OK. Summer reading time and here’s a late suggestion to the reading list if it’s not already there: “The Only Game in Town” by former MLB Commissioner Fay Vincent.

If you are a baseball fan, a history fan or just like a good read in the words of some wonderful baseball players who happen to be decent human beings as well, this one will not wither in the summer sun.

Vincent has set about to record an oral history of baseball in the 1930s and ’40s. Says Vincent in the introduction, “I was keenly aware that some important figures in the history of the integration of baseball, such as Larry Doby, were growing older and their stories would soon be lost forever.”

This book is a portion of the oral history taken from such players and it is as real as it gets.

There is much here about the game as it played on during World War II and what the baseball cost was to future Hall of Famers who served, without reservation, losing their best game years for the cause.

The Red Sox are prominent in this book. Johnny Pesky, still in uniform in the Red Sox clubhouse today, tells yet new Ted Williams stories and names his greatest players list, with Willie Mays at the top.

Sox outfielder Dom DiMaggio remembers what it was like to have all his great days in the game measured against his brother Joe. As if that wasn’t enough to be measured by, he played in the outfield with Ted Williams.

Dom, by the words of those who saw him play, was as good an outfielder as ever roamed the yards, and maybe the most overlooked. As the book notes, Casey Stengel, the player and Hall of Fame manager of the Yankees for whom Joe DiMaggio played, said, “With the possible exception of his brother Dom, Joe is the best outfielder in the league.”

The pages are filled with the words of Larry Doby, the first African American in the American League, the memories of Bob Feller coming from the farm and becoming a sensation as a pitcher while still a teenager, and the sheer joy of Buck O’Neil in his love for the game.

There are a group of terrible statistics today that make their way into baseball stories and broadcasts: rankings among active players. They are numbers that are dismissive of the game’s history and of the men whose achievements fill the record books.

The leader among active players in hits means nothing. Show me where he stands in the history of the game and we’ll see if he deserves mention.

Any idea that the former stars of the game were somehow less as players is ludicrous. Any idea that they were less as people or stars is quickly crushed by the intensity and decency of their expressions found in the pages of this gem.

Vincent says in the book, “It is my hope that you will enjoy these stories as I do because I am convinced that it is these stories that keep the history of baseball alive.”

I believe he is right. Take this one to camp, the beach, the backyard or the reading chair.

Old Town native Gary Thorne is an ESPN and ABC sportscaster.