THIS WEEK: Baseball Magazines

THE GOOD: Baseball Digest

The little magazine that could. Still in grainy black and white, Baseball Digest is filled with information that should stretch the mind of even the most die-hard baseball fan. Not only are the articles interesting, but each month's letters are chock full of fascinating facts and reminiscences. Although its writing can sometimes be pedestrian (and don't expect them to rock any boats), nor do they wow you with you up-to-the-minute stats and analysis (which is available everywhere), Baseball Digest is, nonetheless, the best magazine covering Major League Baseball's present, and its glorious past.

THE BAD: USA Today Sports Weekly

Guess what: the fact that these yahoos are now covering football is not what qualifies them for 'bad' status. Simply put: anything that says USA Today on its masthead is a steaming plate of dog doo. Want to nauseate yourself Sunday mornings? Read the New York Times and then pick up USA Today Sports Weekly, and you'll see what we mean. Who says your articles should only fit one page? USA Today. Your paragraphs but one sentence? USA Today. Who would hire the most insipid writers in the biz, writers with so little imagination and whose articles (like Paul White's recent garbage about the free agent fan) are filled with ideas almost two years old? USA Today. And who would add the worst cartoons and the blandest photos clog up the dull text? Why, it's USA Today once again. Nothing works in this, the foulest of all newspapers.

THE UGLY: Baseball America

Baseball America reminds us of some of our brother's model railroading magazines: a bit too obsessed about its subject for comfort. Like many professional journals, reading this it is as if you've entered a world where nothing else exists--no politics, literature, perhaps not even relationships and sex. No one ever accused this magazine of not doing its research: these guys follow the sport from high school to AAA, but seem unable to cover the majors with much insight. We admit that anything lower than the bigs leaves us a bit cold, but if love baseball in any and every form, then Baseball America is your bible.