball Radio. He lives in South Orange, New Jersey

“Using hard evidence as a snowplow and logic as a compass, Barra pushes aside the accumulated debris of a century’s assumptions to see things as they were. Bill Russell did NOT beat Wilt Chamberlain; stop saying that. It is so easy for living sportswriters to be bullied by dead ones; they were so large when we were small. Barra calls on us to stand on our own two feet, and wrestle with the hard questions left over from the generations of sports history. A wonderful collection of thoughts and essays.” ---Bill James, author of The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract

“Who was better, Mays or Mantle? Allan Barra gets this one wrong, but his arguments in this wonderfully informative and fun book are always so trenchant, and supported by so much statistical ammunition, that he is (almost) always persuasive.” ---George F. Will

“If my sins at last caught up with me and I were confined to the smallest room in my house, I can think of no finer companion there than Allen Barra’s engagingly contentious Clearing the Bases.” ---Roger Kahn, author of The Head Game and The Boys of Summer

“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] goes about the job with meticulous care, with energy and delight. Every conclusion is supported by a wealth of data, well-balanced. Great book for the armchair athlete.” ---Houston Chronicle