First Sentence

"This introductory and longest piece of the book exists to fulfill a promise made to one of my best baseball friends, author Steve King, who wrote to me in late October 1992: "I think you should set aside a small but not inconsequential block of time-three weeks, maybe a month-to write a long (20,000 to 30,000 words) 'linchpin essay' that would place your love and knowledge of baseball among the other landmarks of your rather remarkable life.""