PREFACE<br > !<br > ~h~ insult is every bit as strong a baseball tradition as the<br > squeeze play or warm beer. Fans heckle players， players rip<br > managers (and vice versa)， owners ride their teams， sports.<br > ~writers rip Whatever s in sight， and everybody gets down on<br > the ~umps. A good baseball game is a lot like a pie fight:<br > Ew~ryone hits， and gets hit.<br > Baseball s Greatest Insults is， in a sense， a verbal free-for-<br > ~11， a collection of the best lines to emerge from these often<br > nasly exchanges. Every now and then， especially during<br > election time， columnists lament the death of the insult. While<br > this may be true in politics-American politics， at any rate--<br > it is most certainly not the case in our other national pastime.<br > The insult is alive and flourishing in baseball today.<br > On the whole， baseball invective is fairly sophisticated too.<br >Many put-downs are， of course， unprintable or of the aw-so s-<br >your-old-man variety， but plenty are sharp， bitchy and even<br >wise. Oscar Wilde or Dorothy Parker， if they d been baseball<br >fans， might have been pleased to take credit for some of the<br >cracks on these pages. Surely， they are as vicious as anything<br >those two ever said.<br > 3i~e casual fan might be surprised at how downright hostile<br >I - ~f~l:，aJl pe~.，pl~， can be. Away kom the cameras， things can<br >I~ ，-，~ hoL Tempers ge~ out of hand， harsh words fly. When<br > ~ ~ ， o~，1， z，l)oh:，gies (or denials) are issued， and a happy<br > ; ..J th， e~，Orc affair. Lel the public relations crowd<br >