There's a small group of people who measure time in tenths and hundredths of seconds; they are the heroes of The Perfect Mile: Three Athletes, One Goal, and Less Than Four Minutes to Achieve It. Author Neal Bascomb takes us into the world of track and field and focuses on three superstars who sought to be the first to run a mile in four minutes or less.

For decades, the prevailing thought in the sports community was that the feat was impossible and, even if it were accomplishable, it would so overtax the body that death would result. These notions rested primarily on physiologists' knowledge of the capacity of legs and lungs, but England's Roger Bannister, a 25-year-old medical student, added two factors: heart and head. He devised painful experiments to learn the complex relation between oxygen and exhaustion. In effect, he converted his body into a scientific project, helping him to modify his running technique.

On May 6, 1954, in Oxford, England, with the assistance of two "rabbits" colleagues who set the pace for him Bannister did what most of the world had considered impossible: he ran a mile in three minutes, 59.4 seconds. Indeed, it will be a callous reader who is not stirred by Bascomb's account of the race, even a half-century later. The author enables us to accompany Bannister throughout that entire historic day, to be privy to his doubts, to listen to the conversations on strategy with his coach and his collaborative runners, and then to virtually join them in the race.

We're there for each strength-sapping lap and for the stretch kick; we see the exhausted Bannister collapse "I was prepared to die," he later said and we share the celebration that crowned this immortal moment in human effort. Sports Illustrated rated Bannister's breakthrough with the scaling of Mount Everest as the most significant athletic feats of the 20th century, and a British newspaper declared it to be England's greatest triumph since the realm's defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588.

The rejoicing was not universal, however. Rival superstars John Landy of Australia and Wes Santee of the United States were disappointed that they had not been first to crack the barrier. Santee never managed to accomplish the feat, but only 47 days after Bannister's achievement, Landy, who had viewed the four-minute barrier as "a brick wall," lowered the record to 3:58, thus setting the stage for a head-to-head showdown with the Englishman at the British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Vancouver seven weeks later. Racing to beat the clock is one thing, but running to beat a competitor is another, requiring a different strategy. Again, Bascomb, previously the author of Higher: A Historic Race to the Sky and the Making of a City, takes us trackside and shares the runners' thoughts and tactics in what was billed as "The Mile of the Century." In that dramatic confrontation in Vancouver, Bannister won by less than a second as both men were clocked in under four minutes clearly supporting the contention that the barrier had been more psychological than physical.

Today, running a sub-four-minute mile is almost routine; about 1,000 people have done it. As its golden anniversary approaches, this excellent book celebrates Bannister's epic triumph and the timeless message that our most difficult struggles are within ourselves.

Alan Prince lectures at the University of Miami School of Communication.

For baseball fans who admire fine writing as much as a home-run swing, two new collections will be at the top of the spring roster. Triumph and Tragedy in Mudville: My Lifelong Passion for Baseball (Norton, $24.95, 320 pages, ISBN 0393057550) by the late Stephen Jay Gould is a wonderful collection of essays and book reviews the author contributed to The New York Review of Books, Vanity Fair and The New York Times. Reminiscing about old players and new theories, about the use of statistics and the blue melancholy of being a Red Sox fan, the author writes about the game with warmth and authority. As baseball scribe for The New Yorker, Roger Angell has been writing about the game for more than 40 years. Game Time: A Baseball Companion spans four decades and collects the best of his work. He has seen the game morph from a "plantation mentality," in which the owners called all the shots, to today's sport where, it could be said, the inmates are running the asylum. With his ability to take the reader below the surface, Angell gains access to old idols like Tom Seaver, as well as today's stars, including Pedro Martinez and Barry Bonds. In his hands, these players are more than just numbers in a box score; they're men with depth and soul. Angell's thoughtful prose will warm baseball fans even on the coldest days of the off-season.

Baseball books are like weddings: they always seem to include something old (biographies and team histories), something new (lots of numbers for statistics and fantasy leagues fanciers), something borrowed (how many original books can you write about the mighty Yankees?) and something blue (anything about the Dodgers). True fans stick with their teams for richer or poorer, for better or worse, through sickness and health, till death do them part. Following in this time-honored tradition, we've assembled a few of this season's top baseball titles.

