Baseball Books

Where do you go for softball fielding practice drills when you're a coach trying to teach certain skills? After looking at many sources, my vote is for this book. Dozens and dozens of great drills for every position. The girls on my 10U team loved the drills, had fun and learned a lot.

I bought this book to look for new and interesting drills for an 8 and under softball All-Star team and I was not dissapointed. This book is filled with great drills which are easy to apply to all ages. As you read and look at the drill illustrations you will repeatedly say "What a great drill" Many drills in this book can be directly applied to baseball. Everybody I have shown this book to wants one.

I coach girls 19u and used this book to set up my practices. I found the drills very good and helped to teach the girls ball control. I found that alot of the drills help shape the skills of the players. By the end of our season the girls were showing skills they themselves never knew they had. I feel this book made me an effective coach.

Jacquie Joseph's Defensive Softball Drills is a compilation of some of the most basic skills necessary for development of a successful defensive player. The drills emphasize proper fundamentals and are adaptable to players of all skill levels. I use the drills in the book with my high school players as part of my defensive drill period, and our team is as solid defensively as any.

A tremendous reference for anyone coaching softball or youth baseball, for fundementals, drills, and conditioning, often combining all three. Many fresh new drills that shouldn't be limited to softball.

I really like Derek Jeter, so I got the book to find out more information. I got all the info I wanted plus more!

I love this book. I am Derek's #1 fan. It is great. I have my room cover with pictures of him. I read the whole thing in like a day. Once you start reading it, you can't stop.

I am Derek's number 1 fan. My friend has the book too and we always read it. My room is filled with Derek pictures, and posters, and newspaper clippings. I love him to death and this book shows just how great he is! Go Derek! Take the Yanks to the series baby!

A compelling read, filled with rare insight and info on a great athlete and person. Don't pass this one up!

I'm a new Derek fan, and i was impressed about his look. I bought this book to know more about him. After reading it, i admire him. Really. I felt guilty by treated him like an object, when he is a great person.

This is a great book, maybe the best book on baseball ever written. What's the competition? The Boys of Summer is very good indeed, but on the whole, I think "Dollar Sign" is even better. It really covers the whole history of the game, from the early teens to (almost) the present day, and does so from a very interesting perspective - that of the talent scout. Here are a series of larger-than-life characters, each with a silver tongue it seems, and an endless reservoir of anecdotes and baseball analysis. It's just one of those books that's a pleasure to read and sink oneself into.

My hat is off to author Kevin Kerrane. This book reflects a huge amount of research, but comes across with an easygoing quality, wearing its scholarship lightly.

It's unfortunate that it's out of print, and the used copies are so expensive. But if you can find one for a fair price somewhere, you wouldn't be disappointed.

Dollar Sign on the Muscle belongs on any short list of the best baseball books ever written. It has the ability to change the way you look at baseball by taking you inside the fascinating world of baseball scouts and their never-ending search for the "arm behind the barn," the "good face" and the many other phrases that you'll never forget after reading this book. Kerrane is a marvelous prose stylist but one who never draws attention to his own felicity for words -- instead, he uses that gift to effortlessly draw the reader into the scout's world (especially the bygone era of scouting before the advent of the amateur draft). I can't recommend it highly enough.

If this is the same book I remember from many years ago...it is worth reading again, as it about the kind of people that are a part of "Money Ball"...

An excellent book for any baseball-fan. Extremely funny and entertaining. Everybody will learn more about scouting und the new edition lets you know how the career of the players scouted turned out.I fully agree with the assessment of Rob Neyer of espn.com, who included the book as honorable mention amongst the best baseball books of all time.

Dollar Sign on the Muscle was the first work of serious literary journalism I ever read. I bought in the sixth grade, in the gift shop at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C., which I was visiting for the first time with my parents. I read most of it in the airport and on the flight home to Florida.

The book had a more significant impact on me than the trip to Washington did. It was astonishing to me that books like this existed in the world. When we returned, I raided all the narrative nonfiction books about sports from the Palm Beach County library. Most of them weren't so great, but I did, by way of this search, find my way to George Plimpton, Gay Talese, Truman Capote, Norman Mailer, etc., which set me on a lifetime course of better and more fulfilling reading.

