Kiss 'em Goodbye: An ESPN Treasury of Failed, Forgotten, and Departed Teams

Noted baseball historian Purdy (Baseball on the Brain) is a storehouse of esoteric knowledge about very short-lived teams, whose histories are, otherwise, virtually unknown. Tackling 86 of them, this volume lends itself best to bedside, toilet or coffee-table reading, but the fact-dense writing doesn't stir much of a spark; chapter titles are cleverer than content (""Chump Ball,"" ""Hell in Troy,"" ""Athletically Incorrect""). Still, the material proves intriguing, especially for its regional flavors: the Hollywood Stars once featured Elizabeth Taylor as a bat girl; the Duluth Eskimos, who reigned in Minnesota before the Vikings, ""spent less time at home than any other team in professional sports history"" due to weather and stadium conditions. Purdy also covers the famous Brooklyn Dodgers, and how they came to be known as ""Dem Bums,"" as well as the forerunners to the Chicago White Sox, the White Stockings of St. Paul. Other sports are also represented by teams like basketball's Virginia Squires, ""geniuses of disorganization and controversy."" With dozens of essays on the teams of yesteryear, this volume could serve as a cogent treasury of two centuries in sport, but its too-brief pieces fail to engage.