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: “Steve Lyons: Psychoanalysis”

Author: Steve Lyons

Publisher: Sports Publishing Inc.

Price: $9.95

Steve Lyons fills a lot of roles for Fox. He’s the network’s No. 2 baseball analyst, he has been a regular anchor on Fox Sports Net’s “National Sports Report” and this week he began a new role as host of “The Best Damn Sports Show Period.”

Lyons was also a versatile player during his nine seasons as a major leaguer. He played for five teams--he had four stints with the Boston Red Sox--and played every position. He played each position in an exhibition game against the Chicago Cubs in 1990.

Lyons is also an author. He originally wrote “Psychoanalysis” after his playing career ended in 1993 and it was published in 1995. It was recently re-released as a paperback.

Lyons befriended author Stephen King when he played for the Red Sox, and got King to write the foreword. Of Lyons, King wrote: “I admire him as much as a writer and raconteur as I did as a player, and for many of the same reasons. There is nothing slick about ‘Psychoanalysis’; it doesn’t have that smarmy, ghost-written-by-a-sports-reporter feel to it that so many baseball biographies seem to have.”

Lyons tells the story of being a middle-class youngster from Eugene, Ore., who fulfilled every Little Leaguer’s dream by making it to the major leagues. But that alone is not what makes this an interesting book. It’s the stories Lyons tells. He has the intellect and sense of humor to pull it off, the same traits that make him such a coveted broadcaster.

Lyons got the nickname “Psycho” from a teammate in double A after he struck out for the third time and threw his bat down, kicked his helmet and sat by himself at the end of the dugout swearing to himself. But the nickname is a misnomer. Lyons, you’ll learn from the book, is just a regular guy. And a good writer too.