The official rulebook of Major League Baseball is over two hundred pages long and covers almost anything that could happen in the course of a game. Then there are the implicit rules, or codes, that the players keep in mind, and which often have as great an impact on the game as the formal regulations. Jason Turbow and Michael Duca interviewed dozens players for The Baseball Codes (Anchor, $15). The result is a highly entertaining set of anecdotes explaining why batters get knocked down, when it’s ethically correct to steal a base, whether you should mention no one has gotten a hit yet, and what types of cheating are allowable. This book celebrates the fun, tradition, and idiosyncrasies that make baseball different from all other sports.