This is a great instructional book filled with useful and insightful tips aimed at kids working at honing their baseball skills--all in the words of 20 of the game's top major-league ballplayers. It is all baseball fundamentals from insiders who began learning them long ago, as kids, and are still working to improve, as the game requires. Separate chapters cover basics such as catching, pitching, each infield position, playing the outfield, hitting, and base running. But it gets even finer than that with chapters on throwing out base stealers, catching foul pop-ups, blocking pitches in the dirt, bunting for hits and rundowns.

Besides a full count of detailed expertise, author Steve Krasner, a sports reporter for The Providence Journal, does mini interviews with his celebrities who recall big real-life moments in their childhood seasons. The book also includes a glossary of baseball terms, hypothetical situations on-field and solutions, and black-and-white photos of the players who contributed. Enough to help a youngster make that field of dreams a reality.