I'm not a big sports fan, but baseball—well, it's America's game. My childhood summers were spent with the St. Louis Cardinals at the old Busch Stadium on Grand Avenue, just a block from my uncle's restaurant.

So when the Springfield Cardinals came to town, I was right there at Hammons Field with my grandson, giving him the ballpark experience, rooting for the home team and enjoying the old-time feeling of the game.

The shelves of the nine branches of the Springfield-Greene County Library District are loaded down with books about baseball for all ages, so it was a no-brainer to partner with the Springfield Cardinals in a Family Reading Club.

Now through May 30, you can visit any library, pick up a gameboard, read three books and note the titles. As you round each base, a librarian will stamp your reading record and you'll receive a Cardinals logo item.

When you do this four times, reading a dozen books, and slide into home, you'll be entered into a drawing for a four-person voucher to Hammons Field home games.

"Families or relatives or friends can sign up for the club and read together as a team," said Tracy Biggers, manager of the children's department at the Library Center and mother of a four-year-old son who is celebrating his birthday at Hammons Field.

To get the most from the baseball experience, Biggers recommends "Take Me Out to the Ball Game." This volume of beautiful nostalgic paintings is a tribute to baseball's biggest heroes and the game's iconic song. Using the tune's lyrics, the author, Jim Burke, explores the sights, sounds and smells of baseball in 1908.

Want to know about the evolution of baseball gloves? "Baseball Treasures" by Stephen Wong is a fascinating look at old baseball memorabilia with crisp photographs of the collectibles.

In the beginning, fielders didn't wear gloves at all, but then a first baseman for the St. Louis Brown Stockings appeared on the field with a small, tight fingerless glove, covering only the palm of his hand. A couple of years later, Chicago White Stockings first baseman Albert Goodwill Spalding began wearing the fingerless glove. He also owned a sporting goods business. The rest is history.

The chapter on bats is equally interesting; tidbits like these are another reason why baseball continues to keep us coming back to the "old ball game."

BASEBALL BOOKS TO CHECK OUT AT THE LIBRARY
"Musial: From Stash to Stan the Man" by James N. Giglio
"Baseball in Springfield" by Rusty D. Aton
"Cardinal Nation" by Sporting News
"Ballpark: The Story of America's Baseball Fields" by Lynn Curlee
"Play Ball Like the Pros: Tips for Kids from 20 Big League Stars" by Steven Krasner
"Baseball for Everyone: Stories from the Great Game" by Janet Wyman Coleman
"Don't Step on the Foul Line: Sports Superstitions" by George Sullivan

AND TWO DVDs
"The Original Springfield Cardinals: A Look Back," Ozarks Public Television
"Millions of Cardinals Memories: Busch Stadium," Major League Baseball Productions

Jeanne C. Duffey, community relations director for the Springfield-Greene County Library District, can be reached at jeanned@thelibrary.org.