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McCarver's The Perfect Season (1999), written with Danny Peary, grows out of the conviction—which he shares with Costas and with Morgan— that the 1998 season, particularly the sustained drama of the McGwire-Sosa home-run record chase, served as a redemptive moment for the game. If only baseball could bottle the ingredients of that wonderfully improbable year!

The exuberance McCarver displays in this series of essays is at times overwrought, but he has his reasons. As he writes in the introduction, "The sport of baseball is characterized by imperfections—remember that great hitters make outs seven of ten times—so, ironically, a 'perfect season' in baseball must include flaws and failures. What made 1998 so rewarding to fans, however, is that the players achieved so much as individuals and as a whole that the negatives virtually faded into the background. The flies in the ointment were killed off."

Such unashamed optimism carries through almost all the essays in the book, which cover all the expected ground, from Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa to the Yankees record-breaking number of victories, from Kerry Wood's 20-strikeout game to the remarkable seasons of Ken Griffey, Jr., Barry Bonds, Randy Johnson, and others.

Only occasionally does McCarver allude to the troubles hovering around the game even in its finest hour, but the places where he does turn out to be the most interesting of the book. For instance, his essay on the long-overdue induction of Larry Doby, the first black player in American League, into the Hall of Fame bears subtle condemnation of the racial inequity that continues to plague baseball.

I much prefer McCarver's 1998 book, Baseball for Brain Surgeons and Other Fans, also written with Danny Peary, because in it the author reveals in a systematic fashion the wealth of baseball knowledge he has gleaned from over 20 years as a major league catcher (what else?!) and nearly another 20 as a broadcast analyst. McCarver's insights are penetrating, and the book is encyclopedic in its expanse.

Still, his only real lament on the state of the contemporary game comes at the very end, with reference to the dearth of all-around skills in the modern player: "I think players should have a responsibility to learn to play the game more thoroughly, including fielding and base running. They should no longer take things for granted. For the sport to capture the imagination of the public as it once did, I think that it's up to the players to raise the caliber of play in the major leagues to the level of their amazing talents. They owe it to the fans, they owe it to themselves, and they owe it to baseball."

The sentiment is right-spirited, but it belies McCarver's near-exclusive emphasis on the game as it is played between the foul lines. Unfortunately, the health of baseball depends on factors far beyond the playing field.

Next week: Solutions to baseball's crisis?

Michael R. Stevens is assistant professor of English at Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

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March (Web-only) 2002, Vol. 46