Baseball and the Blame Game

<p> Most baseball fans know what links Fred Merkle Fred Snodgrass Mickey Owen and Bill Buckner. It's a pantheon of public failure. They would be harder put to say what links Eric Byrnes Tony Fernandez and Babe Ruth though these players made misplays every bit as egregious.</p><p> In this smart highly readable history of scapegoating John Billheimer identifies the elements that combine to condemn one player to a life sentence while another gets a wrist slap for the same offense. As it turns out the difference between a lower-case e in some forgotten box score and a lifetime of ignominy can hinge on a number of factors including timing geography reputation misunderstanding media bias and just plain bad luck.</p>