Something old

Some pundits opine that baseball has lost its status as the national pastime. This may be true, but there's no denying that when it comes to inspiring writers and artists to demonstrate their affection for a game, no other sport comes close. The Perfect Game: America Looks at Baseball by Elizabeth V. Warren, former curator for the American Folk Art Museum in New York, provides ample proof. Based on a recent exhibition at the museum, The Perfect Game looks at teams; the women's game; bats and balls; signs; and other aspects of the sport. Warren's goal is to introduce baseball fans to the world of folk art and show them that "there is another way, beyond the relics and collectibles of the past, to look at the history of their beloved sport." Unlike other books that meld art and baseball, Warren's text concentrates on the artists and their methods rather than the ballplayers and the game. The overall feel is that of a well-done arts-and-crafts show. Particularly engaging are the unusual figures made from wood or metal depicting athletes in various stages of play.

Something new

Why do they serve hot dogs at ballgames? How do those guys take care of the field and all that equipment? How did the stadium architects decide how many restrooms to build? Oh, the things we think of while watching a game at the ballpark! Vince Staten addresses these and other conundrums in Why is the Foul Pole Fair? (Or, Answers to the Baseball Questions Your Dad Hoped You Wouldn't Ask). Reading Staten, whose book is full of humorous and thoughtful observations, is like sitting next to Andy Rooney at the ballgame. He explores topics like bubble gum cards, athletic supporters and team nicknames, and he isn't satisfied to merely answer the surface questions. He delves into the social history of numerous components in an almost stream-of-consciousness style. He's certainly done his research, offering hard-to-find, fascinating facts.

Something borrowed

Bats are practically communal property when kids gather at the ballfield. Baseball gloves, on the other hand, are much more personal and shared only with great reluctance. They are often the first piece of sports equipment a kid receives and certainly one of the most prized possessions of childhood. Noah Liberman chronicles this special relationship with equal measures of reverence and bemusement in Glove Affairs: The Romance, History, and Tradition of the Baseball Glove. In its nascent days, baseball was a manly sport. Using a glove was an open invitation for ridicule for anyone wimpy enough to wear one. Players accepted broken fingers and other injuries inherent in bare-handed play as badges of honor. But honor only went so far. The first use of a mitt was reported by the Cincinnati Commercial in 1870, and since then the glove has evolved from a leather accessory with the fingers cut off to today's huge multi-hued aggregations of material seemingly capable of catching a small cow. What's the best method to break in that new mitt? Ballplayers have been debating this for generations. There are almost as many recipes for glove conditioning as for barbecue sauces, so Liberman's chapter on the ever-important care and feeding of gloves is most welcome, as is his ode to those magicians who can take old and decaying mitts and restore them to youthful vigor. This playful edition is a welcome change from baseball's more serious books.

Something blue

Dodger Blue is the topic of Michael Shapiro's nostalgic look at The Last Good Season: Brooklyn, The Dodgers, and Their Final Pennant Race Together. Believe it or not, there are still people in Brooklyn who count among their darkest moments the day their beloved "Bums" left for the West coast. More so than most teams, the Dodgers had a special connection with their city. By 1956, the team's nucleus including Jackie Robinson, Pee Wee Reese, Duke Snider, Roy Campanella and Gil Hodges were well past their prime. The city itself was changing as the post-war generation began its flight to the suburbs, leaving in its place a demographic (read African-American and Hispanic) that Walter O'Malley, the team's owner, felt could not adequately support the team, although he would maintain it was a question of economics, not race, on which the Dodgers based their departure. In The Last Good Season, Shapiro concentrates on the players, their families and Brooklyn as a whole. His narrative has, of necessity, a sense of doom. His ode to a simpler time makes for bittersweet but rewarding reading, and not only for baseball fans. After all, the Dodgers were about more than a game; they were about community.

On deck

More exciting baseball books are scheduled for publication in the coming months. Watch for these titles:

The Teammates by David Halberstam (May/ Hyperion). A portrait of four Boston Red Sox players from the famed 1949 team who remained friends for more than 60 years.

October Men: Reggie Jackson, George Steinbrenner, Billy Martin, and the Yankees' Miraculous Finish in 1978 by Roger Kahn (May/Harcourt). An account of the raucous season in which the Yankees won the World Series despite Martin's mid-season departure.

The Hidden Language of Baseball by Paul Dickson (May/Walker). A fascinating look at the intricate systems of signs used by players and coaches.

Planet of the Umps: A Baseball Life from Behind the Plate by Ken Kaiser (May/Thomas Dunne Books). The adventures and misadventures of a 20-year major league umpire.

Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael Lewis (June/Norton). How the Oakland Athletics achieved major league success with a minor league payroll. Ron Kaplan is a writer from Montclair, New Jersey.