I recently reread Dollar Sign on the Muscle, and it's better, actually, than I remembered. It's a historical document, now. The scouts and the world of old-time baseball men belong largely to the past. The era of Theo Epstein and Billy Beane, with its emphasis on all things quantifiable, is probably good for baseball, but it's not terribly romantic.

But that's not what makes the book so good. It's the knack Kerrane has for rendering his characters whole. You feel like you know these guys, you know what makes them tick, you know what it's like to spend an afternoon with them, you know what they want, need, desire, what makes their hearts beat hard. Many of Kerrane's old scouts are likely dead now, but in the pages of Dollar Sign on the Muscle, they live and breathe like they did then.

Perhaps with time, this book will find its way into print again. I hope so. Meantime, see if you can find a used copy somewhere. It'll be worth whatever it costs you, I promise.

We rely heavily on our ESPN's Baseball Encyclopedia when we have a question about baseball. We keep it readily available. This current edition is our second one. I recommend it to baseball fans.

As a frequent reader of previous Baseball Encyclopedias, this ESPN version does a great job providing historical statistics and higher level strategyies and implications.

ESPN again delivers as their 2008 MLB Encyclopedia is a baseball statistics lover's dream come true! Chock full of player information and stats, I've been utilizing my copy for a few months already!

This is a wonderful and reasonably priced book for referencing the statistical record of the greatest game ever invented.

If you are a baseball fan and need an historical, reference book your library, The ESPN Baseball Encyclopedia, Fifth Edition (Espn Baseball Encyclopedia) is the book. Every season, every player are at your fingertips. There are even sections on the Negro Leagues, Umpires, Coaches and Managers. The only area that is missing is the rosters for each team for each season. The volume does provide the regular players and most important reserves. The price is quite low for the most immense comprehensive single volume on the Nation's Pastime.

My son announce that he is a Cubs Fan! So, to help make sure he knows important things, I thought this book would be a great place to start.
Now, this book is going to take a long time for my young son to read, but I find it very fascinating!! A great book.

For all the diehard Cub fans out there, this is a very good book. It's a great reference book and very enjoyable to read.

Any Cubs fans interest in the heritage of his team must read Essential Cubs; it's the most complete book ever for Cubs fanatics! Highly recommended!

This book is great reading for any baseball fan, regardless of whether you're a cubs fan (which I'm not). The reader receives the benefit of what must have been an enormous amount of research into not just the statistic achievement of the franchise, but also of the personalities of the people who created the history and the circumstance in which they made their marks. In addition, the information is conveyed in a manner that is easy and fun to consume.

An absolute must for any die hard Cub fan! A work of tremendous research providing the entire Cubs history, great (not-so-great)and forgotten players, teams through the years, the cub faithful and the history of Wrigley Field. I ordered 10 copies and passed them out to my friends. Even if you're not a Cubs fan, you will enjoy the author's fun presentment of facts and his enlightening statistical analysis about this original NL franchise. Bravo to Doug Myers.

This book enables someone like me - born 1968 - to go back in time and immerse myself in wonderful stories, images and diagrams of this wonderful ballpark and the colorful players, personnel and fans that called it home field. It's a shame it had to go - but it is not forgotten. Current Pirate players should have this as required reading - for informational if not inspirational purposes. GO 2008 BUCS! SHOCK THE PLANET!!

I recently purchased and read this fine remembrance of Forbes Field, prompted by my visit to Pittsburgh in June, 2007, when my son and I visited the site of Forbes Field on the Univ. of Pittsburgh campus. The same remaining historic items we saw are duly recorded in this text...the Mazeroski plaque, the remaining center field wall, the home plate embedded in Posvar Hall.
Part I of this book is a remarkable and varied memoir of the ball
park, including the FABULOUS but all-too-short chapter on the annual gathering for a replay of the broadcast of Mazeroski's home run. However, I rated the book a 4 because Part II, the section with remembrances and recollections from players, media members, employees and fans has a bit too much " ya had to have been there!" feel to it that is not overly welcoming to the ballpark afficionado who never got to Forbes Field (that would be me!). However, this volume is well worth the purchase!

The stories re: Forbes Field are fascinating. The stories are told in such as way that you can almost hear that person talking. I enjoyed this book very much.

As I watched this year's mind numbingly dull World Series between the Boston Red Sox and the Colorado Rockies, I thought back to the to the 1960s when baseball was different--and better.

