The 30 Greatest Sports Conspiracy Theories of All-Time
Ranking Sports' Most Notorious Fixes, Cover-ups, and Scandals
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Publisher Description
Separating fact from myth, Kalb attempts to determine which of these long-held conspiracy theories hold water, and which ones fall flat under scrutiny. Ranking the conspiracies from 1 to 30 and the likelihood of each conspiracy from 1 to 5, Kalb boldly asks:
• Did baseball avoid integration in the 1930s and 1940s with an unwritten agreement?
• Was Super Bowl III a fixed game?
• Did Sonny Liston throw both of his fights vs. Muhammad Ali?
• Was the NBA’s first-ever draft lottery fixed?
• Why did Michael Jordan really retire from basketball the first time?
• Are some NASCAR race outcomes too good to be true?
• Did the New England Patriots cheat their way to a dynasty?
• What really happened at the 1921 Kentucky Derby?
• Why weren’t any Japanese players signed to major league contracts from 1965-1995?
• And much more!
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The old-fashioned concept of sportsmanship takes a beating in these essays by Kalb, known as "Mr. Stats" for his broadcast work with NBC, HBO Sports and more. Scrutinizing more than two dozen famous incidents-from Cassius Clay's triumph over Sonny Liston to Pete Rose's considerable gambling woes to Michael Jordan's first retirement-the savvy author parses the ins and outs, as well as the insiders and outsiders, of each predicament, backing up his contentions with numbers, interviews and outside reporting. In each chapter, Kalb provides the background, the possible fix, and his own conclusions, including a one-to-five scale rating a given conspiracy theory's likelihood. Kalb's skepticism can be overbearing at times ("At Daytona... to go from seventh place all the way to first, seems almost unreal. In fact, I wouldn't believe it if I saw it in a movie") but his analysis is reasoned and the stories, from steroids stats to Howard Cosell testifying for the USFL to racial stonewalling in major league baseball to a meticulously detailed account of Superbowl III (did the Colts throw the game?) are largely fascinating.
