The Heart of the Order (Penguin Sports Library)

Thomas Boswell, who consistently turns out elegant prose on deadline for the Washington Post, has a knack for finding eternal themes in what might otherwise pass as insignificant on-the-field encounters. It's hard to believe that most of his graceful compilations from the '70s and '80s--like those of the incomparable Roger Angell's--are out of print today, but then publishers, like shortstops with hands of lead, have been known to make their errors. In the heart of Boswell's 1989 collection, The Heart of the Order, he breaks down the game position by position, profiling the player at each whose style of play and attitude about the game best suggest why "heart" isn't just a cliche. Heart also pitches the delightful essay "99 Reasons Why Baseball is Better Than Football"; reason 100 should be that Boswell writes about it with such clarity.