HOT CORNER

A consumer’s guide to the best and worst of sports media and merchandise. Ground rules: If it can be read, heard, observed, viewed, dialed or downloaded, it’s in play here. One exception: No products will be endorsed.

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What: “Plaschke: Good Sports, Spoilsports, Foul Balls and Oddballs”

Author: Bill Plaschke

Publisher: Los Angeles Times Books

Price: $23.95

Sorry if today’s Hot Corner fawns a little. That’s because it’s about a book that is a collection of writings by a colleague, Bill Plaschke.

Plaschke, 44, has been a sportswriter with The Times since 1987 and a featured columnist since 1996.

This 336-page hardcover book that contains 67 stories and columns by Plaschke will rekindle fond memories, draw a few tears and remind you about what’s important and what’s not in sports.

If you’re a Plaschke fan, possibly your favorite column was the one that appeared Aug. 19, 2001.

It begins on page 152 in the book. It’s about Sarah Morris, a Dodger fan living in Anderson, Texas, who critiques the team on her Web site. Morris has cerebral palsy and has to type on the computer with a head pointer.

These are the kinds of people Plaschke loves to write about.

Another he wrote about, during Super Bowl week in 2000, is Bill Gutweiler, whose wife was killed by a drunk driver. That drunk driver was Leonard Little, a linebacker who was a few days away from suiting up for the St. Louis Rams and playing in the Super Bowl.

Then there is the one that appeared on Thanksgiving Day, 1999. It’s about Andrew Fishbein, Plaschke’s “little brother.” They had met through the Big Brothers and Sisters program in 1980, when Plaschke was 22 and Fishbein was 7. Fishbein was coming to Plaschke’s home for Thanksgiving dinner that day.

All profits from the book go to The Times Holiday Fund to benefit disadvantaged children and youth in Southern California.

-- Larry Stewart