Larceny & Old Leather: The Mischievous Legacy of Major League Baseball

By Eldon Ham

Every baseball player from little league to the big leagues knows it is illegal to steal signs, yet every major league team assigns someone to do just that.

Baseball thrives on trickery and deception. But as our oldest major team sport, its larcenous legacy goes much deeper than the field of play.

In LARCENY AND OLD LEATHER: THE MISCHIEVOUS LEGACY OF MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL, Eldon Ham--sports lawyer, professor, and author--traces the game's lesser-known, roguish past. His wry chapters, filled with anecdotes and statistics, expose both the hidden and the obvious cheating occurring throughout baseball's history, from corked bats and spitballs to betting and media hyperbole.

Here is a book for both seasoned baseball fans and neophytes who'd like to get a look at the game that evolved into an industry. Babe Ruth, Sammy Sosa, Pete Rose, and many other lesser known players make their appearance in this fascinating history, as Ham seeks not only to chronicle the legacy of deception inherent within the game, but also to explore why it is, and how it is, that this deception is exactly what makes baseball the most endearing of American games.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0897335333
• ISBN13: 9780897335331
• Release Date: August 2005
• Publisher: Academy Chicago Publishers
• Length: 260 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.3" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Good Read-Baseball Fan or Not

I've followed Baseball for nearly 50 years and I truly believe that colorful Owner Bill Veeck (obviously addressed in a work of this type) would have loved this book. I did too. As I began reading, I found myself smiling almost immediately. Author Ham describes a time in baseball's history when only one individual officiated the game. Unable to see everything, all the time, the lone "ump' was often at the disadvantage and prone to miss such antics as fielders trying to impede the base-runners! I could not help but flash on the image of the Bad News Bears player attempting a tackle and being drug along the base path by the enemy base-runner. In my opinion, this book is like the film---one need not be a sports fan to truly enjoy the experience. There are a lot of smiles and chuckles in these accounts of mischief throughout the history of our National Pastime. A history that is so often reflective of the America of that day. From "hidden ball tricks" to sign stealing to the use of the good old "spitter" there is wealth of stories and revelations that are interesting and informative. At 57, I recall experiencing some of these events, others I knew only from books and films and still others I had not known until now. There are some deeper currents here too. While there is a great deal of fun and some relatively light weight sinning revealed in the stories told by Mr. Ham, there is a line between hi-jinks and heavy stuff. The author makes clear that one cannot "grin and wink" at all of baseball's transgressions. The steroids issue saddens anyone who cares at all about Baseball. And while I was amused by the account of "Chief Tokohoma" it was also a reminder that racism one tainted the baseball world is another sad era. But, while this book acknowledges these issues, the great majority of the work celebrates the type of behavior that informs and entertains with good humor. A dust jacket comment suggests that Mr. Ham is a "great storyteller". I agree