Download or read book The Federal League of Base Ball Clubs written by Robert Peyton Wiggins and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2008-09-30 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The last independent major league ended its brief run in 1915, after only two seasons at the national pastime’s top level. But no competitor to establishment baseball ever exerted so much influence on its rival, with some of the most recognizable elements of the game today—including the commissioner system, competition for free agents, baseball’s antitrust exemption, and even the beloved Wrigley Field—traceable to the so-called outlaw organization known as the Federal League of Base Ball Clubs. This comprehensive history covers the league from its formation in 1913 through its buyout, dissolution, and legal battles with the National and American leagues. The day-to-day operation of the franchises, the pennant races and outstanding players, the two-year competitive battle for fans and players, and the short- and long-term impact on the game are covered in detail.

Download or read book The Battle that Forged Modern Baseball written by Daniel R. Levitt and published by Ivan R. Dee. This book was released on 2012-03-09 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In late 1913 the newly formed Federal League declared itself a major league in competition with the established National and American Leagues. Backed by some of America’s wealthiest merchants and industrialists, the new organization posed a real challenge to baseball’s prevailing structure. For the next two years the well-established leagues fought back furiously in the press, in the courts, and on the field. The story of this fascinating and complex historical battle centers on the machinations of both the owners and the players, as the Federals struggled for profits and status, and players organized baseball’s first real union. Award winning author, Daniel R. Levitt gives us the most authoritative account yet published of the short-lived Federal League, the last professional baseball league to challenge the National League and American League monopoly.

Download or read book Major League Baseball in Gilded Age Connecticut written by David Arcidiacono and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2009-12-03 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It's been more than a century since Connecticut had big league baseball, but in the 1870s, Middletown, Hartford, and New Haven fielded professional teams that competed at the highest level. By the end of the decade, when the state's final big league team, Mark Twain's beloved Hartford Dark Blues, left the National League, baseball's transition from amateur pastime to major league sport had been accomplished. And Connecticut had played a significant role in its development. The history of the Nutmeg State's three major league teams is described here in full, and the author thoughtfully examines their influence within the regional baseball scene.

Download or read book Baseball on Trial written by Nathaniel Grow and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 2014-02-15 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The controversial 1922 Federal Baseball Supreme Court ruling held that the "business of base ball" was not subject to the Sherman Antitrust Act because it did not constitute interstate commerce. In Baseball on Trial, legal scholar Nathaniel Grow defies conventional wisdom to explain why the unanimous Supreme Court opinion authored by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, which gave rise to Major League Baseball's exemption from antitrust law, was correct given the circumstances of the time. Currently a billion dollar enterprise, professional baseball teams crisscross the country while the games are broadcast via radio, television, and internet coast to coast. The sheer scope of this activity would seem to embody the phrase "interstate commerce." Yet baseball is the only professional sport--indeed the sole industry--in the United States that currently benefits from a judicially constructed antitrust immunity. How could this be? Drawing upon recently released documents from the National Baseball Hall of Fame, Grow analyzes how the Supreme Court reached this seemingly peculiar result by tracing the Federal Baseball litigation from its roots in 1914 to its resolution in 1922, in the process uncovering significant new details about the proceedings. Grow observes that while interstate commerce was measured at the time by the exchange of tangible goods, baseball teams in the 1910s merely provided live entertainment to their fans, while radio was a fledgling technology that had little impact on the sport. The book ultimately concludes that, despite the frequent criticism of the opinion, the Supreme Court's decision was consistent with the conditions and legal climate of the early twentieth century.

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 273 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. Purchase the audio edition.

Download or read book Major Leagues written by David Pietrusza and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2005-12 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New major leagues have sprung up throughout the history of baseball, both long-term successes (the American and National leagues) and the transitory, of which the Federal League (1914-15) and the Mexican League (1946) were two. Some leagues were born of noble motives (the Union Association, 1884, to abolish the reserve clause); others, farcical (the Global League, 1969). And many were stillborn, never playing that first inning (such as the Continental League, 1959-60). Here is their history and an analysis of the conditions that determined success or failure.

Download or read book The Outlaw League and the Battle That Forged Modern Baseball written by Daniel R. Levitt and published by . This book was released on 2014-04 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Chronicles the 1913-1915 battle between baseball's newly-formed Federal League versus the established National and American leagues, and discusses the short- and long-term impact on the game.