Because I had just finished reading Forbes Field: Memories and Essays of the Pirates Historical Ball Park, 1909-1971 by David Cicotello and Angelo Louisa, uppermost in my mind was the great 1960 World Series when the once-lowly Pittsburgh Pirates upset the mighty New York Yankees.

Until I enrolled at the University of Pittsburgh in 1961, my relationship with the Pirates was distant. I had grown up in Los Angeles where the Pacific Coast League Hollywood Stars, the minor league affiliate of the Pirates, were my team. By rooting for the Stars, fans automatically pulled for the Pirates.

In the late 1950s, my family moved to Puerto Rico where Pirate great Roberto Clemente played winter baseball. I followed Clemente's team, the Santurce Cangrejeros. (Read Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball's Last Hero, by David Maraniss)

But avid baseball fan though I was, by the time I reached Pittsburgh, I had only seen one major league game. The Dodgers didn't get to Los Angeles until after I left.

I was starved for baseball and, even though the 1961 Pirates were out of the running for most of the year, as soon as I got to college I headed for Forbes Field and what would be a lifetime's worth of happy memories.

Authors Cicotello and Louisa have brought those recollections back home. Their book chronicles Forbes Field from its first days of construction in 1909 through the final game on June 28, 1970. The book includes a transcription of the last home game broadcast on KDKA by the immortal Bob Prince and his sidekick, Nellie King.

The second part of Forbes Field includes reminiscences from former players, managers, club officials and employees as well as several sports writers.

I wasn't able to submit my own personal Forbes Field experiences in time to meet the publishing deadline. But I'll recount them to you now.

Every September when classes started and each April and May as the school year wound down, my friends and I wandered over to Forbes Field, an easy walk from the university campus, and entered the left field bleachers during the sixth or seventh inning. By then, the ticket taker had gone home so we just waltzed in to catch the last of the game.

One might think that in September with classes beginning and football underway or in April with final exams and papers closing in that students would have other things to do (like study!) than watch an average baseball team play out the season's string.

But Forbes Field and all the wonderful players on its field was irresistible.

No matter which team was in town, a Hall of Famer was on its roster.
When I think of the players I watched!

Among them, to name only a few, were the Cardinal's Stan Musial, the New York Giants' Willie Mays, the Phillies' Robin Roberts, the Braves' Hank Aaron and Warren Spahn, the Cubs' Ernie Banks and the Dodgers' Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale.

Forbes Field is long gone, torn down 35 years ago. It was a wonderful old park filled with die-hard fans during baseball's glory years.

But Forbes Field lives on.

Mention it in Pittsburgh and everyone lights up. Each year fans young and old gather at the site (a small portion of the brick wall left standing) where the Pirates' Bill Mazeroski's 1960 bottom of the ninth homer won the seventh game of the World Series, 10-9 for Pittsburgh's beloved Buccos.

I had looked forward to this book since it was first shown on Amazon and it was worth the wait.

Forbes Field was the second of the all steel and concrete ballparks opening in 1909 and closing on June 28, 1970. Until now, no book has covered the history of Forbes Field like it should.

The factual information in this book is amazing. There are diagrams of the field dimensions through the years, comparisons of statistics in Forbes versus other parks, important dates in its history, and a list and descriptions of 62 memorable games. Events other than baseball held at Forbes like football and boxing are also covered.

Also included are memories from players and fans of their time spent there and a complete transcript of an interview with Roberto Clemente before the last game ever played there as well as the transcript of the radio broadcast of that last game.

This isn't a photo history, no color photos are included, but a lot of the photos included are rare ones I had never seen before in other books and even online.

Whether you're a Pittsburgh fan, a ballpark historian, or a baseball fan in general you will not be disappointed with this book.

Barry Sparks brings Frank "Home Run" Baker back into baseball's limelight in this biography of the Hall-of-Famer. Barry managed to unearth much about Baker's personal life despite the fact Frank has been deceased since 1963 at age 76, and few folks still were living who knew Baker during the author's years of research. This book is more about Baker's life and baseball career than about baseball in his era---the preferred mix of information in a biography. Too many biographies of players from baseball's deadball era emphasize the game as played then, its stars and the winning teams, but provide too little about the player himself. Not so, with Sparks' biography on Baker. Baker's work ethic helped him become a star player, but his personal life interrupted his playing career several times. Find out more about Baker's World Series heroics, the reason for his nickname, and the reasons he had to stop playing in the major leagues on more than one occasion. Read Barry's detailed and informative biography about baseball's first home run hitting hero in the World Series.