Pulitzer Prize-winning author John McPhee is a man of many and varied interests. Be it the common orange, Russian dissident paintings or portable nuclear bombs, his fascination with items exotic and commonplace leads the reader into corners of the world he or she might never otherwise explore. In his latest work, The Founding Fish, McPhee lures his readers into the world of Alosa sapidissima, the shad, a fish that has entranced and confounded anglers (McPhee included) for years. As is the case with most of McPhee's work, his subject is studied from many angles. Thus, he presents us with a history of the shad through the ages, the role of the shad in American history (there is anecdotal evidence that Washington's troops had shad and precious little else to eat at Valley Forge), catching, or more precisely, trying to catch shad, and last but not least, cooking the shad. An appendix offers several baking suggestions for the fish, a couple of which sound delectable.

McPhee spends time with ichthyologists, anatomists and fish behaviorists in locations as disparate as Pennsylvania and Bosnia-Herzegovina. He also learns the art of making the complex darts used to catch the fish. More than any time in recent memory, McPhee has imbued his writing with humor, much of it self-deprecating. His lack of proficiency at landing shad does little to cool his ardor. He regularly fishes from shore, from his Kevlar canoe and from the boats of friends and acquaintances as absorbed with the fish as he is. As usual, McPhee does a marvelous job of populating his tale. There are numerous forays into the lives of the people connected with his quest, as well as short side trips into the motivations that attract otherwise normal folks to the clan of the shad.

It is to McPhee's credit that he can take such an arcane topic and make it interesting, even compelling, to the casual reader. He provides sufficient data to suit the scientists among his readers, while writing in an easy conversational style that makes the rest of us want to sit at his feet and say, Tell me a story.

Over the winter, "contraction" was the buzzword in baseball. Fueled by claims that a majority of the teams were operating in the red, the commissioner's office announced it was considering eliminating up to four clubs and drastically reconfiguring the game as we know it. But you wouldn't know there was any problem with the national pastime from looking at the book industry. From statistical analyses to literary homages, dozens of baseball titles are due out this year. The following are a few we feel merit consideration for M.V.B. (Most Valuable Book) 2002.

"The man in the box office . . . will tell you that a baseball franchise in a large city is a mint'." These words weren't written to counter the commissioner's charges; they come from "Baseball as the Bleachers Like It," an essay by Charles E. Van Loan, written in 1909. His piece is one of many to be found in Baseball: A Literary Anthology, a classic volume of poetry, fiction and nonfiction edited by Nicholas Dawidoff. Author of the best-selling book The Catcher Was a Spy: The Mysterious Life of Moe Berg, Dawidoff has assembled a wonderful collection that includes contributions from legendary baseball writers Roger Angell, Roger Kahn and Damon Runyon, as well as unexpected sources like Carl Sandburg, Jonathan Schwartz and Tallulah Bankhead. While there are some familiar pieces here, the book's charm lies in its variety of voices authors not known for sportswriting. Contributions from Thomas Wolfe, William Carlos Williams, Amiri Baraka and Stephen King (who would have expected a genial, non-morbid piece on Little League from the master of horror?) make this anthology special.

The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum Baseball Desk Referenceby Lawrence T. Lorimer is a perfect blend of history, statistics, illustrations and just plain fun that any fan, novice or expert will enjoy. Part encyclopedia, part primer, part pop culture history book, this volume covers all the bases (pardon the pun). Beginning with a timeline of the game's significant events, Baseball Desk Reference contains a year-by-year breakdown of the major leagues, team histories and profiles of hundreds of top players. There's also extensive coverage of baseball around the world, rules, techniques of play and instruction on how to score a game.

Additionally, the book examines baseball's impact on other cultural forms, like cinema, literature and music. This heavyweight book bears the name of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, so expect a high quality addition to your sports library. In Clearing the Bases: The Greatest Baseball Debates of the Last Century, Allen Barra, popular sports columnist for The Wall Street Journal and Salon.com, presents discussions of the sport's most confounding questions. He examines weighty issues such as why pitchers can't throw complete games anymore, and who should wear the mantle of "Greatest Living Player" now that Joltin' Joe DiMaggio is gone. Among the more compelling and original debates are Barra's theories on the failure of the 1986 Mets to maintain National League dominance, and the "back story" about Roger Maris breaking Babe Ruth's home run record. Barra's clear-eyed analysis makes Clearing the Bases one of the most thought-provoking books on the game to appear in some time.

