Download or read book A Clever Base ballist written by Bryan Di Salvatore and published by Pantheon. This book was released on 1999 with total page 520 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Baseball is not a Summer snap, but a business.... A player is not a sporting man. He is hired to do certain work and do it as well as he possibly can." John Montgomery Ward, nineteenth-century America's most-talked-about (both reviled and applauded) baseball player, spoke these words shortly after the failure of the great player rebellion of 1890, a revolution Ward almost singlehandedly fomented. That year, four out of every five National Leaguers, taking great economic risk, deserted professional baseball's establishment to create an "outlaw" rival organization: The Players' League. Team owners, the players felt, treated them like chattel: they "dished saltpeter in their sidemeat and gave them shameful financial beatings if they misbehaved," writes Bryan Di Salvatore in this fascinating, rigorous, and brisk biography. A Clever Base-Ballist is also a keenly observant narrative of late nineteenth-century America. In it can be found the likes of Mark Twain, Hawaii's King Kalakuau, and Moses Fleetwood Walker, the major league's first black player. It travels from the groaning boards of Delmonico's restaurant to the boisterous pages of the 1880s entertainment press to the Egyptian desert, where the target of one thrown baseball was the Sphinx's right eye. Handsome, erudite, and brilliantly talented, Ward made front-page headlines across the country when he married New York actress Helen Dauvray. And when they weren't branding him a terrorist, owners trumpeted the college-educated Ward as the sport's premier role model. An unblinking antidote to "good-old-days" syndrome, A Clever Base-Ballist is an accessible, compelling, and unconventional biography of anunconventional and, until now, obscure American.

Download or read book The Great Baseball Revolt written by Robert B. Ross and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 2016-04-01 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Players League, formed in 1890, was a short-lived professional baseball league controlled and owned in part by the players themselves, a response to the National League’s salary cap and “reserve rule,” which bound players for life to one particular team. Led by John Montgomery Ward, the Players League was a star-studded group that included most of the best players of the National League, who bolted not only to gain control of their wages but also to share ownership of the teams. Lasting only a year, the league impacted both the professional sports and the labor politics of athletes and nonathletes alike. The Great Baseball Revolt is a historic overview of the rise and fall of the Players League, which fielded teams in Boston, Brooklyn, Buffalo, Chicago, Cleveland, New York, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh. Though it marketed itself as a working-class league, the players were underfunded and had to turn to wealthy capitalists for much of their startup costs, including the new ballparks. It was in this context that the league intersected with the organized labor movement, and in many ways challenged by organized labor to be by and for the people. In its only season, the Players League outdrew the National League in fan attendance. But when the National League overinflated its numbers and profits, the Players League backers pulled out. The Great Baseball Revolt brings to life a compelling cast of characters and a mostly forgotten but important time in professional sports when labor politics affected both athletes and nonathletes.

Download or read book Moments in Baseball History written by Mark R. Brewer and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2022-11-29 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: No other sport can begin to compare to the rich history and statistical record of baseball. It is part of what makes the game so alluring. In “Moments in Baseball History,” Mark R. Brewer examines twenty-two memorable games and the player at the center of that game. It should prove a feast for baseball fans.

Download or read book Baseball s Radical for All Seasons written by David Stevens and published by American Sports History. This book was released on 1998 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first biography of one of the most adventurous and influential figures in baseball history.

Download or read book The Culture and Ethnicity of Nineteenth Century Baseball written by Jerrold I. Casway and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2017-05-29 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Evolving in an urban landscape, professional baseball attracted a dedicated fan base among the inhabitants of major cities, including ethnic and racial minorities, for whom the game was a vehicle for assimilation. But to what extent were these groups welcomed within the world of baseball, and what effect did their integration--or, as in the case of African Americans, their ultimate inability to integrate--have on the culture of a pastime that had recently become a national obsession? How did their mutual striving for acceptance affect relations between these minorities? (In deep and long-lasting ways, as it turns out.) This book provides a carefully considered portrait of baseball as both a sporting profession--one with quick-changing rules and roles--and as an institution that reinforced popular ideas about cultural identity, masculinity and American exceptionalism.

Download or read book Addie Joss on Baseball written by Addie Joss and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2014-01-10 with total page 347 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Addie Joss (1880-1911) mowed down batters for the Cleveland Broncos/Naps from 1902 to 1910 before his career was cut short by his tragic death from tubercular meningitis in 1911. With a career ERA of 1.89 and two no-hitters, Joss earned Hall of Fame election despite a career that lasted less than ten years, the only player to do so. In the off-season, Joss also excelled as a sportswriter for the Toledo News-Bee and the Cleveland Press, filling the empty winter months penning stories about the game he knew firsthand. This collection of Joss's newspaper columns and World Series reports is a treasury of the deadball era with intimate first-person observations of the game and its players from the first decade of the American League. Informative annotations, archival photographs, and a brief biography complete the work.

