With Stephen King failing to deliver readers his much anticipated new book of horror, "The General Manager Who Gave Tom Gordon a Longterm Contract," the baseball publishing event of the past winter was Scott Boras's 70-page brochure on Alex Rodriguez. I'm still waiting for Amazon.com to discount it 40 percent, but apparently the tome told the Dickensian saga of a shortstop's struggles for a $252 million contract after a life spent toiling in the blacking warehouses of the major leagues ("Chapter One: I am born'").

Fortunately, a new season is upon us, and with it, the traditional flurry of new baseball books hitting shelves as if thrown there by Chuck Knoblauch. And no doubt, many of them will gather as much dust as Jose Canseco.

After all, was the reading public screaming for Don Zimmer's autobiography, "Zim"'? Or "Bob Feller's Little Black Book of Baseball Wisdom?" Or yet another collection of Yogi Berra quotes? At least we can be grateful that there is no sequel to Darryl Strawberry's 1999 self-help book, "Recovering Life." (What was the publisher thinking when it signed off on that one?)

Fortunately, there is much worth reading. Probably the season's most eagerly awaited book is Roger Angell's collaboration with David Cone, "A Pitcher's Story," due in May. Given the writer, the player and the subject, that promises to be a classic, but even so it may not be the year's best baseball book.

That's because the best baseball book in years, "The Duke of Havana," by Steve Fainaru and Ray Sanchez, is already in stores. As the title suggests, the subject is Yankees pitcher Orlando Hernandez, but what makes this book so good and so engrossing is that it is about so much more than baseball.

While "The Duke of Havana" relates El Duque's remarkable escape from Cuba in scrupulous, dramatic detail (despite later suspicion, the boat story was essentially as Hernandez first described it), the book also examines life in Cuba after the collapse of the Soviet Union, U.S.-Cuban relations, the Miami Cuban community and its influence on U.S. policy and agent Joe Cubas' occasionally shady negotiations with Cuban players.

El Duque can occasionally come off as difficult and uncommunicative to reporters he doesn't know and who don't speak his language. But Fainaru (a former baseball beat writer and Latin American correspondent) and Sanchez earned his trust over the years, visiting him when he still lived in a cinderblock shack in Havana and was a lonely, frustrated pitcher banned by the Cuban government from official competition. It was that 1996 suspension that eventually drove El Duque to leave Cuba, but before he did, he stayed close to the game by playing in a neighborhood league with such little equipment that one game had to be halted when the lone bat broke.

Because of the years spent following Hernandez and their considerable reporting skills, the authors provide readers revealing glimpses into El Duque's life, plus those of his family and friends. That includes Fainaru's search for and first meeting with the father of Orlando and Livan Hernandez -- the original El Duque, who was a famed pitcher in Cuba.

" 'Did you meet Marlon?' (El Duque Sr. asked about his youngest son). I said that indeed I had, adding that he looked like an athlete. El Duque then dispelled the notion that the Cuban government could prevent his fourth son from becoming a major league player.

" 'This one,' El Duque said proudly, 'this one is for the Cleveland Indians.' "

After a thorough, gripping account of El Duque's life in Cuba and with the Yankees, the book fittingly closes with a poignant debate among his friends about whether life was better in Cuba and whether the pitcher was more secure there. The answer, like so many things with El Duque, is not as simple as it first appears.

I could go on about this book like Steve Stone during a rain delay, but just do yourself a favor. Buy "The Duke of Havana," even if it means delaying a purchase of your favorite team's weekend special alternate road cap. For the same price, you can buy yourself a ticket to an extraordinary land and a fascinating story.

Box score line of the spring
There were some dandies the past week. Four days after Hideo Nomo's no-hitter, Pedro Martinez took a no-no into the sixth inning. Andy Benes, Matt Morris and Steve Trachsel became the first three pitchers of the season to allow 10 runs in a game. Curt Schilling pitched a two-hitter to beat Kevin Brown in a pitcher's duel in which only 43 pitches of 181 total pitches were out of the strike zone. And after holding Mark McGwire and the Cardinals scoreless on opening day, Mike Hampton found out what pitching in Colorado is all about Sunday when he allowed nine runs and 11 hits, while hitting his first career home run.

But this week's award goes to Seattle's Edgar Martinez, who went to the plate five times against Oakland on Tuesday night and wound up with this minimalist line:

1 AB, 1 R, 1 H, 1 RBI

In addition to homering, Edgar walked four times. In his first four games against Oakland this season, he's reached base 17 times in 19 plate appearances -- nine hits and eight walks. Evidently, the Athletics are pitching him carefully, but not carefully enough.

