The Ultimate Baseball Book, Expanded and Updated

Any book calling itself The Ultimate Baseball Book has a lot to live up to. But when Ken Burns tags it "the Cadillac of baseball books," the authors have obviously succeeded. The book is divided up into innings, one per decade. Each inning contains a historical overview of the decade, followed by an essay written by baseball's literati: Robert W. Creamer on "The Old Orioles" in the first inning (1876-1900), Roy Blount, Jr. on "How DiMaggio Made It Look Easy" in the fifth (1930-1939), George F. Will on "Chicago the Unmitigated" in the extra inning (1981-1990). Fun to read and full of anecdotes, one-liners, and hundreds of black-and-white photos, The Ultimate Baseball Book is a must-have for all baseball fans. Though oversize (9 by 12 inches), it's better suited to a bedside table than a coffee table--you'll want to take the time to read it, rather than just flip through and look at the pictures. Highly recommended. --M. Stein