Download or read book Labor and Capital in 19th Century Baseball written by Robert P. Gelzheiser and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2006-01-16 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This work explores the early history of professional baseball in the United States, the factors that contributed to the player rebellion of 1890, and the rebellion's impact on the player-owner relationship. Appendices include a roster of the 1869 Cincinn

Download or read book Clark Griffith Baseball s Statesman written by Brian McKenna and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2010-06-05 with total page 375 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Full-length biography of baseball Hall of Famer Clark Griffith, famed pitcher, manager and executive whose career spanned eight decades from the 1880s until his death in 1955.Clark Griffith was an integral part of much of the early history of the major leagues. His accomplishments within the game were varied: winning pitcher in over 230 games; unionizating; relief pitching; a founder of the American League; pennant-winning manager; integration; founder of the New York Yankees; long-time manager, executive and owner of the Washington Senators.

Download or read book Historical Dictionary of Baseball written by Lyle Spatz and published by Scarecrow Press. This book was released on 2012-12-21 with total page 505 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dating back to 1869 as an organized professional sport, the game of baseball is not only the oldest professional sport in North America, but also symbolizes much more. Walt Whitman described it as “our game, the American game,” and George Will compared calling baseball “just a game” to the Grand Canyon being “just a hole.” Countless others have called baseball “the most elegant game,” and to those who have played it, it’s life. The Historical Dictionary of Baseball is primarily devoted to the major leagues it also includes entries on the minor leagues, the Negro Leagues, women’s baseball, baseball in various other countries, and other non-major league related topics. It traces baseball, in general, and these topics individually, from their beginnings up to the present. This is done through a chronology, an introductory essay, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 900 cross-referenced entries on the roles of the players on the field—batters, pitchers, fielders—as well as non-playing personnel—general managers, managers, coaches, and umpires. There are also entries for individual teams and leagues, stadiums and ballparks, the role of the draft and reserve clause, and baseball’s rules, and statistical categories. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about the sport of baseball.

Download or read book Jews and Baseball written by Burton A. Boxerman and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2014-10-10 with total page 644 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Long before Hank Greenberg earned recognition as baseball's greatest Jewish player, Jews had developed a unique, and very close, relationship with the American pastime. In the late nineteenth century, as both the American Jewish population and baseball's popularity grew rapidly, baseball became an avenue by which Jewish immigrants could assimilate into American culture. Beyond the men (and, later, women) on the field, in the dugout, and at the front office, the Jewish community produced a huge base of fans and students of the game. This important book examines the interrelated histories of baseball and American Jews to 1948--the year Israel was established, the first full season that both major leagues were integrated, and the summer that Hank Greenberg retired. Covered are the many players, from Pike to Greenberg, as well as the managers, owners, executives, writers, statisticians, manufacturers and others who helped forge a bond between baseball and an emerging Jewish culture in America. Key reasons for baseball's early appeal to Jews are examined, including cultural assimilation, rebellion against perceived Old World sensibilities, and intellectual and philosophical ties to existing Jewish traditions. The authors also clearly demonstrate how both Jews and baseball have benefited from their relationship.

Download or read book Ambassadors in Pinstripes written by Thomas W. Zeiler and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2006 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Inspired and led by sporting magnate Albert Goodwill Spalding, two teams of baseball players circled the globe for six months in 1888-1889 competing in such far away destinations as Australia, Sri Lanka and Egypt. These players, however, represented much more than mere pleasure-seekers. In this lively narrative, Zeiler explores the ways in which the Spalding World Baseball Tour drew on elements of cultural diplomacy to inject American values and power into the international arena. Through his chronicle of baseball history, games, and experiences, Zeiler explores expressions of imperial dreams through globalization's instruments of free enterprise, webs of modern communication and transport, cultural ordering of races and societies, and a strident nationalism that galvanized notions of American uniqueness. Spalding linked baseball to a U.S. presence overseas, viewing the world as a market ripe for the infusion of American ideas, products and energy. Through globalization during the Gilded Age, he and other Americans penetrated the globe and laid the foundation for an empire formally acquired just a decade after their tour.

