Touching All the Bases: Baseball in 101 Fascinating Stories

Baseball writer Phillips offers a compendium that spans baseball's history from its beginnings (most likely in 1845) all the way to game five of the 2011 World Series. Phillips covers notable firsts (night game, radio/TV broadcasts, salaried team), famous plays (including "The Catch" by Willie Mays in the 1954 World Series and Bill Buckner's ball-between-the-legs error in the 1986 World Series), and remarkable streaks (Eric Gagne's 84 consecutive saves between 2002 and 2004 and the 1899 Cleveland Spiders' loss of 134 out of 154 games). Chapters devoted to Hall of Famers, ballparks, equipment and statistics%E2%80%94as well as a whopping 18 appendixes dig deeper into the game and may provide new information even for longtime fans, as might lengthier essays on the steroids era, the impact of WWII, the legacy of Jackie Robinson, the evolution of pitching, and the reserve clause. The book works both as a cover-to-cover read and a reference, and Phillips's straightforward style gives it broad appeal. (Oct.)