How to Watch Baseball: A Fan's Guide to Savoring the Fine Points of the Game

This study of the fine points of baseball is too detailed to interest most fans; its chief readership will likely be players and sports reporters. Fiffer, who writes for several sports magazines, examines the roles of managers, coaches and players at all the positions. But the matters dealt with heresuch as whether a coach's touch of his cap is a signal or a prelude to a signal, whether it is possible for someone (even a batter) to tell whether a pitch is a curve or a slider or a change-up, whether the mound in the bullpen is higher or lower than the mound on the fieldare too technical to interest the average viewer in the stands. Illustrations not seen by PW. (March 23)