In New York: Big League Fantasies

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As the meeting breaks up -- it is the only time during the season the owners ever see one another face to face in a group -- the postmortems are immediately held. The Amaros are still the favorites, but they didn't put it away with Rickey; the Nova, the Hackers and the BB Guns are going to be tough; the pesky Moose Factory will probably be there at the end, as usual. Prices for the best players were surprisingly high, everyone agrees, and there were amazing bargains at the end. "I feel we've created a misshapen monster," says Patton, who contributed two chapters on intelligent pricing to Golenbock's book, then saw them contradicted by frenetic, trading-floor reality.

As the season progresses, a new phase of the game will begin -- trading. Phones will ring at all hours. Wives will issue ultimatums. Owners traveling in Europe, Asia or northern Canada will search desperately for box scores. The circulation of USA Today, the best day-to-day source of baseball intelligence, will soar. Thousands of man-hours will be expended thinking about baseball, talking about baseball and contemplating baseball. But until tomorrow, when the major leagues start play, things will be quiet. "You've read the book," quips the Tooners' Larry Fine, traded by Reuters from New York to London during the off-season. "Now play the game."