The Baseball Hall of Shame 2 [Paperback]

Bruce Nash (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 15, 1986

Here is the young fan's record book of the worst performances in batting, fielding and pitching, along with the most inauspicious major league debuts and the worst teams of all time. Includes a catalog of the dumbest trades, the worst World Series performances and the worst baseball movies.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Following the Baseball Hall of Shame 1 by a year, this collection of anecdotes includes such embarrassments as Johnny Bench taking a third strike in the 1972 World Series when he had been expecting an intentional walk and Ron LeFlore being picked off second while reading the electronic scoreboard. Other chapters focus on forgotten players (Bill Pettit, the $100,000 bonus baby who won one game for the Pirates), Hall of Famers (Stan Musial losing a ball in the sun and getting hit in the head by it); owners, umpires and even fans (the Kessler brothers forcing the Philadelphia Athletics to trade Jimmy Dykes, who was taunted from the stands so constantly he couldn't play). This book makes the hard-core baseball fan ever more eager for spring.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Chapter One: Leading Off

It's time to give discredit where discredit is due.

For over a century, baseball has immortalized the home run slugger, the clean-cut All-American, the golden glover, the big-hearted lug, the unstoppable dynasty. But the truth is winners and nice guys and heroes are boring.

Who really makes the grand old game so entertaining, rousing, and exciting? The losers, the cheaters, the flakes, the buffoons, the boneheads, the inept, the outrageous, the obnoxious. They have given real demeaning to the word baseball. They have brought color to the game -- a black eye. They are the true foul balls whose contributions have withstood the detest of time.

Yet where is their niche in the Hall of Fame? Nowhere. To correct this travesty of sports injustice, we founded The Baseball Hall of SHAME. Cooperstown can have baseball's shining stars. The Hall of SHAME wants baseball's shiners.

The history of our national pastime boasts a rich heritage of shameful moments both on and off the field by teams, players, managers, coaches, owners, general managers, umpires, groundskeepers, and even the fans themselves.

To help us choose the most deserving candidates for Baseball Hall of SHAME dishonors, we made a nationwide appeal in the spring of 1984 to fans, sportswriters, broadcasters, and players for nominations. We spread the word on radio from coast to coast and throughout Canada. We went on TV and were interviewed in scores of newspapers and magazines. We visited spring training camps where we received nominations in the bleachers, clubhouses, dugouts, and press boxes. Then we spent weeks sifting through record books, archival material, and faded newspaper accounts. We considered all shameful moments and tossed out those which involved drugs or murder since there's nothing funny about either. However, most everything else shameful had a chance of being selected for dishonors.

Not everyone who blundered on or off the field belongs in The Baseball Hall of SHAME. In our judgment, only a small select number of the thousands of boners and disgraces that have tainted the game met our unique standards for inclusion in the Hall's first induction.

However, we don't intend to stop here. Periodically, we will be considering prospective Hall of Shamers from the past and present for enshrinement. If you feel some baseball personality or moment is deserving of such dishonors, we want to know about it. Please send us your nominations of hilarious happenings and ignoble incidents. To learn how to submit your picks, turn to page 187.

We want The Baseball Hall of SHAME to be the fans' shrine. We're not out to make fun of baseball. Instead, we want to have fun with the game we all love. This book is more than just the official record of charter membership in The Baseball Hall of SHAME. It's also a way for fans across the country to pay a light-hearted tribute to the national pastime. We have found that superstars and bozos have one thing in common -- they all screw up. (It's just that some screw up more than others.)

As you read through this book, we hope you come to the same conclusion we did. We can all identify with -- and laugh about -- each inductee's shameful moment because each one of us has at one time or another pulled a "rock."

Copyright © 1985 by Nash and Zullo Productions, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Pocket Books; Original edition (March 15, 1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671611135
• ISBN-13: 978-0671611132
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,109,428 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is the best and funiest baseball bok I've ever read!!!, July 16, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Baseball Hall of Shame (Paperback)

Bruce Nash and Allan Zullo have taken hundreds of the dumbest plays and players in the history of baseball and put them in one book.There are many things I've told baseball trivia buffs that I read that they never knew.The wording in the book is so funny that I laughed till I cried!If you need a laugh or want stump any trivia buff,read The Baseball Hall of SHAME.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Some Hillarious Tales!, October 13, 2000

By 

G. J Wiener (Westchester, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Baseball Hall of Shame 2 (Paperback)

This is an easy fun to read book detailing some of the lighter moments in baseball. The stories about the worst teams of all time and the overly obese legends who graced and shadowed the game really stand out. Also these story about Zeke Bonarus's wacky fielding exploits are pretty hillarious. This is definitely abook that will amuse young and old time and time again.

5.0 out of 5 stars An absolutely hilarious read, June 25, 2011

By 

Andy Shuping (Macon, GA USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Baseball Hall of Shame (Paperback)

Bruce Nash and Allan Zullo have created an absolutely hilarious compendium of the dumbest aspects of Baseball, everything from dumb trades to dumb players to dumb plays, this book has it all. Read about the pitcher with an ERA of 108.00 or the one that gave up 16 walks in 9 innings. This book will have you laughing from the moment you pick it up. This book and the three following are a must have for any baseball trivia fan.