M ARK TWAIN had an explanation for popularity and influence of baseball during his time. Baseball is very symbol, he wrote, the outward and visible expression of drive and push and rush and struggle of raging, tearing, booming nineteenth century. A contemporary writer, Jacques Barzun, also testified to importance of baseball in American life when he wrote, Whoever wants to know heart and mind of America had better learn baseball, rules and realities of game .. . In spite of twentiethcentury competition of football and basketball, baseball remains our most popular game, at least in opinion of a historian such as Bruce Catton (see The Great American Game, American Heritage, April 1959) and according to a poll of persons attending New York World's Fair. Since it is an important part of our culture, it has been inevitable that influence and popularity of sport would be reflected in American literature. American writers have had