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'Who's On Worst': Tales Of Baseball's Goats

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In his latest book, Who's on Worst, author and New York Daily News columnist Filip Bondy shares stories that some fans would rather forget. Who's on Worst?: The Lousiest Players, Biggest Cheaters, Saddest Goats and Other Antiheroes in Baseball History chronicles many of the dark moments in baseball's past.

Bondy joined Bill Littlefield to discuss his new book.


0328_oag_whos-on-worstBill's Thoughts On Who's On Worst

Who's On Worst could have been a silly book, as so many books about bests and worsts in baseball or anywhere else have been silly.

But Filip Bondy is too good a writer to produce a silly book and it feels as if he had a lot of fun with this one. In the chapter about the worst fielders, he speaks of "tales and videotapes of unrequited glove." He identifies the late Marv Throneberry as "the crown jewel in the tiara of ineptitude" that was the 1962 New York Mets.

The usual suspects turn up in Who's On Worst. We're told once more of Bill Buckner's bad luck regarding a particular groundball and Phil Linz's harmonica playing on the back of the Yankee bus. How could it be otherwise? But Bondy is a builder of stories rather than a maker of lists, and his book is a diverting read for folks impatient for Opening Day.

This segment aired on March 30, 2013.

Headshot of Bill Littlefield

Bill Littlefield Host, Only A Game
Bill Littlefield was the host of Only A Game from 1993 until 2018.

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