BASEBALL

IN THE SHADOWS OF THE DIAMOND by James Costello and Michael Santa Maria (Elysian Fields Press: $19.95; 267 pp.). The writing is ordinary and there is muffed scholarship at points, but the focal points here are stories to cry by. There are 40, baseball’s saddest tales, from 19th-Century standouts such as Ed Delahanty and Marty Bergen to turn-of-the-century players like Smoky Joe Wood and Fred Merkle, to mid-20th-Century hard-luck guys like Herb Score and Ralph Branca, to more recent players, like J. R. Richard, Curt Flood, Tony Conigliaro and Donnie Moore.

The story of Marty Bergen, catcher for the Boston Beaneaters (later Braves) is pure horror. He was considered by some the major’ best catcher during his 1896-1899 career. On Jan. 19, 1900, Bergen’s father walked into his son’s house in North Brookfield, Mass., and discovered the butchered bodies of his son’s wife, daughter and son. After killing his entire family with an ax, Bergen had then slit his throat with a razor.

Of the modern era’s tough-luck cases, that of Tony Conigliaro is probably the most painful to review. At 19, in 1964, he hit 24 home runs--still the most in the majors by a teen-ager. He was on his way to one of the great careers, it seemed, until a 1967 beaning. He never regained his form. In 1982, he suffered a heart attack that left him in a coma for four months. Conigliaro died in 1990, at 45.