To enjoy this book it is in no way necessary to play, watch or even to have heard of the game of baseball. This collection of Angell's writing on our national pastime is a series of perfect miniatures, witty and wistful and animated by a warm, generous spirit. Within the narrow confines of a baseball diamond Angell finds a wealth of human drama and the full range of human venality and nobility, and he brings it home to us in prose that's the equal of any sports writing anywhere, period.