We're all reading W. P. Kinsella's classic baseball novel, Shoeless Joe, not because Mayor Marilyn Strickland demands it as part of the community reading initiative Tacoma Reads Together, but because it's about dreams and hope and trust and the fulfillment of long-buried desires.

But, the book is also about this country's beloved national past time, baseball. We love the sport because we live everyday with our team. We grind through slumps with our hitters, feel the agony of errors, argue balls and strikes, and labor pitch after pitch. It can be such a slow, and boring game for many, but to all of us, it is one of the most beautiful displays of strategy and gamesmanship.

It's not all fun and games, at least according to the professionals who play the game. Grueling travel schedules, the day-to-day routine, the loneliness and the fear you could be traded or dropped grinds on the players.

At 7 p.m. inside the Tacoma Public Library Downtown Branch, in conjunction with Tacoma Reads Together, former professional baseball players Jim Nettles, Doug Sisk, John Pregenzer and Wes Stock will share stories and take questions from moderator and broadcaster Bob Robertson as part of a community conversation about baseball.

[Tacoma Public Library Downtown Branch, Monday, April 16, 7 p.m., free,1102 Tacoma Ave. S., Tacoma, 253.292.2001]