THE INSIDE TRACK : THE HOT CORNER : 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: “The Franchise: A History of Sports Illustrated Magazine,” by Michael MacCambridge.

Price: $24.95 (hardcover), Hyperion.

The boy, a few weeks shy of his 10th birthday, realized what he wanted most that year. He pulled the subscription card from the magazine, carefully filled in the blanks and took it to his father for permission before mailing it. “It says I don’t have to send any money now, Dad,” he said, “but when the bill comes I could give you my lawn-mowing money and you could write the check.” His father, laughing gently at his son’s businesslike plan, agreed.

The first issue arrived a few weeks later, and the timing was perfect--on the cover was a photo of a grinning Hank Aaron holding a baseball accompanied by a yellow headline that said simply, “715.” The only thing better was the address label, “Mr. A.B. Kimball.” It made him feel very grown-up, his own subscription to his favorite magazine. . . .

A few generations of sports fans have grown up with Sports Illustrated since the magazine began publishing in 1954. Many were drawn to it by the great photos, but it has been the writing of--to name a few--Frank Deford, Dan Jenkins, George Plimpton, Jim Murray, Roy Blount Jr., Rick Reilly and Gary Smith that has kept them coming back.

“The Franchise” chronicles the history of the magazine from its shaky start--it was considered Time Inc. founder Henry Luce’s expensive folly by most executives at the company and dismissed by mainstream sports fans as a magazine for the country-club set--to its meteoric rise in quality and popularity under legendary managing editor Andre Laguerre to the explosive growth, in circulation and profitability, of the 1980s.

The exhaustively researched book examines the inner workings of the magazine in great detail--the successes, failures and foibles of everyone from the top editors to the fact-checkers are laid bare, without apologies. All of which makes for fascinating reading.

But through it all, author Michael MacCambridge stresses, the writing sets Sports Illustrated apart. Two gems:

* Blount on Johnny Bench: “For a catcher to rise up amidst his grotesque impedimenta as Bench does, cock his arm like a flash and shoot a ball out with enough velocity to beat a runner to second without either attaining appreciable loft or tailing off at the end is one of the wonders of cultivated nature. The only comparable thing would be a bear that really danced well.”

* Mark Kram on Joe Frazier after he lost the “Thrilla in Manila” to Muhammad Ali in 1975: “The scene cannot be forgotten; this good and gallant man lying there, embodying the remains of a will never before seen in a ring, a will that had carried him so far--and now, surely too far. His eyes were only slits, his face looked as if it had been painted by Goya. ‘Man, I hit him with punches that’d bring down the walls of a city,’ said Frazier. ‘Lawdy, Lawdy, he’s a great champion.’ Then he put his head back down on the pillow, and soon there was only the heavy breathing of a deep sleep slapping like big waves against the silence.”

Twenty-five years later, the boy still can’t wait for the next issue--and still dreams of writing that well.