Barry Sparks's book about Frank "Home Run" Baker is an insightful story of the Major League Baseball home run leader from the early 20th century. Tracing Baker's life from his hometown of Trappe, MD, to the Major Leagues and into retirement, Mr. Sparks tells of Baker's career with the Philadelphia A's and New York Yankees, and of the two seasons during which he stepped away from the majors to play with a semi-pro team.

This book does a superb job of taking the reader back to the days of daytime-only baseball. Particular attention is paid to the World Series games in which Baker played, where he earned his sobriquet "Home Run" Baker for blasting two homers in a single World Series game in 1911.

Extensive chapter notes and bibliography supplement the story and reveal the amount of research done to create the book. Yet, the book is not written to read like a college term paper. Mr. Sparks's writing style is quite enjoyable and makes this book a pleasurable experience for baseball fans of all ages.

This book is more than an intimate biography of a baseball legend. It is also a look back at a nascent sport as it was just beginning to capture a nation's heart. This was an era when entire towns emptied out to watch the local boys play at the ballfield, and when people relied on newspapers to bring them glorious tales of big-league action. It was a time when the highest-paid player made $12,000, and performance-enhancing drugs did not yet exist. In short, it was a time when baseball was still a sport, and not yet an industry.

Author Barry Sparks does an excellent job of placing the reader inside the Deadball Era (1900-1920) as he tells the tale of Frank "Home Run" Baker. According to the preface, Sparks hails from Baker's home region of eastern Maryland, and as a boy he had an opportunity to meet the aging baseball legend. The book's lively prose suggests that the thrill of that encounter still remains with Sparks today. He reveals Baker as a polite, hard-working man who eschewed the limelight and, above all, loved playing baseball. The research is impeccable and well documented, with detailed notes, indexing, and bibliography.

"Frank 'Home Run' Baker: Hall of Famer and World Series Hero" is ideal for the avid baseball fan, and for anyone interested in the origins of America's pastime.

Mr. Sparks has fulfilled a life long ambition with this work. It is an easy read and for a sports enthusiast, opens a window into a closed chapter of our nation's pastime. In following the life, career and character of a player few know much about but who is very highly rated by Bill James (the father of sabremetrics), Mr. Sparks shows the career of the dead ball era's "Babe" in a good but honest light. The sparing with Connie Mack to be paid is an interesting sidelight, as is seeing Baker in his final years with the Yankees playing along side the real "Babe". This a very worthwhile book to own and read in depth. My copy is autographed and I do cherish it.

Barry Sparks book was interesting and informative. I couldn't put it down. My knowledge of the dead ball era was limited to tidbits about some of the players, ( Christy Mathewson ,Collins, Bender, etc). Barry's book, not only gave me a good appreciation of Frank Baker, but the whole era from 1909-1922. The effects of WW1 on baseball and the players refreshed similar memories of my childhood and WWII . It also refreshed many childhood memories of Shibe Park ,scene of seeing my first Major League Baseball Game in 1946 and numerous games when I attended Temple University in the early 1950's This Nostalgic trip expanded my knowledge and appreciation of the A's , the game of baseball, and Hall of Famers in the early 1900's. I remember my Dad and Uncle talking about these players but Barry's Book captured an intimate snapshot of early baseball and the deadball era, and has inspired me to make another trip to Cooperstown to spend more time focusing on the Hall of Famers, balls, bats, and memorabilia of this era.

I'm a resident of Sydney, Australia where we don't even have a baseball league anymore, but I've long been a fan of the game (well, all the way back to 1992 when I saw the Blue Jays and the Athletics play in Oakland on my first day overseas as a 20 year old). Since that time, I've grown to love baseball, both the game itself and the intersection of baseball history with the cultural and social development of America.

Given those interests, you can imagine that I immensely enjoyed this book. Glove Stories proved to me again that there is no substitute for great stories beautifully and subtly told.

