Why Baseball Always Seems Like It's For Old People

Like many fans, we always fire ourselves up for baseball season with a plethora of preview magazines. The Sporting News, Street & Smith's, Athlon ... we buy 'em all. (And our Baseball Prospectus 2007 arrived in the mail on Friday; we know that's supposed to be a reference book, but we read it every year like a novel, front to back.) But our personal favorite, the one that we buy every year knowing that we're not gonna read it but feel obliged to own it anyway, is the Who's Who Of Baseball, the pamphlet-sized reference guide that hasn't changed its content in 92 years.

Only the names on the inside have changed; everything else is precisely how it has always been, and in this, there is some comfort, there is some peace. There is no VORP, there is no PECOTA, there are no pictures of superstars grabbing fake boobs. There was a time when it was all simple, and black-and-white.

Speaking of which, on a whim, we bought Baseball Digest the other night. There was a fascinating profile on a utilityman infielder who died 40 years ago. Great!

On Newstands Today: 92 Years Of Unadulterated Consistency (Makes Us Feel Secure) [Sports Review Magazine]