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What: “Storied Stadiums: Baseball’s History Through Its Ballparks”

Publisher: Carroll and Graf

Price: $32

Curt Smith, among baseball’s foremost historians, has put together a 593-page book that is the definitive history of every ballpark where major league baseball has been played. Besides data on when and how stadiums were built, the book includes fascinating stories that took place at the ballparks.

In a section on Dodger Stadium, Smith writes that Walter O’Malley, after visiting Japan in 1956, pledged “to build the perfect park.”

“Like Saul, the Dodgers’ boss knew his Damascus Road,” Smith writes.

O’Malley chose Chavez Ravine, a hilly, depressed region inhabited by squatters and goats, to build the stadium.

“O’Malley especially liked how several freeways merged nearby,” Smith writes. “He bought 166 acres of land, a referendum narrowly backed the sale, and the Dodgers and the city signed a deal. Suits vied to block the park, and lost.”

The Angels occupied Dodger Stadium from 1962-65. The Baltimore Orioles were playing the Angels there once and Oriole announcer Chuck Thompson wondered why the fans were cheering when they did. He soon realized they were listening to Vin Scully and the Dodgers on transistor radios.

If there is a complaint about the book it’s that there is too much of it. The book could have used more than the 36 color photos of ballparks.

But it is well written and well organized by Smith, a former presidential speechwriter for George Bush.

Many fans have yearned to tour America’s ballparks. This book is the next best thing.