Download or read book The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract written by Bill James and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2010-05-11 with total page 1026 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Bill James published his original Historical Baseball Abstract in 1985, he produced an immediate classic, hailed by the Chicago Tribune as the “holy book of baseball.” Now, baseball's beloved “Sultan of Stats” (The Boston Globe) is back with a fully revised and updated edition for the new millennium. Like the original, The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract is really several books in one. The Game provides a century's worth of American baseball history, told one decade at a time, with energetic facts and figures about How, Where, and by Whom the game was played. In The Players, you'll find listings of the top 100 players at each position in the major leagues, along with James's signature stats-based ratings method called “Win Shares,” a way of quantifying individual performance and calculating the offensive and defensive contributions of catchers, pitchers, infielders, and outfielders. And there's more: the Reference section covers Win Shares for each season and each player, and even offers a Win Share team comparison. A must-have for baseball fans and historians alike, The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract is as essential, entertaining, and enlightening as the sport itself.

Download or read book The Father of Baseball written by Andrew J. Schiff and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2008-01-28 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Henry Chadwick remains one of the titans of baseball history. As a pioneering baseball journalist and author, an innovator of scorekeeping practices and statistics, and chairman of the first rules committee, Chadwick left an indelible mark on the history of the game. This deeply researched biography is the first book-length work on the Hall of Famer, known at the time of his death as the "Father of Base Ball." It covers Chadwick's driving role in the symbiotic rise of baseball and sports journalism, and demonstrates how Chadwick helped baseball to become firmly established as an American cultural institution. Appendices provide a selected bibliography of Chadwick's writing and a guide for further research.

Download or read book A Game of Inches written by Peter Morris and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2006 with total page 663 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The scope of A Game of Inches is encyclopedic, with nearly a thousand entries that illuminate the origins of items ranging from catchers' masks to hook slides to intentional walks to cork-center baseballs. But this is much more than just a reference guide. Along the way, award-winning author Peter Morris has a sharp eye for the telling quote and the entertaining anecdote. He explains the context that led each new feature of the game to emerge when it did, and chronicles the often surprising responses to these innovations."--BOOK JACKET.

Download or read book The Year Without a World Series written by Robert C. Cottrell and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2023-09-06 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 1994 Major League Baseball season promised to be memorable. Long-standing batting and pitching standards were threatened, including the revered single-season home run record. The Montreal Expos and New York Yankees were delivering remarkable campaigns. In August, acting commissioner Bud Selig called a halt to the season amid the League's latest labor dispute. The shutdown led to a lockout as well as cancellation of more than 900 regular season games, the scheduled expanded rounds of playoffs, and that year's World Series. Like all labor struggles, it was fundamentally about control--of salaries, of players' ability to decide their own fates, and of the game itself. This book chronicles Major League Baseball's turbulent '94 season and its ripple effects. It highlights earlier labor struggles and the roles performed by individuals from John Montgomery Ward, David Fultz and Robert Murphy to Marvin Miller, Andy Messersmith, Jim "Catfish" Hunter and Donald Fehr. Also examined are the ballplayers' own organizations, from the Players League of the early 1890s to the still potent Major League Baseball Players Association doing battle with team owners and their representatives.

Download or read book Big Dan Brouthers written by Roy Kerr and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2013-10-11 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Described as "the Greatest Batsman in the Country" by sportswriters of his era, Dennis "Big Dan" Brouthers compiled a .342 batting average, tying with Babe Ruth for ninth place all-time, and slugged 205 triples, eighth all time, in 16 major league seasons. He won five batting and on-base percentage titles, and seven slugging titles, and was the first player to win batting and slugging crowns in successive years. Although he ranked fourth among nineteenth-century home run hitters, many fair balls he hit into the stands or over the fence were counted only as doubles or triples due to local ground rules. Brouthers was extremely difficult to strike out--in 1889, for example, he did so just six times in 565 plate appearances. He was the first player to be walked intentionally on a regular basis. This comprehensive biography of Dan Brouthers examines his life and career from his youth as an apprentice in a print and dye factory to his final years as an attendant at the Polo Grounds. It corrects numerous errors that have crept into earlier accounts of his life, and clarifies his position as one of the greatest hitters ever to play the game.

Download or read book The Routledge History of American Sport written by Linda J. Borish and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-10-04 with total page 574 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Routledge History of American Sport provides the first comprehensive overview of historical research in American sport from the early Colonial period to the present day. Considering sport through innovative themes and topics such as the business of sport, material culture and sport, the political uses of sport, and gender and sport, this text offers an interdisciplinary analysis of American leisure. Rather than moving chronologically through American history or considering the historical origins of each sport, these topics are dealt with organically within thematic chapters, emphasizing the influence of sport on American society. The volume is divided into eight thematic sections that include detailed original essays on particular facets of each theme. Focusing on how sport has influenced the history of women, minorities, politics, the media, and culture, these thematic chapters survey the major areas of debate and discussion. The volume offers a comprehensive view of the history of sport in America, pushing the field to consider new themes and approaches as well. Including a roster of contributors renowned in their fields of expertise, this ground-breaking collection is essential reading for all those interested in the history of American sport.