Baseball writing is far more than a literary niche – more like a self-contained genre populated by both specialists and one-time visitors, all determined to capture the simple beauty of America’s game on paper. Of course, it’s not as easy as that, as scores of mediocre baseball tomes have proven over the decades. Not everyone can be Ring Lardner, or even W.P. Kinsella, but that’s never stopped anyone (no, seriously, anyone) with a ball cap and a pen from trying.