Baseball's Adolescence

Harkening back to the deadball era, Cait Murphy's Crazy '08: How a Cast of Cranks, Rogues, Boneheads, and Magnates Created the Greatest Year in Baseball History revisits a pivotal time in baseball's history. The game was growing up, according to Murphy, but as with any adolescent it had its awkward moments. Some of these include Fred Merkle's infamous "bonehead play," a league president going through a mental breakdown, and the mounting problem of gambling, which would nearly destroy the game 11 years later.