What is so rare as a day in June? James Buckley Jr., author of The Visual Dictionary of Baseball, offers the answer in Perfect: The Inside Story of Baseball's Sixteen Perfect Games. Yes, that's 16 games out of more than 170,000 major league contests. (You figure the odds; my head reels at the concept.) The first official "perfecto" was pitched in 1880. The most recent, in 1999, came from the hands of Yankee David Cone on "Yogi Berra Day," with Don Larsen himself the pitcher of a perfect game in the 1956 World Series throwing out the ceremonial first ball. Again, the odds. . . . As Buckley reveals, the 16 pitchers who found their four-leaf clovers were by no means the best of their profession. Only five Cy Young, Addie Joss, Jim Bunning (who wrote the foreword for Perfect), Sandy Koufax and Jim "Catfish" Hunter were good enough for consideration and eventual inclusion into the Hall of Fame; the others simply enjoyed their day in the spotlight.

Buckley chronicles each game in fine detail, but perhaps his best work comes when discussing the heartbreak of those who had nearly but not quite flawless games, such as another Yankee, Mike Mussina. With two out and two strikes in the ninth inning of a game against the Yankee's arch-rival, the Boston Red Sox, Mussina lost his bid. Capturing the drama of such unforgettable contests, Perfect is a wonderful appreciation of the sport, a celebration of baseball history as it happened and as it might have been.

Ron Kaplan writes from Montclair, New Jersey.

Why preserve an aging ballpark? Allen Barra offers an answer in Rickwood Field, a paean to Birmingham’s 100-year-old stadium, the nation’s oldest.

Barra’s book is somewhat unconventional; it contains a lengthy oral history of Rickwood, a section on other endangered stadiums and a traditional narrative history. It is a labor of love from Birmingham native Barra, who clearly wrote the book with an agenda to save old parks, not just in Birmingham, but everywhere.

Barra’s argument is basically this: Because Rickwood has a rich past, it should be preserved. The premise is undeniable. Not only is the stadium replete with baseball lore—Cobb, Ruth and Mays, anyone?—but it also was a key setting in the history of Birmingham race relations. Segregation did not loosen its grip at the turnstiles. Black spectators were fenced off in the “Negro bleachers”—the only section of seating not shaded by the grandstand—and black players dressed in the corridors. In its glory years, Rickwood hosted both the Barons of the minor-league, all-white Southern Association and the Black Barons of the Negro Leagues. (Barra is at his best when intertwining the story of these two teams and alerting the reader to their forgotten stars.) During the darkest years of Bull Connor’s reign, local segregation laws shut down the professional game, which had already integrated. The club eventually returned, only to move to a new suburban facility after the 1987 season.

Unfortunately, Barra rarely transcends the assumption that Rickwood should be saved simply because the greats played there. The book is an exercise in nostalgia, glossing over non-baseball history, and is unlikely to convince those already disinclined to preservation. A stronger argument would place Rickwood more firmly in the context of Birmingham’s social and industrial development.

Nevertheless, Rickwood Field will appeal to two audiences. Baseball fans should read it for its knowledgeable exposition of Negro and Minor League baseball; those interested in Birmingham should read it for a slice of the city’s bygone cultural life. Those trying to save other historic parks may find it an inspiration—restoration of Rickwood has been remarkably successful—but justification for preservation must come from individual urban histories rather than baseball lore. Babe Ruth played on hundreds of fields. There is only one Birmingham. 

Well, OK I’ll admit that not all men make a habit out of reading books. But for every guy who enjoys a novel now and then, there are dozens more who just might like an enlightening browse, an interesting bit of nonfiction, a useful how-to guide or, of course, cool pictures of cool guy-type things. Furthermore, if you can lay a neat gift book on a guy, he will be flattered that you pegged him for the literary type (even if you know better). These recent releases will make solid gift selections for that special guy, whether he be a sports nut, the manly fix-it type or even the rare genteel thinker.

Slam dunk

Certainly one of the finest gift sports books of recent years has to be At the Buzzer! The Greatest Moments in NBA History. A hip, knowing text by sports journalist Bryan Burwell accompanies hundreds of dramatic color photographs that chart the exploits of basketball’s greats Chamberlain, Russell, Havlicek, West, Bird, Dr. J., Magic and Michael from the league’s formative years to the present day. Important playoff game performances, heroic single-game scoring feats, great match-ups and eventful isolated moments are all captured in words and pictures. In addition, the book is accompanied by two audio CDs that present excerpts from pertinent original radio and television broadcasts. Ex-basketball star and TV commentator Bill Walton handles the narration on the discs, which feature the voices of Marv Albert, Brent Musberger, Dick Enberg and a host of other national and local play-by-play announcers.

