Before the modern era, the closest fans could get to big-league action during the long winters was sitting around the hot stove in general stores and barber shops, exchanging bits of baseball history and anecdotes from the uplifting to the unseemly. These fascinating true stories are collected in The Hot Stove League, and they chronicle everything from the first electrically illuminated night game and Babe Ruth’s legendary gluttony to such curiosities as why some of the most populous states produce the fewest major league players.