Tues. May 27

Talk about a timely book. Roger Abrams, who is the Richardson Professor of Law at Northeastern University School of Law, wrote a book called "The Dark Side of the Diamond: Gambling, Violence, Drugs and Alcoholism in the National Pastime," and if that isn't on our minds now - with the Mitchell report, with the ever-expanding (bodywise) and constricting (mindwise) Roger Clemens in the headlines for some not so nice things, some not even involving steroids. Abrams will be hosting a discussion and signing copies of the book at Borders Downtown Crossing at 1 p.m. on Tuesday May 27.

 We were first turned on to the dark side by Jim Boutin with "Ball Four" as an impressionable teen. Of course, there was humor in that book - a hungover-still-drunk Mickey Mantle sent up to pinch-hit, hits a home run and asked how says he took aim at the middle of the three balls he saw. C'mon, there's humor there. Of course, there's lots worse stuff, going back to the Black Sox scandal - the best-known scandal in sports history - and Pete Rose betting on games. Abrams lays out the history of cheating and bad behavoir: game-fixing, gambling, and even of a Hall of Fame ballplayer who took testosterone injections back in the 19th century. Remember reading about Ty Cobb’s sharpened spikes and nasty temperament? Spitball kings? We kind of accepted those legend as baseball-boys-will-be-baseball-boys but on closer look, Cobb was a vicious, mean mother and spitballs (and balls cut with belt buckles and the like) really don't have quite the charm when put in the context of fairness, something sports, if not life, portends to. Actually, one of the messages we took from "Ball Four" was that these players were not heroes; don't look up to them as such. It's a good lesson in every era. Flaws abound in all human beings, and when you're in the spotlight - and you're caught - it's all magnified. This is not the first time Abrams has waded into Things We All Hate to Think About Baseball. He "The Money Pitch: Baseball Free Agency and Salary Arbitration" and "Legal Bases: Baseball and the Law." We wish it were all a game, don't we?
10-24 School Street, 617-557-7188 www.bordersbooks.com

_