As seasoned baseball fans know, there's considerably more going on between the lines on the diamond than may be readily apparent.

Paul Dickson (right)  has written  more than 50 non-fiction books and countless articles on subjects from toasting to ice cream to baseball to slang to Sputnik. He says he wrote this book because he became interested in learning more about the "covert aspects" of the game of baseball.

One way in which modern major league baseball differs from the game of years past is the role of the umpires. Dickson says they are now coached to maintain a much lower profile than they once maintained.