The Ballpark Book: A Journey Through the Fields of Baseball Magic.

• Author: BARRETT, WAYNE M.
• Position: Review

* The Sporting News, formerly a one-sport weekly, used to be known as "The Bible of Baseball." While that appellation no longer fits its magazine, TSN is making a strong run for that title with its two most recent coffee-table books, 50 Greatest Sluggers (by Tony DeMarco, 175 pages, $29.95) and The Ballpark Book: A Journey Through the Fields of Baseball Magic (by Ron Smith, 304 pages, $39.95).

I saw Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Hank Aaron, Rocky Colavito, Frank Howard, Harmon Killebrew, Willie Stargell, Mark McGwire, and on and on and on, but no one--and I mean no one!--ever hit the ball higher and farther than Dave Kingman. He was a lousy ballplayer and an even worse human being, but when the King of Clout connected, it was just "Wow!" He's one of the 50. You'll have to get DeMarco's book to hear about the other 49.

It started in Baltimore, spread to Cleveland, Denver, and Arlington, finally found Seattle, and this season overtook Houston, Detroit, and San Francisco--the construction of new...