Tales from the Deadball Era: Ty Cobb, Home Run Baker, Shoeless Joe Jackson, and the Wildest Times in Baseball History. By Mark S. Halfon. (Lincoln, NE: Potomac Books, 2014. Pp. xiii, 226. $26.95.)

While some decry the perceived failings of the modern game and romanticize baseball's past, the author of this study reminds us that cheating to enhance performance, gambling scandals, and attacks ...