— Wes Westrum (1922–2002), former major league catcher

On Monday, April 2, Major League Baseball’s regular season began. The Detroit Tigers, winners of the 2006 American League Championship Series, took on the Toronto Blue Jays. The Milwaukee Brewers faced the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Tampa Bay Devil Rays hosted the New York Yankees. The Kansas City Royals battled the Boston Red Sox. For all who rue the end of the postseason and suffer the slow slog to spring training, it’s time to cheer. Baseball is back.

With the 162-game season in full swing (pun intended), the timing is perfect for the release of Zack Hample’s fantastic “Watching Baseball Smarter” — a snappy, quick-witted and succinct guide to a complete understanding of baseball’s rules, strategies, slang, fundamentals, statistics and history. Written for the novice as much as for the seasoned fan, “Watching Baseball Smarter” is full of anecdotes and quips, things to look for to enhance your baseball-watching experience whether you’re at the game or viewing it on television, fun facts and trivia.

Here are some of the particulars that Hample (“How to Snag Major League Baseballs,” 1999) scatters throughout his book.

A major league baseball lasts on average only six pitches and the average team goes through 36,000 balls per season. President Jimmy Carter is the only president since William Howard Taft who hasn’t opened at least one season with a ceremonial pitch. (Taft is credited with beginning this tradition in 1910.) At Coors Field in Denver, Colo., the one row of purple seats in the upper deck indicates that you are sitting one mile above sea level. Ron Blomberg of the Yankees was the first designated hitter, the DH being a players position adopted by the American League in 1973 to improve offense, boost attendance and appease fans who had apparently gotten bored seeing pitchers dominate the game in the 1960s. (Incidentally, Blomberg is the manager of Bet Shemesh, one of the six teams belonging to the newly formed Israeli Baseball League, which will have its season opener on June 24, and former Red Sox general manager, Dan Duquette, as its director of baseball operations.)

When talking about the sport’s essential elements, Hample teaches you how to calculate a batter’s OPS — a stat that stands for on-base-plus-slugging average. He lists — in verse — 143 ways to hit a baseball. He includes the “Fair Ball Quiz” for you to test your umpiring skills. (Okay, ready? Here’s Question 10: A line drive hits the pitcher’s shoe and ricochets into foul territory between first and home. Is the ball fair or foul?)

Hample explains what a “human rain delay” is and what fans do when the home team needs to put up a “crooked number.” He defines the 55-footer, the 5.5 hole and the 12-to-6. He tells you why a manager prefers to have a lefty at bat when his runner tries to steal base and why you’ll never see a lefty playing second base, third base or shortstop.

And when it comes to his chapter on base running, Hample concedes that if you already know the difference between a tag-out and a force-out, you might be inclined to skip the section that discusses the rule.

“Don’t,” he suggests. “Even a simple rule like this can get tricky.”

Hample does this type of advising throughout his book. He plays the chipper and confidant instructor who really wants you to learn baseball’s nitty-gritty. He lays out his lessons well in language that is plain and frequently quite funny. His enthusiasm for baseball is apparent, as is his mastery.

“[I]n order to appreciate baseball — to be a true fan or at least fool the die-hards — you need to know [everything that’s part of the game],” Hample writes. “Most fans know that the batter is awarded first when he gets hit by a pitch. But most fans don’t know exactly how much it hurts. They … can’t tell you the first team to wear helmets and they have no idea when the single earflap became a required addition. Yeah, this stuff is dorky, but it’s part of the fun. Instead of reading a brief explanation of the infield fly rule and stopping there, why not learn a few obscure facts about it? That way, when some baseball snob tries to test you knowledge by throwing it in your face, you’ll have a little ammunition to throw back.”

During my research for this review I visited Hample’s Web site, www.zackhample.com. Listed in its FAQs section is the following Q&A about “Watching Baseball Smarter”:

Q: Did you do research for your new book or did you already know everything?

A: I thought I knew just about everything when I started the project, and I was wrong. I ended up doing lots of research and learned some amazing things in the process.

Hample’s statement piqued my curiosity. His command of the rule book is so absolute that I wanted to know what new things he discovered. So I e-mailed him and asked if he would elaborate. Hample quickly and graciously responded.

In a way, I consider my life of baseball to have been research for this book, but beyond that, I did lots of research online and cross-checked facts in “The Baseball Encyclopedia” and other sources. I even did some research in person at games. For example, I'd always wondered what it meant when the home plate umpire looked at the ballboy and held up a few fingers. I couldn't find the answer anywhere, and the announcers never mentioned it on TV, so I went to Shea Stadium and snuck down to the seats behind the plate and actually asked the umps as they walked off the field after the final out ... and I got my answer: the fingers indicate how many more balls the ump needs. Stuff like that.

Before I started writing the book, I didn’t even know the exact way to measure the strike zone (which, looking back, is kind of embarrassing). By taking a closer look at the baseball rule book, I learned that after the batter gets into his stance, the hollow below his kneecaps marks the bottom of the zone, while the midpoint between his belt and the tops of his shoulders marks the top. It's amazing how few baseball fans know this.

And there's all kinds of trivia I learned while researching. Last player to hit two back-to-back homers in one game? First player to pitch ambidextrously in one game? Only player with a losing record to win the Cy Young Award? How much Charlie Sheen paid for the ball that trickled between Buckner's legs?

Interesting stuff, eh? Inevitably, our correspondence turned toward the home team — the much-loved Red Sox. I could not resist asking this friendly fount of information what he thought of the pitching phenom, Daisuke Matsuzaka, a.k.a., Dice-K. Hample answered:

I think Matsuzaka will have a solid year, or at least half a year. When teams start seeing him for a second time, he might hit a wall. Also, since the Japanese season is shorter, I expect him to get fatigued by September unless Francona keeps his pitch counts waaay [sic] down which, if he does, will mean that Dice-K won’t win as many games because he won't be going that deep into them. I predict he'll win 16, have an ERA of 4.09 and strike out 197 batters.

If you’re having trouble interpreting Hample’s remarks, seek out without delay “Watching Baseball Smarter.” Before you know it, you’ll be figuring out your favorite slugger’s OBP and looking for your favorite pitcher’s knuckle-curve. If you’re someone who grasps Hemple’s intricacies, my directive is the same. Explore this amusing and terrifically instructive book. As Hample states in his preface: “You’ll find stuff you didn’t know.”

Amy O’Loughlin is a native of Clinton and a regular columnist for MotherTown.