In Baseball's Best Excuses, author Joshua Shifrin takes a witty approach in helping baseball players make sense of their worst days on the diamond. The next time a player leads his or her team in defeat, he or she can always explain the woeful performance with "The guy batting after me is terrible." Or after a bad pitching outing, players might try to explain the mishap with, "I couldn't control my fastball."
Shifrin has crafted loads of funny—but all-too-real—excuses for pros and amateurs alike. Examples include: