Author Description

No baseball fan can forget his or her first glimpse of a big-league ballpark, that first trip up the ramps and through the tunnels, emerging awestruck into the vast expanse of blue skies and perfectly manicured green fields. "Blue Skies, Green Fields" is about recapturing that moment, no matter which stadium was your first. There's a chapter on each of the 30 current stadiums, plus 20 of the bygone favorites such as Ebbets Field, Old Comiskey Park, Polo Grounds, and Tiger Stadium -- even such not-missed mistakes as the Minneapolis Metrodome, Montreal's Olympic Stadium, and Candlestick Park. Each chapter includes beautiful color photographs of interiors, exteriors, details, and players; fascinating narrative on the history and attributes of the park; and authoritative facts and figures (dimensions, seating capacities, largest crowds, opening dates, renovation costs, etc.). All of which will satisfy even the greediest fan's love of statistics. And since "Blue Skies" is about the experience of the ballpark as much as about the park itself, each chapter boasts a unique addition to the sport's literature: answers to the question, "What was it like the first time you saw a Major League Baseball stadium?" Here are over 300 such answers, for every stadium, from anybody who's anybody in baseball: icons of the game such as Reggie Jackson and Whitey Ford and future Hall-of-Famers like Derek Jeter, Cal Ripken Jr., and Mark McGwire; broadcasters from Harry Kalas to Bob Costas; managers such as Tommy Lasorda and Sparky Anderson; even assorted personalities such as George Plimpton, Jesse Ventura, and George Carlin, as well as sportswriters, novelists, managers, and owners. More thorough, morebeautiful, and more readable than any other book on the subject, "Blue Skies, Green Fields," to be published just as all eyes turn toward the pennant races, will be the baseball gift book of the holiday season.