Good bet

Another terrific volume for those hard-to-shop-for men on your list is A. Alvarez’s Poker: Bets, Bluffs, and Bad Beats. Alvarez, a poet, novelist and frequent New Yorker contributor, is also an inveterate poker player. After tracing poker’s development from various early Persian and French variations, he describes its rise as a uniquely American game that took hold in New Orleans, made its way up the Mississippi on riverboats and eventually became a big part of Las Vegas gaming culture. Drawing on his years of experience, including his participation in the World Series of Poker, Alvarez also offers fascinating anecdotes revolving around game play and the singular characters that inhabit professional poker tables. The author explodes poker myths it’s not about luck, for example discusses poker’s colorful contributions to the English language and even includes lore about poker-playing U.S. presidents (Nixon was one). Evocative color and black-and-white photos capture shuffle, deal, play and players in both fact and fiction.

Tool time

Without question, Tools: A Complete Illustrated Encyclopedia is the volume for that handyman guy we all know and love. Rich photography captures the broad array of tools found in the busy home workshop, ranging from measuring and cutting tools to assembly and finishing tools. Good historical background is provided on tool development, and there are a few interesting archival reproductions showing craftsmen at work in bygone eras. But mostly, the comprehensive coverage handsaws, planes, chisels, lathes, power drills, pliers, vises stresses selecting the right tools for the right jobs and using them with efficiency and artfulness. Helpful appended material (including a micropedia, a glossary and a directory of sources) rounds out this attractive addition to any do-it-yourselfer’s bookshelf. Comedian Tim Allen would drool.

Fast lane

Not everyone idolized Dale Earnhardt, but the void left in NASCAR racing with his untimely demise at the Daytona 500 earlier this year can’t be underestimated. Sports Illustrated senior writer Leigh Montville does a super job of explaining the Earnhardt charisma and legacy in At the Altar of Speed: The Fast Life and Tragic Death of Dale Earnhardt. Where Earnhardt’s devoted and fanatical blue-collar following is concerned, Montville shows the appropriate reverence, quoting a representative sampling of those who idolized the Michael Jordan of his sport. We learn of Dale’s humble North Carolina origins, his rise to NASCAR greatness as "The Intimidator," his marital missteps and eventual success as husband and family man, and his emergence as racing’s most respected elder statesman. Montville also covers that tragic day in February with dramatic restraint. But perhaps most interesting is his profile of the car-racing culture, its rise as the fastest-growing sport in the U.S., and the way Earnhardt managed to maintain his common-man appeal while amassing lifetime earnings in excess of $40 million.

Car talk

Yeah, guys dig cars. They stand for status, speed and sex appeal, don’t they? They’re also awesome to look at, and Cars: A Celebration just might be the ultimate coffee-table gift book on the subject. It’s thick (almost 600 pages), and packed with nearly 2,000 color photos of 146 different cars their interiors, exteriors, engines and distinctive design elements. Coverage is international, including automobile makes such as Aston Martin, Ferrari, Daimler, Lambhorgini, Fiat, Renault, Volvo, Mercedes, Volkswagen and MG. But the view of U.S. cars through the years offers not only an automotive charge but also some definite American sociocultural nostalgia. Thunderbird, Mustang, Galaxie, Edsel, Falcon, Bel Air, Corvair, Corvette, Impala, Cougar, Riviera, GTO, Eldorado these and many more vintage U.S. car models are displayed in all their kitschy glory. The coverage here dates from about the late 1940s, and also includes such infamous pipedream failures as the DeLorean and the Tucker. Quentin Willson’s accompanying text is smartly written, informative about the cars’ appeal (or lack thereof) and includes occasional brief profiles of car designers and company executives. Gorgeous photography makes this a must purchase for that favorite car buff. (And considering the size of this lush volume, it’s actually a good value at $50.)

Say what?

Finally, any sensitive guy will admit his manners could use a refresher course. As a Gentleman Would Say: Responses to Life’s Important (and Sometimes Awkward) Situations is the latest entry in a series of Gentlemanners books designed to remind us of the most thoughtful and decent ways to cope with potentially tough social situations. Co-written by John Bridges and Bryan Curtis, the book posits dozens of scenarios at parties, dining out, at work, in love and friendship, making a toast and gives some possible responses, both the taboo, humorous types and the well-considered gentlemanly ones. A witty and useful book, appropriate for maybe more men than we would like to think about.