I'm 23 and last year I started to really get into MLB. I've never
really been into any sport ever, and although Baseball has grabbed my
attention at different points in my life, I never became a baseball
nut or anything. But since I'm now living in Chicago and want to
attend a lot of games this season, I want to start really developing
my knowledge of the sport as a whole in terms of history, strategies,
players, fantasy baseball, etc.

My question is, what are like the best videos or books or websites or
magazines you know of that is great for a newbie to the sport to read?
(even if it is out of print, I can probably track it down). Also, are
there things baseball fanatics do besides following the game (ex.
collecting baseball cards, memorobilia, joining certain sites/forums,
etc.) that would REALLY help me become an expert at the sport rather
than just a casual viewer?

Scottcc --

There are many ways to enjoy baseball, from collecting memorabilia to
following statistics.  You'll probably find that few fans follow the
game in more than a couple of dimensions.

Each MLB team has one or two fan discussion sites that tend to
dominate discussions.  Since Chicago has a couple of choices, you can
use Google in a search like the following to help identify the
most-popular:
"Chicago Cubs" baseball forum

I can tell you from experience that the most-popular White Sox site is here:
http://www.whitesoxinteractive.com/

For the statistically-minded, the Society of American Baseball
Research (SABR) is the enter of the universe.  It is often difficult
to digest some of the more-esoteric debates, so you may wish to join a
SABR discussion group:
http://www.sabr.org/

Scout.com, a popular fan site, has an excellent discussion group about
Sabermetrics:
http://mb7.scout.com/bbaseball

Many baseball fans enjoy watching what's going on with prospects
coming up from the minor leagues (and Chicago's lucky enough to have a
Class A team in Geneva:
http://www.kccougars.com/

The publication that follows minor league prospects and even draftees
from the ranks of high school and college players is Baseball America.
 It's a subscription site that's well worth the price but it also has
substantial content available for free:
http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/

Personally, I like to follow the business of baseball.  There's an
excellent site run by Maury Brown that does that -- and it covers a
substantial amount of history:
http://www.businessofbaseball.com/

Other publications that cover the business side of the sport well are
Forbes and USA Today, so you may wish to use Google to probe the
resources on those sites.  You can use the Google toolbar or Advanced
search to look up topics on a site like Forbes.com or use a format
like the following:
site:www.forbes.com baseball

Here are a couple of great reference sites:
Baseball Reference
http://www.baseball-reference.com/

Digital Ballparks
http://www.digitalballparks.com/

ESPN's At Bat Song List
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page3/story?page=atbatsongs/index

The Physics of Baseball
http://www.npl.uiuc.edu/~a-nathan/pob/

Retrosheet
http://www.retrosheet.org/index.html

The Baseball Archive
http://www.baseball1.com/

Finally, suggesting a book would take you in as many dimensions as
these suggested web pages.  You'll probably find different books
piquing your interest as you learn more.  I'd probably recommend
Michael Lewis' "Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game" as worth
reading.  It still generates controversy, even though most teams have
adopted many of Billy Beane's techniques of managing a team:
http://www.wwnorton.com/catalog/spring04/032481.htm 

Best regards,

Omnivorous-GA

I know a lot of people don't care for him, but Tim McCarver wrote a
book a few years ago called "Baseball for Brain Surgeons and Other
Fans" (I think that's the title).  It is a very good introduction into
the different pitches, hitting, base running, defense, managing
strategies and what to look at when you're watching a game.

Baseball Movies

Bull Durham
Baseball: a film by Ken Burns
Eight Men Out
When it was a Game
The Natural
Talent for the Game
61*
Pride of the Yankees
The Natural
Mr. Baseball
Major League
A League of Their Own
Bingo Long and the Traveling All-Stars
For Love of the Game
Field of Dreams
Cobb
Bang the Drum Slowly
Bad News Bears
The Babe

Major reference sites

http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/index.jsp

http://www.mlb4u.com/index.php

http://www.looksmartbaseball.com/p/search?qt=mLB+Rosters

http://www.baseball-almanac.com/

http://www.baseballstadiums.net/

http://www.worldstadiums.com/


Baseball Library

Babe: The Legend Comes to Life, Robert Creamer 
Ball Four, Jim Bouton 
The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract, Bill James 
Nice Guys Finish Last, Leo Durocher w/Ed Linn 
Game Time: A Baseball Companion, Roger Angell 
The Pitch That Killed, Mike Sowell 
Total Baseball, ed. John Thorn
The Baseball Encyclopedia eds. Pete Palmer and Gary Gillette 
Shoeless Joe by W. P. Kinsella
October 1964 by David Halberstam
Summer of '49 by David Halberstam
Men at Work : The Craft of Baseball by George F. Will
The Long Season by Jim Brosnan 	 
The Boys of Summer by Roger Kahn
Veeck--As In Wreck : The Autobiography of Bill Veeck by Bill Veeck

You need the rules for the game too.
Search with:  baseball rules 
and pick a site.

I don't mean to sound insipid, but most of the games enjoyment comes
from knowledge picked up while playing the game.  At 23 there are
bound to be many house-leagues in the Chicago area that you can join. 
Should you not be physically capable enough, try umpiring at a junior
level or offering to be a bat boy.  Or, if you have money, try to
offer to buy a teams uniforms or bats in exchange for sitting in the
dugout.  Once there, you will discover the real game that fans who
haven't played don't notice.
 
For instance, if a catcher is stung by a foul ball, it is expected
that an umpire will buy the catcher time by either dusting the plate
off or even talking to one of the coaches.  It is done in a way so
that the catcher does not have to admit that he is in an excrutiating
amount of pain.  If an umpire is stung, the catcher will do the proper
thing and pretend to need to have a discussion with the pitcher. 
Again, he is buying time to protect the ego and pride of the official.

Like many sports, it is not the rules or the stats, but the etiquette
that reveals the most about the game and the individuals that have
made it their life's work.

Good luck and Play Ball.