Book excerpt: Baseball has enchanted generations of players and fans with its charm and has been a constant in American life since the nineteenth century. Growing up as a boy in the 1950s and 1960s, Robert Kravetz learned the art of fending for himself on the baseball diamond. There, he and fellow players settled arguments and honed their baseball skills, learning the intricacies of a beautifully simplistic game. His baseball hero—and the hero for millions of other boys—was Mickey Mantle. At seven years old, he would rip open the morning newspaper to see if Mickey had beaten out Al Kaline for the runs batted in part of the Triple Crown and Ted Williams for the batting average honors. In Baby Boomer Baseball, Kravetz relives his youth, sharing fascinating tales from the golden era of baseball and observing the game’s changes through its steroid era and beyond. Whether Kravetz is drawing on his awe for the game as a boy or on personal discussions with Gary Carter, Hank Bauer, Tommy John, Bob Mathias, Clete Boyer, Tim McCarver, and the former director of research of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, Tim Wiles, he shares stories that will rekindle your love for America’s pastime.