THE EASY OUT

This author has been pitching smooth baseball stories for a record number of seasons. He has put an unexpected spin on this one, which starts off nicely but gets out of control. Like last year's Old Iron Glove, the featured player is a veteran of the game with a shaky spot in the major leagues. Frank Hyatt has finally made it the long hard way up from the minors, but he's past his sturdy but unspectacular peak and finds himself strictly a bench warmer, a spectactor to the ""new breed."" He has plenty of time to daydream, and in a series of flashbacks retraces his wretched history, spotted with bad luck incidents which held back his career. The story presents an unusual view of the grind in baseball and pays tribute to the now often overlooked minor leagues. Frank Hyatt's reminiscences outplay the action on the diamond, and his obsessive interest in his failures which have resulted from his self-sacrificing instincts are maudlin and even suggest paranoia.