Lies, damn lies and statistics
The Twins entered Wednesday with a two-game lead in the AL Central. While it's very early, that's still the biggest lead they've had this late in the season in nine years. Minnesota hasn't been in first place after April 24 since August 1992. ... Nice opening week for Japan. Ichiro became the first Japanese position player in major-league history, homering and hitting .379. Tsuyoshi Shinjo became the second position player and hit a home run. The Red Sox opened the season with two Japanese pitchers in the starting rotation. Nomo no-hit the Orioles. Kazu Sasaki saved three games. And Kansas City's Mac Suzuki won his first start. ... It's a small world. When Ichiro hit his first home run, he hit it against President Bush's former team and off Jeff Zimmerman, a Canadian who began his professional career in France. ... Ichiro, however, was not the first Japanese player to homer in the majors. Nomo homered in 1998. ... By the way, there is a book in Japan on Shinjo and his decision to go to the major leagues, the title of which roughly translates to "Shinjo is Not a Moron." ... You thought Ken Griffey Jr. got off to a slow start in Cincinnati last year? Limited strictly to a pinch-hitting role due to his sore hamstring, Junior opened this season with a six-game hitless steak. He entered Wednesday still looking for his first hit of 2001. ... Early recessionary signs, declining interesting, bad weather or just a couple fluky days? Hard to say this early but there were some interesting attendance figures from baseball's first week. Cleveland's home sellout streak ended at 455 games when it was 10,000 fans under capacity for both the second and third games of the season. Baltimore likewise was down by 10,000-plus after opening day. Florida's poor attendance continued when the Marlins drew just 8,493 fans for their third game. And despite the Expos' good start, Montreal drew just 5,776 for Monday's game and 8,314 for Tuesday's game. ... How much of an effect has John Hart had in Cleveland? When he started in late September 1991, the team averaged 13,000 fans a game. It sold out Jacobs Field the past six years. It lost 107 games and finished 34 games back in 1991, and has gone 779-610 with five division titles while finishing 36 games ahead of every team in its division since then.

From left field
For two decades, the two givens to the Pittsburgh skyline were the steel mills and the towering Willie Stargell. The last of the mills left a couple years ago, and sadly, Pops departed this week, the same day Pittsburgh opened its new stadium.

Stargell, who began his career before free agency and ended it after the first million-dollar ballplayer, was a rarity in baseball, no matter the era: a player who spent his entire career with one team. How Stargell's 21 years in Pittsburgh stack up against the others who never had to submit a change of address form to the U.S. Postal Service:

Player	Team	Years
Brooks Robinson	Baltimore Orioles	23, 1955-1977
Carl Yastrzemski	Boston Red Sox	23, 1961-1983
Cap Anson	Chicago Cubs (Colts)	22, 1876-1897
Stan Musial	St. Louis Cardinals	22, 1941-1944, 1946-1963
Al Kaline	Detroit Tigers	22, 1953-1974
Met Ott	New York Giants	22, 1926-1947
Walter Johnson	Washington Senators	21, 1907-1927
Ted Lyons	Chicago White Sox	21, 1923-1942, 1946
Willie Stargell	Pittsburgh Pirates	21, 1962-1982
George Brett	Kansas City Royals	21, 1973-1993
Cal Ripken	Baltimore Orioles	21, 1981-present

Not too surprisingly, all the above are in the Hall of Fame, except for Ripken, who will be. You don't hang around in one place that long without being very, very good.

Win Blake Stein's money
This week's category: Unfortunately, Pittsburgh's Awful Bumblebee Uniforms Kept Him From Winning A Best-Dressed Player Award As Well.

Q. Who was the only player to be a league MVP, playoff MVP and World Series MVP in the same season?

Power rankings

1. Tiger Woods Next win: the Krypton Pro-Am.

2. Japan Historic week of grand accomplishment in U.S. is tempered by opening of "Pokemon 3."

3. Expos In Montreal, no one can hear you win.

4. Willie Stargell Heaven dumps harp music for Sister Sledge's 'We Are Family.'

5. Twins Off to Minnesota's best start since Mary Richards walked into WJM offices.

6. Yankees N.Y. falls half-game out; Steinbrenner considers firing Torre, digging up Billy.

7. China New demands: U.S. apology, increased minutes for Wang Zhizhi.

8. Mark McGwire Surgeons must have used kryptonite stitches with that knee operation.

9. Florida But there's still hope -- Supreme Court is reviewing Rays, Marlins opening week losses.

10. Napster Compromise: You can still download the Carpenters.

Voice of summer
"He didn't just hit pitchers, he took away their dignity."
-- Don Sutton on Stargell

Jim Caple is a Senior Writer for ESPN.com.