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BOOK NEWS Player, manager, coach. General man-ager, broadcaster, umpire. Nearly every baseball point of view — except perhaps that of the hot dog vendor — is represented in at least one of the many new books that cover just about all the bases. Books about baseball personalities, historic events, and teams that are me-morable — for reasons good or bad — take readers onto the field and into the dugout, the front office, the broadcast booth and baseball’s past. A Hall of Fame outfield is represent-ed in three new books, about "The Kid," "The Babe" and "The Mick": In left field, there’s "Ted Williams: The Biography of an American Hero" (Doubleday) by Leigh Montville; in right, "Babe Ruth: Launching the Le-gend" (McGraw-Hill), Jim Reisler’s account of Ruth in 1920, his first season as a Yankee; and patrolling center is "Our Mickey" (Triumph), memories of Mickey Mantle by teammates, op-ponents, celebrities and admirers, collected by Bill Liederman and Maury Allen. Another Hall of Fame outfielder has a book in the lineup: "Baseball Forever" (Triumph), a memoir by Ralph Kiner, former Pirates slugger who has been a Mets broadcaster since 1962 — as long as there have been Mets. For years, Kiner broadcast the ex-ploits of Tug McGraw, the high-spirited lefty reliever for the Mets and Phillies whose memoir "Ya Gotta Believe!" (New American Library) was published shortly after his death in January at 59. Dispatches from the front — the front office, that is — are found in "The Memoirs of Bing Devine," by the general manager who led Cardinals and Mets teams to four World Series during the 1960s; and in "Fred Claire: My 30 Years in Dodger Blue," by the ex-ecutive whose career began in 1969 as the team’s publicity director (both Sports Publishing). The impact of one of baseball’s great-est moments — breaking Ruth’s career home run record — is told in "Hank Aaron and the Home Run That Changed America" (Morrow) by Tom Stanton. And the impact of the recent influx of Japanese players into the major leagues is examined in "The Meaning of Ichiro: The New Wave From Japan and the Transformation of Our National Pastime" (Warner) by Robert Whiting. For the coffee table, there’s "Black Baseball: A History of African-Ameri-cans & the National Game" (PRC-Ster-ling). Text by Kyle McNary and 150 photos, most in color, trace the history of segregated baseball in America, from the pre-Civil War era to the last of the barnstorming Negro League teams in the 1960s. The story of one of the best high school baseball teams — Los Angeles’ Crenshaw High Cougars of 1979, which counted Darryl Strawberry among its stars — is told in "The Ticket Out" (Simon & Schuster) by Michael So-kolove. Fans who follow baseball history by the numbers can find scads of stats in The Sports Encyclopedia: Baseball 2004 (St. Martin’s-Griffin), a large-format paperback by David S. Neft et al. that lists the batting and pitching statistics of every player who ever played in the bigs — even if it was only once. Bosox faithful can relive the "Red Sox Century" (Houghton Mifflin) in Glenn Stout and Richard A. Johnson’s hefty, illustrated history of the Boston club. This thick paperback version of the 2000 book has been expanded to follow the team through the 2003 offseason and the addition of pitcher Curt Schilling and manager Terry Francona. Bronx Bombers of bygone days are located for "Yankees: Where Have You Gone?" (Sports Publishing) by Maury Allen, in which readers learn what be-came of Tom Tresh, Horace Clarke, Dooley Womack and 47 other former Yankees after they hung up their pinstripes. "Tales From the Dodger Dugout: Extra Innings" (Sports Publishing) is an expanded version of the anecdotal history of the team by Carl Erskine, former Dodgers pitcher in Los Angeles and Brooklyn. "The Brooklyn Cyclones" (NYU Press) by Ben Osborne chronicles the first season (2001) of the Mets’ minor league affiliate, whose arrival helped revitalize its long-depressed home turf, Coney Island. In the generously illustrated coffee-table book ``A Team for the Ages: Baseball’s All-Time All-Star Team’’ (The Lyons Press), Robert W. Cohen explains his picks for three all-star teams — one for each half of the 20th century and one for all time. All-stars are scarce in "Tales From the 1962 New York Mets" (Sports Publishing), Janet Paskin’s anecdotal account of one of baseball’s most colorful — and worst — teams.
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