THE DIAMOND REVOLUTION

Nine innings' worth of baseball as Big Business, by Sullivan (The Minors, 1990, etc.). Baseball, argues Sullivan, is not the eternal cathedral of Field of Dreams, but rather a boisterous, bickering marketplace. The sport evolves along with the nation, he contends, and here he charts its changes and makes suggestions to secure baseball's future. Racism, the author believes, is gone from the field, but he urges owners to hire more black executives before black fans turn elsewhere in disgust. Sullivan counsels against moving teams to new cities, a maneuver that almost always backfires, and urges better management instead. He finds the stadiums of the 60's and 70's to be ``uniform utilitarian mediocrities,'' with the notable exception of Dodger Stadium, built with private funds. In a cheerier vein, he argues convincingly that league expansion doesn't dilute the quality of play (the US population, and thus the pool of available players, grows faster than baseball can handle). Sullivan sees a bright future for cable broadcasting and imagines futuristic developments like cameras secreted in the pitcher's uniform or tickets spewed out by home computers. He admonishes owners to share revenue decisions with players and urges a reassessment of baseball's romance with beer. Dull and scattered: a grab bag without a drawstring to hold it together. Sullivan offers intelligent advice, but only team owners and managers need take time out to listen. (Eight pages of b&w photos—not seen.)