Excerpt:

A joyful fringe benefit of baseball fandom is memories of games past. And reading this book took me back to my first major league games the summer of 1956, as a young soldier stationed in Baltimore. A slugger named Mickey Mantle, of the New York Yankees, was terrorizing American League pitchers while delighting fans nationwide who felt they were witnessing the emergence of “the new Babe Ruth.” One evening at the old Memorial Stadium in Baltimore, an Oriole pitcher served up a fast ball to the muscular Mr. Mantle’s liking. CRACK! The ball vanished over the left field wall and seemed destined to come to earth somewhere near the city limits of Bethesda. I exaggerate, of course, but such is the privilege of a fan who worships the national pastime. And anyone who loves the sport will find hours of undiluted joy in one of the best books on baseball — or any other sport — that I have encountered. In addition to being astute fans, the authors are also professors — Randy Roberts at Purdue University, and Johnny Smith at Georgia Tech. Their intensive research is backed by brisk writing that lets this reader sense he was sitting in a prime third-base-line seat.

For the full article, visit The Washington Times website.