TODAY'S GAME

Baseball, the ""game boys play for fun and men play for keeps,"" provides some minor league fiction and a season's opener. Quigley's short novel, whose best feature is its knowhow from the club house to the field, concentrates on one game as seen through the eyes of Barney Mann, manager of a losing club, the Blue Jays. They have been skidding ever since Barney had traded a sure Hall-of-Fame pitcher for a young Negro outfielder. From pre-game procedures, batting practice, etc. this then gives a rundown of the game itself which, in spite of a disastrous six run inning, the Blue Jays will go on to win.... Billed as an ""adult baseball novel,"" this also has a likely young adult appeal residual largely in the information to be picked up.