Dave Kindred ranks among America's finest sportswriters. He and the late Shirley Povich were the best sports columnists The Washington Post ever had (present sports columnists included). The stories in Kindred's book are a joy to read. He's got a Ring Lardner touch. At his best, no one is funnier than Kindred. A few of his tales feel like a Frank Capra movie, sentimental and heart-warming. Baseball captures the essence of America with love of family, country and seventh inning rallies. Kindred makes it come all come alive. His stories on Mark McGwire and Jackie Robinson must be savored. You'll finish this book and feel like playing catch with your kid.

I have for years enjoyed your writing and one week ago was awarded a copy of "Glove Stories" for Christmas. I read a selection here and there but today, I read "Mom" and even though there's no crying in baseball, I cried.

I cried because as I read the promise you made to your late father, it reminded me of the bond my father and I share.

My father is a baseball umpire. American Legion, high school, local college, whatever. He's there to call the games. And no matter what kind of day he was having, no matter what his mood, he always had time for my
queries of baseball, without exception. Baseball has always been there for my dad and I, but it wasn't until I read your story that it dawned on me just how powerful that bond is.

I'm here in Rochester, NY, with a foot of snow on the ground but after I read "Mom", I looked out my window and did not see snow. I saw green grass, I saw the dust of my father sweeping clean home plate and I heard him complete baseball-diamond air with a called third strike. "Sell the call,
Bob. Sell it." That's the baseball advice he gave me and it's the advice I apply to all walks of my life.

I am a young sports journalist myself. Your writing has struck me as the type by which to be educated and influenced. So a hearty thanks to you, Mr. Kindred. For not
only have you given me a standard to shoot for as a writer, you have reminded me of exactly why this child's game can bring a grown man to tears.

What an awesome collection of baseball writings! This book is THE standard for writing about the sport of baseball!! Dave takes a humorous, yet gentle approach to the sport he loves. His style of writing will make you love it even more. He covers alot of different subjects--Negro Leagues--the physics of a baseball hitting a bat--baseball funnies [my favorite is the guy sliding into 2nd headfirst with hotdogs stuck inside his uniform]--and baseball greats like Jackie Robinson, Nolan Ryan and even Pete Rose. This book will make you chuckle, and it will make you cry, so be prepared. This reminds me why people have kids: to teach them how to play baseball!! You won't be sorry you bought this book.

I was a thirty year subscriber to The Sporting News (1959-1989), but dropped out when they branched out into sports other than baseball so I was not familiar with Dave Kindred. I do, however, enjoy books of sportswriters' columns of their best stories. I took a chance on Dave Kindred since the subject was baseball and was pleasantly surprised. He covers a wide variety of subjects with humor and nostalgia sure to satisfy anyone interested in baseball writing. If you consider yourself a baseball fan at all this is a book that deserves a permanent place in your library amongst the volumes of Jim Murray, Red Smith, Jerry Holtzman, Tom Boswell, Roger Angell, and Roger Kahn to name a few. Be good to yourself! Buy the book!

Dick Dobbins does the job right in "The Grand Minor League", a retrospective of the old Pacific Coast League (PCL).

The PCL still exists today as a AAA league - one step below the majors - but it is purely an adjunct minor league system to the two major leagues.

However, this book is about the PCL's glory days, largely originating during the Depression and spanning the second world war and the first twelve years of the post-war era until the New York Giants and the Brooklyn Dodgers moved to the West Coast.

The PCL financed operations by charging admission for its own games and by selling contracts of its more promising stars to the established major league teams. But some visionaries had dreams of attaining major league status for the PCL, and it could have happened. A disproportionate amount of major-league level talent could be found on the West Coast, and PCL scouts were busy signing it up.

While one PCL owner was dryly reputed to have the reputation of throwing dollars around as though they were manhole covers, the pay could be more generous (the players whose contracts were sold to the majors even received a percentage of the sales price) and the opportunities for stardom could be GREATER than that which was available in the majors; moreover, the Pacific Coast was "home" to many of its players. Hence, some major leaguers sought to return there.

And when the majors reluctantly granted the PCL "open classification" status, players drafted by the majors were accorded the option of waiving the draft and remaining with their respective PCL teams and were often rewarded with bonuses for doing so. The PCL could have evolved into a third major league, but the opposition from the established major league owners, who saw the potential for expansion or relocation to the West Coast long before moving the Giants and Dodgers there, was too great to overcome. The moves themselves sounded the death knell for the traditional conception of the league.

