Richard Scheinin

Field of Screams

For people who have had it up to here with the endless nostalgia about "The Summer Game" on a "Field of Dreams," here is a bracing antidote: baseball history with an attitude. From baseball's rough-and-tumble origins in the nineteenth century to today's spoiled megamillionaire players and corporate shark owners, Field of Screams provides an entertaining and blackly funny reality check. It is a crowded rouges' gallery of cheats, misers, sadists, head cases, cheeseballs, chiselers, perverts, egomaniacs, beanballers, slobs, substance abusers, gamblers, game throwers, and violent criminals who have so enlivened the game.

Not to mention sullen, bloodthirsty fans.

Field of Screams is an anecdote-filled romp that unearths all the funny, bizarre, off-the-wall personalities and incidents that don't fit in the official baseball picture. From violent and vengeful Ty Cobb and skinflint owner Charles Comiskey to such specimens of contemporary manhood as Pete Rose, Jose Canseco, George Steinbrenner, Darryl Strawberry, and, yes, Vince "Family Man" Coleman, Field of Screams definitely highlights the men who will never ever be presented as role models again. Kevin Costner wept. Sorry, Kev.