Download or read book Negro League Baseball written by Neil Lanctot and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2011-01-01 with total page 509 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The story of black professional baseball provides a remarkable perspective on several major themes in modern African American history: the initial black response to segregation, the subsequent struggle to establish successful separate enterprises, and the later movement toward integration. Baseball functioned as a critical component in the separate economy catering to black consumers in the urban centers of the North and South. While most black businesses struggled to survive from year to year, professional baseball teams and leagues operated for decades, representing a major achievement in black enterprise and institution building. Negro League Baseball: The Rise and Ruin of a Black Institution presents the extraordinary history of a great African American achievement, from its lowest ebb during the Depression, through its golden age and World War II, until its gradual disappearance during the early years of the civil rights era. Faced with only a limited amount of correspondence and documents, Lanctot consulted virtually every sports page of every black newspaper located in a league city. He then conducted interviews with former players and scrutinized existing financial, court, and federal records. Through his efforts, Lanctot has painstakingly reconstructed the institutional history of black professional baseball, locating the players, teams, owners, and fans in the wider context of the league's administration. In addition, he provides valuable insight into the changing attitudes of African Americans toward the need for separate institutions.

Download or read book Baseball in New Orleans written by S. Derby Gisclair and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2004 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In July of 1859, seventy-five young New Orleanians came together to form the seven teams that comprised the Louisiana Base Ball Club. They played their games in the fields of the de la Chaise estate on the outskirts of New Orleans near present-day Louisiana Avenue. As America's population grew through immigration, so did the popularity of what the largest newspaper in New Orleans, the Daily Picayune, called in November of 1860 "the National Game." Baseball quickly replaced cricket as the city's most popular participant sport. In 1887, local businessmen and promoters secured a minor league franchise for the city of New Orleans in the newly formed Southern League, beginning the city's 73-year love affair with the New Orleans Pelicans. From Shoeless Joe Jackson, to Hall of Famers Dazzy Vance, Joe Sewell, Bob Lemon, and Earl Weaver, to today's stars such as Jeff Cirillo and Lance Berkman, the road to the majors brought many notable players through New Orleans. From these early beginnings to the present-day New Orleans Zephyrs of the AAA Pacific Coast League, local fans have continued the tradition of baseball in New Orleans.

Download or read book In Pursuit of Pennants written by Mark Armour and published by University of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 2018-04-01 with total page 526 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 1936 Yankees, the 1963 Dodgers, the 1975 Reds, the 2010 Giants—why do some baseball teams win while others don’t? General managers and fans alike have pondered this most important of baseball questions. The Moneyball strategy is not the first example of how new ideas and innovative management have transformed the way teams are assembled. In Pursuit of Pennants examines and analyzes a number of compelling, winning baseball teams over the past hundred-plus years, focusing on their decision making and how they assembled their championship teams. Whether through scouting, integration, instruction, expansion, free agency, or modernizing their management structure, each winning team and each era had its own version of Moneyball, where front office decisions often made the difference. Mark L. Armour and Daniel R. Levitt show how these teams succeeded and how they relied on talent both on the field and in the front office. While there is no recipe for guaranteed success in a competitive, ever-changing environment, these teams demonstrate how creatively thinking about one’s circumstances can often lead to a competitive advantage.

Download or read book National Pastime written by Martin C. Babicz and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2017-10-13 with total page 293 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From its modest beginnings in rural America to its current status as an entertainment industry in postindustrial America enjoyed worldwide by millions each season, the linkages between baseball’s evolution and our nation’s history are undeniable. Through war, depression, times of tumultuous upheaval and of great prosperity – baseball has been held up as our national pastime: the single greatest expression of America’s values and ideals. Combining a comprehensive history of the game with broader analyses of America’s historical and cultural developments, National Pastime encapsulates the values that have allowed it to endure: hope, tradition, escape, revolution. While nostalgia, scandal, malaise and triumph are contained within the study of any American historical moment, we see in this book that the tensions and developments within the game of baseball afford the best window into a deeper understanding of America’s past, its purpose, and its principles.

Download or read book America s Game written by Bryan Soderholm-Difatte and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2018-06-08 with total page 505 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This comprehensive survey of major league baseball looks at the national pastime’s legendary figures, major innovations, and pivotal moments, from the beginning of the twentieth century through World War II. In America's Game: A History of Major League Baseball through World War II, Bryan Soderholm-Difatte provides a comprehensive narrative of the major developments and key figures in Major League Baseball, during a time when the sport was still truly the national pastime. Soderholm-Difatte details pivotal moments—including the founding of the American League, the 1919 Black Sox scandal, and navigating the Great Depression and two World Wars—and concludes with a chapter examining the exclusion of black ballplayers from the major leagues. Central personalities covered in this book include baseball executives Judge Landis and Branch Rickey, managers John McGraw and Joe McCarthy, and iconic players such as Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb. America’s Game isn’t simply about celebrating the exploits of great players and teams; it is just as much about the history of Major League Baseball as an institution and the evolution of the game itself. With significant changes taking place in baseball in recent times, this book will remind baseball fans young and old of the rich history of the game.