Its legacy includes the players who became stars or near-stars in the big leagues, such as Lefty O'Doul, Dolph Camilli, Maury Wills (amazingly enough, he was only an adequate shortstop and a sometime base-stealer during his PCL days, who didn`t reach stardom until he went to the Dodgers), and of course, Joe DiMaggio.

Startlingly, Dobbins fails to remind his readers that years before he electrified the country with his 56-game hitting streak, DiMaggio was thrilling West Coast fans with a 61 game hitting streak in the PCL. Both records are among the few that have withstood the test of time.

One can observe other ironies. Long before Tommy Lasorda and Sparky Anderson did battle, in their respective roles as managers of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Cincinnati's "Big Red Machine", for Western Division supremacy during the 1970's, they were teammates on the Los Angeles Angels, working together to establish geographical supremacy against the arch-rival Hollywood Stars.

And speaking of managers, debate rages among baseball historians about Casey Stengel's managerial acumen. Was he an adept, if incomprehensible, managerial genius or a bum who failed miserably in Boston and who only attained success by piggy-backing on the vast talent of some super Yankee teams? The story of Stengel's stewardship of the 1948 PCL Champion Oakland Oaks is a huge point in his favor.

Dobbins draws some of his history from the records but most of it from the recollections of the old-time players who consented to be interviewed. My only real criticism is that it took someone too long to undertake this project. The passage of time limits the sources from which Dobbins could draw.

And how trustworthy is human memory? There is a reference in one of the narratives supplied to Dobbins about a player named Johnny Lindell who alternated between pitcher and outfielder and who "would have been in the big leagues" if he could have only hit more consistently.

Who would dare observe, in response, that the record book shows that during the 1940's, an outfielder-pitcher named Johnny Lindell played in the majors, chiefly for the Yankees (this included several World Series appearances), on a part-time basis for 12 years and that he retired in 1954 with a respectable lifetime batting average of .273, having twice led the league in triples?

He couldn't hit well enough for the major leagues. Or could he? Were there two Johnny Lindells answering to the same description?

My favorite chapter was about the old ballparks. If you are a displaced and discouraged Giant fan who lives in the Los Angeles area, you can carry the book and its pictures of the ballparks to the corners of Beverly, Fairfax and Genessee and try to envision the Hollywood Stars' Gilmore Field having once stood there. The intersections now are home to a little company known as CBS - Television City, and there isn't even a marker anywhere to show that Gilmore Field ever existed.

And you can drive to 42nd and Avalon and marvel at the human and urban sprawl that has overtaken the area. Wrigley Field, home to the ORIGINAL Los Angeles Angels and named and constructed after its more famous Chicago namesake, has been torn down, and a community center named after a politician has been erected in its place. Again, no marker commemorates Wrigley Field. Soccer, not baseball, is the recreation of choice for the locals, and the excited cries of the players and spectators are not being delivered in English.

Is there any marker on the corner of 16th and Bryant in San Francisco to memorialize Seals Stadium?

"The Grand Minor League" is a fitting tribute to the REAL baseball giants of the West Coast and to a time when baseball was a "melting pot" language, when the game was played, not by overpaid egotistical prima donnas, but by men with working-class ethics, and when teams were managed by men and not "Dustys". Where have you gone, Rugger Ardizoia?

Dick Dobbins again captures the essence of the old Pacific Coast League. By using an "oral history" format, he is able to capture the true nature of this "major" minor league. The best section in the book consist of short interviews with former players and managers regarding some of the great and notorious players in the league. The same is also done for the managers, stadiums and teams. My favorite aspect of the book is the numerous historical photographs from Mr. Dobbins collection. This book is a must buy for baseball fans!

If you are a fan of the old Pacific Coast League, this book is a must. Great photos, interesting interviews with former players. If you own Nuggets on the Diamond also by Dick Dobbins, this is a great companion piece. Just to see pictures of the old coast league ball parks is worth the price of admission.

This ia an absolute must for anyone who enjoyed the old PACIFIC COAST LEAGUE.The photographs of the old P.C.L.ballparks are worth the price of admission.This is an excellent companion piece to Dobbins other book on the P.C.L. Nuggets on the Diamond.

