The Joe Williams Baseball Reader: The Glorious Game

The late Joe Williams began his journalism career in Memphis and Cleveland, arriving in New York in 1927, where he worked until 1964. It was the golden age of American sportswriting: the era of Damon Runyon, Red Smith and Elmer Rice. Read at a remove of several decades, in this collection of his columns Williams's approach to baseball may strike some as naive and uncritical, but others will find it pleasurable to peruse articles by a writer who loved the sport, mingled with the men who played it and presented them to the public as authentic heroes. Among those he particularly admired were Ty Cobb, Shoeless Joe Jackson, Babe Ruth and, later, Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams and Stan Musial. The columnist's son has assembled a fine, representative collection. Illustrated. (Feb.)