DIAMOND

The author of the novel Bang the Drum Slowly gathers over 40 years' worth of baseball essays and throws in an excerpt from Bang, as well as the entire screenplay of the movie. Readers who know only that tear-jerking film may be surprised to find that Harris writes with a light touch. A 1946 essay makes light of racism by answering those who wanted to know ``how I would like it if my sister married Jackie Robinson'' with raising all the issues, except race, that would make such a union difficult: His sister was in sixth grade, Robinson was engaged, and, anyway, his sister's last affair had ended badly when the boy on whom she had a crush ``smacked her in the eye with a snowball.'' Harris has an engaging voice, although he does trot out a lot of old saws—how baseball nurtured American democracy, nostalgia for day games on grass—that just don't cut it any more.