Download or read book The Portland Beavers written by Kip Carlson and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2004 with total page 138 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When the Pacific Coast League was founded in 1903, the Portland Beavers-then known as the Browns-played in the circuit's first game, a 3-1 road loss to the San Francisco Stars. When the PCL celebrated its centennial season in 2003, Portland was the only city in the league to have been there at the start. The team's alumni include Satchel Paige, Lou Piniella, and Louis Tiant, but even more familiar to Portland fans are players like Eddie Basinski, Roy Hesler, and Bernardo Brito, who spent much of their careers with the Beavers...and groundskeeper Rocky Benevento and broadcaster Rollie Truitt, who each spent over three decades with the ball club. The Portland Beavers samples the first century of the team's history: Walter McCredie's teams that won five pennants from 1906 to 1914; the championship clubs of 1932 and 1936; the last-to-first climb that ended with a PCL title in 1945; the 1983 pennant that came between the team's two departures from Portland; and the return in 2001 that re-established Beavers baseball as a summertime tradition.

Download or read book Grassroots Baseball written by and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2022-05-24 with total page 470 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Just as baseball is at the heart of America, so too is Route 66. This book is a photographic tribute to the national pastime along the artery that stretches from the shores of Lake Michigan, close to where the Cubs play, to the Pacific Ocean at Santa Monica, where baseball memories and players abound. Among the players who will guide readers on the journey will be baseball greats George Brett, Billy Hatcher, Alex Bregman, and Ryan Howard. Leading off will be Johnny Bench of Binger, Oklahoma, and cleaning up will be Jim Thome of Peoria, Illinois. In Grassroots Baseball: Route 66, photographer Jean Fruth weaves more than 250 full-color images of the national pastime along the historic highway into a tapestry that reminds us of the heart and soul of America. Route 66 passes through eight states in its journey to the Pacific, and each chapter opens with a first-person essay by a baseball legend from that locale recounting his early memories of playing the game, and what it was like growing up along the Mother Road. That highway took stars like George Brett, Billy Hatcher, Alex Bregman, Adam LaRoche, and Ryan Howard to faraway places they only dreamed about as kids. Each chapter documents the route they took, from sandlots, ranches, and beaches to ballparks at every level of organized baseball, from Little League games to the World Series. With an introduction by Johnny Bench, a foreword by Mike Veeck, a preface by retired Hall of Fame President Jeff Idelson, and an afterword by Jim Thome, this book touches all the bases for any and every baseball fan.

Download or read book Baseball in the Garden of Eden written by John Thorn and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2012-03-20 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Think you know how the game of baseball began? Think again. Forget Abner Doubleday and Cooperstown. Did baseball even have a father--or did it just evolve from other bat-and-ball games? John Thorn, baseball's preeminent historian, examines the creation story of the game and finds it all to be a gigantic lie. From its earliest days baseball was a vehicle for gambling, a proxy form of class warfare. Thorn traces the rise of the New York version of the game over other variations popular in Massachusetts and Philadelphia. He shows how the sport's increasing popularity in the early decades of the nineteenth century mirrored the migration of young men from farms and small towns to cities, especially New York. Full of heroes, scoundrels, and dupes, this book tells the story of nineteenth-century America, a land of opportunity and limitation, of glory and greed--all present in the wondrous alloy that is our nation and its pastime.--From publisher description.

Download or read book The Last Yankee written by Society for American Baseball Research (Sabr) and published by . This book was released on 1999-01-30 with total page 120 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A collection of articles, essays, statistics, and lore on the game of baseball.

Download or read book Under Pallor Under Shadow written by Bill Felber and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 2011-04-01 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Babe Ruth, in his first season with the Yankees in 1920, was on pace to break the single-season home run record. In August Indians shortstop Ray Chapman was beaned by a pitch thrown by the Yankees? Carl Mays during a game in New York and died the next day. In September a grand jury convened in Chicago, and four White Sox players were called to testify about fixing the 1919 World Series. ø Focusing on the Cleveland Indians, the Chicago White Sox, and the New York Yankees, this book takes us back to a pivotal season when baseball was shaken by tragedy and scandal and when power shifted irretrievably from the teams? owners to a single commissioner. The struggle for the soul of baseball, both on the field and off, is the story of how the entire American League structure changed. Following the fortunes of baseball?s stars of 1920, Under Pallor, Under Shadow shows us how a unique opportunity for reform was squandered and how the result was the transfer of authority from one powerful dictator (Ban Johnson) to another (Judge K. M. Landis). The first book to tie together the disparate elements of the 1920 pennant race, Under Pallor, Under Shadow shows us America?s pastime at a critical moment in the nation?s cultural history.