This is an anthology of 23 papers that were presented at the Thirteenth Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture, held June 6-8, 2001, and co-sponsored by the State University of New York at Oneonta and the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. Featuring keynote remarks from George Plimpton, author of Home Run: The Best Writing About Baseball's Most Exciting Moment, this Symposium examined such topics as baseball's myths, legends and tall tales.

These essays, divided into sections titled "Mythic Heroes," "Media Mythology," "Myth and Mystery" and "Myths in Progress," go beyond the quick and easy judgments of the media and offer instead the longer, more informed views of scholars and researchers.