Baseball Inside Out: 2the Game Within the Game

Shlain ( Acid Dreams ) obviously loves baseball, even to the point of rhapsodizing about it, although not so effectively as Roger Angell. He evidently wanted to write about it, tried to find a hook to hang a book on and came up with the ``etiquette'' or unspoken rules of the game. The result is an unfocused meander through the world of the national pastime. Shlain makes the points that brushback pitchers do not throw at batters' heads, that managers don't often yell at players who are making salaries 10 times theirs, but generally he simply presents information (not all of it ``inside'') about pitchers, hitters, managers, umpires and front-office personnel. Further, he concentrates on the sport in the 1980s, creating the impression that he either doesn't know or much care about the years before or since. (Mar.)