"Batting cleanup, Bill Conlin"

For as long as we can remember, Bill Conlin has anchored one of America's best sports sections: the back pages of the Philadelphia Daily News. "Batting Cleanup, Bill Conlin," is a collection of his best sports writing. From behind the scenes, Conlin presents athletes as all too human, but his descriptions of game action convey the magnitude of the athletes' talent and the demands of the sport itself. His writing is widely appreciated for the way it captures an intricate. Moment of baseball time through a series of sharp images and dynamic verbs. In making the selections for this volume, editor Kevin Kerrane reveals how Conlin's playfulness with language and ideas has led to creative nicknames - like "The Jowly Grim Giant" for Georgetown basketball coach John Thompson - and to entire stories based on outrageous premises. Who else would interview God to find out what He really thinks about Randall Cunningham?