The 25 Greatest Sports Conspiracy Theories of All Time

By Elliott Kalb

Book Overview

In every sport, in every country around the world, there are fans on the losing side who know that something other than skill and luck beat their favorite team or player. Sometimes they're actually right. That's why sports lovers will devour this inside look at the 25 biggest myths and scandals in professional and collegiate athletics.

Elliott Kalb examines each potential outrage in detail, supporting and debunking popular beliefs along the way. In some cases, proof does exist that the "fix" was in--like the 1919 World Series thrown by the Chicago "Black" Sox players or the conspiracy to keep African Americans out of Major League Baseball until 1947. In others, there remain only whispers of wrongdoing and suspicious circumstances, including the Jets' win in Super Bowl III and Muhammad Ali's first-round knockout of Sonny Liston. This is sure to capture the imagination of anyone who has ever wondered what really happened behind the scenes.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1602390894
• ISBN13: 9781602390898
• Release Date: November 2007
• Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
• Length: 283 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

An interesting read

If you like conspiracy theories and you like American professional sports, this book is something you'll enjoy. Kalb writes well, and he gets his facts straight. Most of the stories are the ones you'd expect to read (1919 Black Sox scandal, Patrick Ewing's NBA draft, the Jets first Super Bowl, 1972 Olympic basketball final). But there are a few stories that surprised me. Kalb ends each story with his own 5-Oswald rating system, indicating the likelihood that a conspiracy really happened.

Sports conspiracies? Love it!!!

Elliott Kalb has done a lot of sports writing and a couple of videos that I can remember off-the-bat, too. He knows his stats, and when the sports stories get a good conspiracy thing going, you've got a lot of guys hooked. This is great "toilet reading;" The kind of not-necessarily important reading one would need to know, but for the record, stuff I've sort of thought about and having seen so much of these pondered out loud for time immemorium, really cool. Kalb covers everything from Sonny Liston through Nascar and all of it is awesome stuff worth not only reading but talking about. The pluses: The facts, the side dope and a good dollup of color to history. Minuese: hate the lousy page layout (no chapter heads and text is too big, filling the page like a grandpa's large-print edition. Conclusions to a conspiracy get ranked, rated and opinionated by the author with a small Lee Harvey Oswald face for ranking of "maybe." Not a damned picture anywhere except little icons of a presidential assassin; a cute gimmick that wears thin without a photo, doodle or something for low attention span readers like me. Don't get me wrong: you'll love the read, but the publisher should've done a much better job and probably could've charged much more and I'da paid it. [...]

For sports junkies

Awesome collection for any sports fan or conspiracy nut. This is filled with some of the most clever theories established in the wide world of sports. From start-to-finish it is engaging.

Terrific Read

This is a must-read for sports fans, who can learn more about the different conspiracy theories from the world of sports. Kalb wrote the book in a style that is filled with warmth and wit. I especially enjoyed how each chapter ends with one-to-five face shots of Oswald, to give a sense of how much stock the author believes in each conspiracy theory. There are several terrific chapters in here, including one on the 1985 NBA Draft and one on Super Bowl III. I highly recommend it