March 18, 2005

2 Books Confront Baseball's History, Real and Imagined

By ERIC WILLS

PITCHING NOSTALGIA: Baseball has taken its share of hits in recent years. In 1994 a strike canceled the World Series and ended a string of 88 consecutive years in which the league had crowned a champion. The popularity of basketball and football has been rising. And now baseball faces a steroids scandal.

Baseball fans often seek solace in the game's storied history and popular mythology, which portray the sport as something uniquely American, embodying the nation's character and

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