Baseball: An Illustrated History Book

The authors of the acclaimed and history-making nationwide best-seller The Civil War now turn to the other defining American phenomenon. Their subject is baseball. And in words and pictures they provide the richest evocation we have ever had of the formidable institution that is our beloved national pastime, the "mere game" woven so deeply into our lives that it provides common ground for young and old, black and white, North, South, East, and West-for taxi driver and schoolteacher and president of the United States.During eight months of the year, it is played profes- sionally every day; all year round, amateurs play it, watch it, and dream about it, losing themselves in a base runner's progress around the diamond, in the elemental clash between pitcher and batter, in the outfielder's lonely vigil. Baseball produces remarkable Americans: it seizes hold of ordinary people and shapes them intosomething we must regard with awe. Ty Cobb, Satchel Paige, Babe Ruth, Jackie Robinson, Joe DiMaggio, Hank Aaron, not gods exactly, not even necessarily heroes, but truly gifted human beings acting out uni- versal fantasies that, for whatever reason, are most perfectly expressed on a baseball field.Read More