The mysteries pile up, central among them how the overmatched Confederate Army managed to fight so well for so long.
"This has so far been a very cynical and unsatisfactory end to a sinister prosecution," said Mara Leveritt, an Arkansas journalist who wrote "Devil's Knot," the 2002 best-selling book that examined how an overmatched defense and what she called "satanic panic" led to the convictions.
Phillips, then a minor league infielder and now the Mets' general manager, remembers how Gooden overmatched Appalachian League teams, how one club's No. 9 hitter closed his eyes and swung and somehow beat Gooden, 1-0, with an opposite-field home run.
Overmatched opponents trembled.
Manhattan was pesky but overmatched.
They then beat an overmatched N.F.C.
Directed by a badly overmatched Francis Lawrence.
Putting Tim Floyd — hopelessly overmatched as an N.B.A. coach — in the seat that Phil Jackson had occupied was probably the worst of them, though the cheesy pursuit of the uninterested Tracy McGrady was a better metaphor for how far the franchise had fallen.
Germany scored four goals against an overmatched French squad.
It made Notre Dame look like an overmatched junior college squad.
