A long, strange journey to the press box and clubhouse -- Old-time players and scribes -- The baseball beat writer -- Celebrity players or upstanding role models? -- Not baseball's golden children -- Latroy and Carl as Jekyll and Hyde -- A lot less chewin' the fat with managers -- All the news that's not fit to print -- The red and blue states of baseball journalism -- The politics of baseball media -- Chicago a toddlin', but soft, baseball media town -- No-shows in the press box and clubhouse -- Sports-talk radio -- No more Harry Carays -- Old versus new media -- Afterword.

Charting the path of a veteran sports reporter's career, Baseball and the Media traces the changes in baseball coverage from the days of the old-time players and scribes to the no-holds-barred (and no facts checked) sports-talk radio of our time. Along the way, Castle introduces readers to the politics of baseball media (does sports journalism actually have its red and blue states?), documents the transformation of athletes from role models to sports-media celebrities, including emblematic characters such as LaTroy Hawkins and Carl Everett, and illuminates the profound changes in the way sports in general - and baseball in particular - are conveyed to avid consumers, who are the losers in the end.