In this book, Dick Dobbins took a cue from the book, "The Glory of Their Times," interviewing numerous ex-PCL players and umpires about the league. This oral history of the league is an excellent look back. Reading this book takes you back to a different era of baseball and shows why the PCL deserved to be called the "Grand Minor League."

The book has chapters on the league's various ballparks over the years, the league's great teams and rivalries. There are numerous pictures of various players, managers, umpires and team owners throughout the book. There are also pictures of various teams' uniforms, hats and other assorted memorabilia.

Dick Dobbins put a lot of hard work and dedication into this book and it shows. Any baseball history fan will love this book.

I don't know if these are truly the greatest baseball stories ever told, but they are certainly entertaining. I am a baseball fan, but I'm not especially learned in baseball history. These stories, all by a different author, have deepened my love for the game and engendered appreciation for the men who play the game, past and present. I admit up front that I am a die-hard Dodger fan. The chapter by Vin Scully on Sandy Kofax's perfect game gave me goose bumps. I learned my love of baseball from my father, so the chapter by Doris Kearns Goodwin was especially meaningful (brought tears to my eyes). She tells how her father taught her to keep a score book for the Brooklyn Dodger games, then relay to him, play by play the entire game when he came home from work. She tells how, when the score was close toward the end of a game, she had to ask her mother to take notes while she left the room because the anxiety was just too much to bear. I, too, have had to do this. Of course, the first chapter with Abbott and Costello's "Who's On First" is a classic whether you are a baseball fan or not. I enjoyed every page of this book and plan to pass it along to grandkids who also love the game of baseball.

The baseball stories that make up this book make it possible to call this book the Greatest Baseball Stories Ever Told. These stories have appeared in years past in the three Fireside books of baseball that are currently out of print. Since they are no longer available it would be advisable for you to strike while the iron is hot and buy this book. The book contains both fiction and non-fiction and certainly doesn't cover all the great stories that the Fireside books contain, but you can't argue with the thirty that make up this book. I would especially recommend this book for youngsters interested in baseball literature who weren't around to enjoy the Fireside books.

This is an absolutely super collection of baseball stories. There's alot of familiar stuff in here -- how could it be called the "Greatest" without John Updike's story on Ted Williams or Gay Taleses's on Joe DiMaggio -- but where the book really steps to the plate is in its surprises: like the fiction by Zane Grey and P.G. Wodehouse, whom I associate with other arenas, and tremendous non-fiction from Al Stump (on Ty Cobb), Bill Barich (on Russian barnstormers), and a completely unexpected Red Smith (on Morganna the Kissing Bandit and Johnny Bench.) This is a book aimed right for the baseball fan's heart. It certainly pierced mine.

There are those who prefer football or basketball, but I'll take baseball. It has a pace that some may find slow, but I think of as more leisurely, allowing suspense to build slowly and often leaving the conclusion unknown until the final out. If you're down twenty points in football with a minute left, there's no way you're going to win; if you're down three runs (a similar three scores as in the football example), there is at least still a chance.

The dramatic twists of fate in baseball are only part of makes the sport great. There is also the rich history and the colorful characters. And unlike almost any other team sport, baseball lends itself well to the narrative structure; when you read about a baseball game, you can picture exactly what happened. An entire game could be described on paper and you can see it all in your mind; try this with a basketball game and you'll be disappointed.

Thus this book. Take some of the great writers (in sports or otherwise), give them the best sport to write about, and you can't go wrong, and this one doesn't. As an anthology, not every story is equally fantastic, but they are all good. They serve as a reminder of what makes baseball great: its drama, its history and its character.

I was looking for something to decompress with after the 7th game of the World Series. Now, after reading all the stories in this awesome anthology, I can't wait for the new season to begin. This is great baseball stuff. I especially liked the profiles of Cal Ripken -- believe me, this is the way you'll want to always remember the Iron Man -- and Yogi Berra, who the writer compares to a mystic yogi. The book also has the entire Abbott and Costello "Who's On First" routine, which is every bit as funny on the page as it is on the ear. Another really memorable story comes from the old Dodgers announcer Red Barber, who I used to listen to on NPR. He writes about what Jackie Robinson went through to break the color line, and how much he learned from Robinson in the process. I recommend this highly to baseball fans everywhere.