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: “99--My Life in Pictures”

Author: Wayne Gretzky with John Davidson, Total Sports Publishing (under license to the NHL), $29.95

A terrific coffee table book and a well-crafted work overall, this chronicle of Wayne Gretzky’s life and NHL career is a must-have for hockey fans.

The pictures are outstanding, ranging from Gretzky as a 5-year-old wearing his grandfather’s World War I uniform through his tearful finale last April in New York. And the text is written in a chatty tone, leaving the reader feeling Gretzky said exactly those words and shared his thoughts and feelings.

Gretzky was a star from the time he could skate, using the skills he honed on the rink his father so carefully groomed in the backyard of their home in Brantford, Canada. There’s a picture of his first goal, the famous picture of a shyly grinning Gretzky with his hero, Gordie Howe, and a nice assortment of family pictures. Each picture is explained well and, sometimes, humorously, such as a picture of him face-first on the ice with an opponent on top of him and the caption, “This is what would happen if I set up in front of the net instead of behind it.” He also relates how he came to wear uniform 99: his preferred number, 9, was taken by a minor league teammate so his coach told him to wear two 9s.

From child prodigy to World Hockey Assn. star to NHL record setter, each phase of Gretzky’s life is detailed nicely. There are pictures from milestone moments, such as the night he scored five goals and set a record by scoring 50 in 39 games, the night he broke Phil Esposito’s record of 76 goals in a season, the night he broke Howe’s assist record, and on and on.

He’s frank about the trade that sent him from Edmonton to the Kings, acknowledging he wasn’t sure he’d done the right thing by agreeing to go, but he ultimately became the best salesman hockey had and was the catalyst for the league’s Sunbelt expansion. However, it’s curious that there’s not a word about his departure from Los Angeles, which he helped bring about.

A class book about a class act.