EVERY DIAMOND DOESN'T SPARKLE

(YA) Some uncut gems- all solid value- from the life and times of the Vice President of the Dodger Organization who has been in baseball, from the field to the front office, for close to forty years. Thompson writes (i.e. talks) vigorously, avoids the monotonous tabulation of team wins and losses, and has a good deal to say about the men in blue (""you can't beat 'em and you can't join 'em""), spring training; scouting (sometimes scavenging); contracts, drafts and rules; and the Dodger organization itself from Branch Rickey, a magisterial figure, to the move to the Coast and the Chavez Ravine row... Humor, here and there, an additional liniment in a book which is well within the strike zone of the home readership.