A passport to a secret society

If you've spent any time at baseball games, you know that reviling the umpires —  especially if they seem to favor the other team— is a cherished part of the national pastime, like popcorn, hot dogs and warm beer.

But could the millions of baseball fans who think umpires are absurdly overpaid idiots be wrong?

That's the question driving Bruce Weber's new book "As They See 'Em: A Fan's Travels in the Land of Umpires." A New York Times reporter and baseball fan, Weber gives readers a guided tour of what he describes, accurately, as an eccentric secret society with its own rituals and jargon.

Naturally, Weber interviewed professional umpires, baseball players and team managers as part of his research. But he went several steps further by training as an umpire, then spending a season working games from Little League to major-league spring training.

Weber has certainly done a thorough job of reporting, and it shows. His book is crammed full of anecdotes, explanations of jargon and detailed re-creations of infamous calls — there's even a quiz that gives various scenarios, then asks the reader to make the correct call. It's all interesting, but it gets a little overwhelming after a while.

"As They See 'Em" explores every corner of an umpire's world, and it does an excellent job of explaining why umpires play such a crucial role in making sure ball games run smoothly. The author even makes a good case that a good umpire aspires to invisible perfection and should be admired, not scorned.

But midway through the book, I felt as if I were drowing in a sea of arcane information with no life-saver in sight.

If you're a hardcore baseball fan — the type who pores over statistics obsessively and relishes a good argument over obscure bits of baseball lore — then you'll probably savor "As You See 'Em." But if you're only a casual fan, or just interested in learning more about an unfamiliar world, then this book may be more of a chore than a delight.