This newly expanded and updated (2000-present day) single-volume book not only chronicles the history of baseball but conveys, through discussions of baseball's relationship to American culture, a vivid portrait of baseball as America's national pastime. * Provides fascinating information about the history of baseball ranging from the game's origins to the present day * Identifies the obvious and subtle ways in which baseball has influenced American culture as well as the impact that American history and culture have had on the development of baseball * Discusses many of baseball's greatest and most controversial stars past and present and their influence on both the game of baseball and American popular culture