Famous author Mark Harris died at the age of 84 on May 30. He was best known for his baseball novels, including his most famous, “Bang the Drum Slowly”, which was eventually created into a 1973 movie starring Robert DeNiro. Harris wrote five nonfiction books, thirteen fiction novels, and he took baseball very seriously. He died one month after breaking his hip and catching pneumonia at Cottage Hospital, and his wife said that he had Alzheimer's disease. Another author by the name of Cordelia Candelaria said that "He's [Harris] every bit as permanent and important as Huckleberry Finn, as Ishmael and Ahab in 'Moby Dick,' and as Nick Adams in Hemingway's short stories,". In 1994, Harris spoke to the Los Angeles Times, saying, “I can't stand fantasy, especially in baseball. It has to be real for me. I think people make fantasy of it who don't know how it works realistically. That is a demand I made when I was a kid -- that baseball has to be done right.” A collection of Harris’ most famous novels was published in 1994, and it was titled “Diamond”, referring to the “diamond” shape of a baseball field.