A consumer’s guide to the best and...

A consumer’s guide to the best and worst of sports media and merchandise. Ground rules: If it can be read, played, heard, observed, worn, viewed, dialed or downloaded, it’s in play here.

What: SportsBooks bookstore.

Where: 8302 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles.

I knew I was onto something recently when my friend David Eisen, a Los Angeles lawyer and avid reader/collector of vintage baseball publications, begged me not to write about SportsBooks.

Nice try, though I can sympathize with Eisen’s concern. SportsBooks (tel. 213-651-2334) is that rare gem: a one-stop shop for sports enthusiasts with a nostalgic yearning who love the written word.

It is overflowing with new and old hardcovers, magazines, game programs, team yearbooks, media guides, even a few collectibles. There is a nice assortment of Final Four and NBA finals programs.

But when the category of baseball is served up, SportsBooks hits a grand slam. Yearbooks and programs cover virtually every major league team that ever existed, plus the Pacific Coast League’s Hollywood Stars and Los Angeles Angels. The collection of Street & Smith’s magazines dates to 1941. Among the store’s marquee items: a Dodgers-Cleveland Indian 1920 World Series program from Ebbets Field, and Spalding’s “Official Base Ball Guide” of 1883.

I stopped by the other day in search of the Sports Illustrated that chronicled Bill Mazeroski’s dramatic Game 7 home run that won the 1960 World Series for the Pittsburgh Pirates over the heavily favored New York Yankees.

Sure enough, for $8 I bought a copy of that Oct. 24, 1960 issue, wrapped in a plastic cover slip and still carrying the name-and-address box of the original owner.

Neil Vincent, a Brooklyn native who played football at the University of Miami in the early 1960s, opened SportsBooks on nearby Beverly Boulevard in 1990. After a dispute over the lease, Vincent and his partner, Debra Powell, moved the store to its current address two years ago.

SportsBooks has frequent book signings. Among the notables who have appeared: Hank Aaron, John Wooden, Bill Bradley, Bob Gibson, Mike Schmidt and Wilt Chamberlain. Good reasons to get on the mailing list.

The store is open Tuesday-Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. If you’re a serious baseball fan, here’s my best advice: Bring plenty of change to feed the parking meter, and pack a lunch.