Do you love baseball? Are you fascinated by the history of the game and how it has wound itself into the core of American life? If the answer to these questions is yes, then you will enjoy the book American Pastimes by S.P. Goldstein.

This book contains seven stories covering a swath of time from the 1920's to the present day. These baseball themed stories include dictators and detectives, politicians and celebrities, journalists and spies. Some of them existed in the real world and some of them are literary constructs. In these pages they mingle with one another and share adventures that center around the game which has been at the core of American life for nearly 150 years.

You'll visit small towns and big cities, clubhouses and courthouses, hospitals, and hotels. You'll experience life on the road, riding the rails, spring training in Florida and international relations between adversarial countries.

While each story is unique within itself, don't be surprised to see actors from one story pop up in another. There are a lot of references to actual events in baseball history, and one or two that never happened but probably should have. You may even have some fun trying to remember what is real and what is not. For readers of sports fiction and historical fiction, American Pastimes is a must read. Pick up the book, lie back and take a trip through the American past with a bat and ball in hand.