Home Field: Nine Writers at Bat

""Baseball is a bit different out here in the West,"" claims Seattle Post-Intelligencer writer Marshall, explaining that the majors arrived late there and the regional game developed its own rhythms and scale. This uneven anthology of essays about baseball as it's played in the Northwest veers off in places into unrelated areas. The funniest essay is ""The Bad Old Years"" by John Owen about Seattle's ill-starred (until 1995) major league teams; the most heart-warming are ""From the Church of Baseball: Different Hymns"" by Timothy Egan, about his successful coaching of a girls' Little League team, and ""Smells Like Team Spirit: Portrait of a Rank Season"" by Holly Morris, about a women's softball team in its first season, when it ranked lowest in its league but its morale was lofty and every player had fun. Also interesting are ""Can't Miss Prospects"" by Larry Colton, contrasting two pro prospects, one in the 1960s, the other in the '90s, and ""God's Tourney"" by Robert Leo Heilman, about the American Legion World Series in 1996. Disappointing are ""The Warriors"" by Sherman Alexie, which devolves into a sociological inquiry about the preference of Native American men for white women; ""What Pop Fly Gave His Daughter"" by Lynda Barry, a portrait of her drunken, irresponsible father; and ""Baseball Generations"" by editor Marshall (Reconciliation Road), who drags out the topic of baseball as a link between fathers and sons with a touch of bathos. First serial to Double-Take magazine. (Apr.)