As I note in the book's introduction, the sheer number of URLs is mind-boggling. "A HotBot search for the word `baseball,' made while writing the book proposal for BASEBALL ON THE WEB, yielded no less than 289,752 Internet documents. An AltaVista search produced about 100,000 [documents] matching the query.' An Excite search yielded 229,772 documents. WebCrawler and Infoseek searches may have produced only 12,100 and 14,357 documents respectively, but a Lycos search resulted in an incredible `66,557,959 unique documents'....

"Which of these...are the most informative?

"Which are fascinating?

"Which are funny?

"Which are visually arresting?

"And which are unique?

"How does the individual baseball fan process all the data offered by Internet search engines? He or she can waste hours perusing baseball-related URLs and downloading sites that are repetitious or boring (not to mention semiliterate). This, in fact, was my own experience as I began exploring baseball Web pages prior to beginning work on this book."

Here are a few of my favorite Web sites I profiled in my book:

* Every URL listed in Chapter 2 (Local Color): The Web sites here are maintained by the daily newspapers of major league cities. Here, you often will find the kind of lively, incisive, opinionated coverage that baseball diehards relish.

* BALLPARKS BY MUNSEY AND SUPPES (pg. 174): Just about anything you every could want to know about ballyards past and present may be found at this comprehensive Web site.

* MUDBALL! (pg. 185): This clever Web page is maintained by Little Leaguer Austin "Mudball" Taylor, and is a model of its kind.

* THE ART OF CATCHING, HITTING FOR EXCELLENCE, HOW TO COACH TEE BALL WITHOUT GOING INSANE, WK'S COACH BOX, etc. (pgs. 187-191): Here are several excellent sites which offer authoritative hints on coaching and teaching young ballplayers.

* COSMIC BASEBALL ASSOCIATION (pg. 230): This intriguing and creative Web site begins with the premise that "the game of baseball is really a metaphor for the life of the mind."

* SLUBA (pg. 237): "SLUBA" stands for Sixto Lezcano Ultimate Baseball Association. Need I say more.

* ROB MALLICOAT'S DIARY OF A COMEBACK KID (pg. 327): This revealing Web site offers candid observations by Mallicoat, ex-big league hurler who came to Kansas City Royals' spring training in 1995 as a replacement player.