Baseball Anecdotes

This history of baseball in anecdotal form contains many familiar stories, but many more that will be new to fans. Okrent ( The Ultimate Baseball Book ; Nine Innings ) and Wulf, senior editor for baseball at Sports Illustrated , recount such tales as Fred Merkle's failure to touch second base in 1908, Babe Ruth's alleged calling of the spot where he would hit a home run and the time three Brooklyn Dodgers all wound up on the same base. There are off-diamond gems, too, including accounts of catcher Moe Berg's avocation as a spy, manager Casey Stengel's testimony before a congressional subcommittee on antitrust that left the senators completely baffled, and Dizzy Dean's reply to critics of his English: ``A lot of guys that ain't sayin' ain't, ain't eatin'.'' The book is fun to read, especially consumed piecemeal. 45,000 first printing; $50,000 ad/promo; author tour. (Apr.)