Batter Up

Ah, the smell of the carpet, the stagnant air, the empty seats: it must be time for another fun-filled season of Devils Rays baseball (2007 slogan: "More Than Just A Game"...and considering the team, it better be).

Seriously, though, for a lot of people there is still something special about Opening Day. So, with that in mind, I whipped up a brief list of baseball books to help get you back in the game:

• The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract by Bill James--everything you ever needed to know about the history of the game by the most important sportswriter, well, maybe ever (I'm not kidding)
• Rob Neyer's Big Book of Baseball Lineups by Rob Neyer--James' former assistant has compiled the ultimate guide to every franchise's best...and worst
• The Golem's Mighty Swing by James Sturm--a graphic novel about the supernatural way a team of traveling ballplayers deals with anti-Semitism in the '20s
  
• Summerland by Michael Chabon--a fantasy about the worst 11-year-old player ever who is recruited to help a band of fairies save the world from an ancient enemy
• Samurai Shortstop by Alan Gratz--in 1890 Japan, a 16-year-old baseball-playing student learns the way of the samurai and earns the respect of his father