What sports fans read, watch, and listen to at home often isn't the real story coming out of the locker room or the front office. George Castle should know: he's covered baseball in Chicago for decades and witnessed the widening gulf between the media and the teams they're supposed to cover-and the resulting widespread misinformation about the inner workings of the game. In this book, Castle chronicles from the inside the decline of baseball reporting and shows in clear and practical terms how ill-served today's sports followers are by those they trust for the straight story. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

Preface	vii
Introduction	1
1 A Long, Strange Journey to the Press Box and Clubhouse	5
2 Old-Time Players and Scribes	19
3 The Baseball Beat Writer	35
4 Celebrity Players or Upstanding Role Models?	51
5 Not Baseball's Golden Children	66
6 LaTroy and Carl as Jekyll and Hyde	82
7 A Lot Less Chewin' the Fat with Managers	91
8 All the News That's Not Fit to Print	101
9 The Red and Blue States of Baseball Journalism	116
10 The Politics of Baseball Media	143
11 Chicago a Toddlin', But Soft, Baseball Media Town	163
12 No-Shows in the Press Box and Clubhouse	191
13 Sports-Talk Radio	210
14 No More Harry Carays	228
15 Old versus New Media	241
Afterword	253

Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.