Table of Contents Introduction xi American Baseball I 1 American Baseball II 6 American Baseball III 9 The American Diamond 13 The Annotated Casey at the Bat 16 The Armchair Book of Baseball 21 Babe: The Legend Comes to Life 23 Ball Four 29 Bang the Drum Slowly 34 Baseball [photographs] 39 Baseball: A Historical Narrative 42 Baseball America 45 Baseball as I Have Known it 50 Baseball Between the Lines 54 The Baseball Encyclopedia 58 Baseball I Gave You All the Best Years of My Life 62 Baseball Is a Funny Game 66 Baseball When the Grass Was Real 70 Baseball''s Best: The MVPs 74 Baseball''s Great Experiment: Jackie Robinson 77 Baseball''s 100: A Personal Ranking 81 Beating the Bushes 84 The Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract 88 The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars 94 Bo: Pitching and Wooing 99 The Boys of Summer 102 The Bronx Zoo 107 Bums: An Oral History of the Brooklyn Dodgers 111 The Bush League 115 Can''t Anybody Here Play the Game 119 The Celebrant 123 The Chrysanthemum and the Bat 128 Clemente! 132 A Day in the Bleachers 137 Destiny''s Darlings 140 Diamonds Are Forever 144 Dock Ellis in the Country of Baseball 147 Dollar Sign on the Muscle 151 Eight Men Out 155 A False Spring 160 Fan Poems 166 Fear Strikes Out: The Jim Piersall Story 169 The Fireside Book of Baseball 174 The Second Fireside Book of Baseball 179 The Third Fireside Book of Baseball 182 Five Seasons: A Baseball Companion 186 The Glory of Their Times 190 Good Enough to Dream 195 The Great American Baseball Card.Book 198 The Great American Novel 202 The Hidden Game of Baseball 207 The Hot Stove League 211 How Life Imitates the World Series 214 I Don''t Care if I Never Come Back 218 The Image of Their Greatness 221 Insider''s Baseball 224 Invisible Men 228 It''s Good to Be Alive 232 Joe, You Coulda Made Us Proud 236 The Long Season 240 The Lords of Baseball 244 The Man Who Invented Baseball 248 Maybe I''ll Pitch Forever 251 The Men in Blue 255 Mighty Casey: All-American 260 The Miracle at Coogan''s Bluff 264 My Baseball Diary 268 My Life in Baseball 272 My Turn at Bat 275 The Natural 279 Nice Guys Finish Last 284 Nobody''s Perfect 288 One for the Record: Hank Aaron 292 Only the Ball Was White 297 Out of Left Field: Willie Stargell 301 Out of My League 305 Pennant Race 310 The Pitcher 314 Sandlot Peanuts 317 Say It Ain''t So, Joe! 322 A Season in the Sun 326 Shoeless Joe 332 Some Are Called Clowns 338 Stengel: His Life and Times 342 The Suitors of Spring 346 The Summer Game 350 Take Me Out to the Ballpark 356 A Thinking Man''s Guide to Baseball 360 This Great Game 366 The Thrill of the Grass 369 Topps Baseball Cards 373 Ty Cobb 376 The Ultimate Baseball Book 382 The Umpire Strikes Back 386 The Universal Baseball Association, Inc. 390 Veeck as in Wreck 394 Voices from the Great Black Baseball Leagues 400 The Way It Is 404 Why Time Begins on Opening Day 408 Willie''s Time 412 The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant 416 You Know Me Al 422 Index 427.