Misrepresentation: Tall Tales On and Off the Playing Field

       In 1942 twenty-year-old Warren Spahn, a hard-throwing southpaw, made his major- league debut with the Boston Braves. Braves manager Casey Stengel called Spahn in from the bullpen to face the Dodgers' Pee Wee Reese. "Kid," Stengel said, "this hitter has been beaned and got his skull broke. I want you to throw your first two pitches at his head." Spahn threw two fastballs shoulder-high inside, neither of which were near Reese's head. After Reese coaxed a walk, Stengel went to the mound and said to Spahn, "Yer outta the game, and when you get to the dugout, keep walking till you reach the clubhouse. There's gonna be a bus ticket there back to Hartford. You'll never win in the major leagues. You got no guts." In later years, when relating the story of Stengel's rebuke, Spahn would delight in adding that he rejoined the Braves "a few years later, after I won the Bronze Star during the Battle of the Bulge."

        The 1964 lawsuit filed by future Hall of Fame pitcher Warren Spahn against the author of an unauthorized biography and the book's publisher for distortions of the truth resulted in an award of $10,000 for Spahn. When issuing his decision in favor of Spahn, Judge Jacob Markowitz wrote, "Two chapters of the book are devoted to Spahn's experiences in World War II. The book mistakenly states that Warren Spahn had been decorated with the Bronze Star. In truth, Spahn had not been the recipient of this award, customarily bestowed for outstanding valor in war." A misrepresentation is an assertion not in accordance with the facts, an incorrect or false statement. With regard to whether Spahn had any "guts," Casey Stengel was mistaken. On the question of whether Spahn had been awarded the Bronze Star, it was Judge Markowitz himself who was mistaken. Both Stengel and the judge engaged in misrepresentations.