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4) Chapter 23 Shoeless Joe Jackson is kept out of the Baseball Hall of Fame and is never exonerated

5) Chapter 8 Michael Jordan’s 1993 “retirement”

6) Chapter 19 Hank Greenberg isn’t pitched to because of his religion

7) Chapter 26 UNLV throws 1991 NCAA Semi-final vs. Duke

2 Oswalds:

1) Chapter 22 NFL squashes the competing USFL in the mid- 1980s

2) Chapter 17 Funny business at the Kentucky Derby

3) Chapter 20 Sammy Baugh is part of an NFL gambling scandal to fix games in the 1940s

1 Oswald:

1) Chapter 7 Super Bowl III is fixed; possibly by Don Shula and/ or Carroll Rosenbloom

2) Chapter 5 NBA sends Patrick Ewing to the Knicks in the league’s first draft lottery

3) Chapter 13 Auto races that are too good to be true

4) Chapter 27 Cal Ripken’s 2001 All-Star Game home run a set-up

5) Chapter 28 NFL referees hand New England a victory with Tuck Rule call during the 2001 playoffs

6) Chapter 30 Hurdler Liu Xiang fakes injury in 2008 Beijing Olympics

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

My wife, Amy Kalb, brings to mind the lyrics of an old song by The Band. “Up on cripple creek, she sends me. If I spring a leak, she mends me. I don’t have to speak, she defends me . . .” I don’t know how I deserve that treatment, but my kids and I sure are the better for it. Amy is perfect. Well, she’s not perfect. A perfect wife would be a Honeymooners aficionado, not an I Love Lucy devotee. A perfect wife wouldn’t complain that it poured buckets of rain on her throughout Super Bowl XLI in Miami. A perfect wife wouldn’t occasionally complain about my insistence to watch Howard Stern on-demand late at night, every night. Then again, I’m so far from perfect that I’m the wrong one to do any complaining.

Lenny and Phyllis Kalb are wonderful parents that truly make a difference in the world. Lenny, by teaching boating safety and finding jobs for hundreds and hundreds of people through the years, has made the world a far better place for so many. Phyllis has brought together diverse lecture subjects for book discussions, concerts, and town meetings at the South Orange library for more than two decades. As for their contributions to this particular book, they have an abject hatred for lying and liars and cover-ups.

How lucky am I? I own a baseball glove and a ball, and I have sons to play catch with. A man doesn’t need much more than that. I know I don’t. I have several passions, and each of my kids has grabbed hold of one that I’m able to share. Wyatt is the sports announcer and/or talk-show host for the next generation. His life, like mine, has been blessed by our love for sports, and we’re bonded by a devotion to a certain baseball team in pinstripes. Heath loves playing and watching all sports, but there is no greater NBA fan at any age (he’s only seven). My stepson Jordan is a fine athlete who has embraced football, and has the will and the skill to excel at it. And Alissa, with realistic dreams of being a screenwriter or playwright, loves New York City, and devours the New York Post each morning. I will be a lucky and rich man if I am able to negotiate any of their future contracts. Heath also would want me to mention our beautiful chocolate lab. The dog has provided Heath and his siblings with daily love and security; and me with the ability to recall the more than 300 passwords needed for my daily life.

My brother David and sister Randi are huge parts of my life, no matter how busy all of us get. They are compassionate and loyal, and better siblings to me than I am to them. My in-laws Irving and Barbara not only buy my books, but also actually read them (c’mon, say it: “So they’re the ones,” you’re thinking). They are solidly in my corner, as are my aunt and uncle, Barbara and Jimmy DeNoble. There are a pair of supporting brothers-in-law (Billy Edelman and Roy Levinson), and a pair of sisters-in-law (Susan Kalb and Eilene Levinson, both of whom recently went back to school to earn Masters’ degrees). And then there’s my team of nephews and nieces,