James Reston, Jr.

Collision at Home Plate is a dual biography of Pete Rose, the uncouth but great ballplayer who suffered disgrace and imprisonment and Bart Giamatti, the baseball commissioner so deeply shaken and bruised by the Rose scandal that he died a week after it was made public. This is the definitive book on one of the most traumatic and tragic episodes in the history of modern sports.

The postscript of the book, "Of Fame and Honor," is an elaboration of Reston's op ed piece in the New York Times, July 8, 1991, in which he states his position on Pete Rose and the Hall of Fame. Reston believes that the greatness of Rose's career and the scandal of his banishment from baseball should be fully represented in the museum section of Cooperstown, but having disgraced himself and the game, that Rose is not entitled to be honored with a plaque in the Hall of Fame itself.