Baseball Before We Knew It

Baseball Before We Knew It PDF Author: David Block
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
ISBN: 9780803262553
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 384

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Book Description
It may be America?s game, but no one seems to know how or when baseball really started. Theories abound, myths proliferate, but reliable information has been in short supply?until now, when Baseball before We Knew It brings fresh new evidence of baseball?s origins into play. David Block looks into the early history of the game and of the 150-year-old debate about its beginnings. He tackles one stubborn misconception after another, debunking the enduring belief that baseball descended from the English game of rounders and revealing a surprising new explanation for the most notorious myth of all?the Abner Doubleday?Cooperstown story. ø Block?s book takes readers on an exhilarating journey through the centuries in search of clues to the evolution of our modern National Pastime. Among his startling discoveries is a set of long-forgotten baseball rules from the 1700s. Block evaluates the originality and historical significance of the Knickerbocker rules of 1845, revisits European studies on the ancestry of baseball which indicate that the game dates back hundreds, if not thousands of years, and assembles a detailed history of games and pastimes from the Middle Ages onward that contributed to baseball?s development. In its thoroughness and reach, and its extensive descriptive bibliography of early baseball sources, this book is a unique and invaluable resource?a comprehensive, reliable, and readable account of baseball before it was America?s game.

Baseball Before We Knew It

Baseball Before We Knew It PDF Author: David Block
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
ISBN: 9780803262553
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 384

Get Book Here

Book Description
It may be America?s game, but no one seems to know how or when baseball really started. Theories abound, myths proliferate, but reliable information has been in short supply?until now, when Baseball before We Knew It brings fresh new evidence of baseball?s origins into play. David Block looks into the early history of the game and of the 150-year-old debate about its beginnings. He tackles one stubborn misconception after another, debunking the enduring belief that baseball descended from the English game of rounders and revealing a surprising new explanation for the most notorious myth of all?the Abner Doubleday?Cooperstown story. ø Block?s book takes readers on an exhilarating journey through the centuries in search of clues to the evolution of our modern National Pastime. Among his startling discoveries is a set of long-forgotten baseball rules from the 1700s. Block evaluates the originality and historical significance of the Knickerbocker rules of 1845, revisits European studies on the ancestry of baseball which indicate that the game dates back hundreds, if not thousands of years, and assembles a detailed history of games and pastimes from the Middle Ages onward that contributed to baseball?s development. In its thoroughness and reach, and its extensive descriptive bibliography of early baseball sources, this book is a unique and invaluable resource?a comprehensive, reliable, and readable account of baseball before it was America?s game.

501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read Before They Die

501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read Before They Die PDF Author: Ron Kaplan
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
ISBN: 1496209885
Category : Antiques & Collectibles
Languages : en
Pages : 567

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Book Description
Propounding his "small ball theory" of sports literature, George Plimpton proposed that "the smaller the ball, the more formidable the literature." Of course he had the relatively small baseball in mind, because its literature is formidable--vast and varied, instructive, often wildly entertaining, and occasionally brilliant. From this bewildering array of baseball books, Ron Kaplan has chosen 501 of the best, making it easier for fans to find just the books to suit them (or to know what they're missing). From biography, history, fiction, and instruction to books about ballparks, business, and rules, anyone who loves to read about baseball will find in this book a companionable guide, far more fun than a reference work has any right to be.

Baseball in the Garden of Eden

Baseball in the Garden of Eden PDF Author: John Thorn
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 0743294041
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 386

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Book Description
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.

Baseball Has Done it

Baseball Has Done it PDF Author: Jackie Robinson
Publisher: Ig Publishing
ISBN: 9780975251720
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
Introduction by Spike Lee. Back in print for the first time since its initial publication in 1964, Baseball Has Done It is an oral history of baseball as told by its greatest players to Jackie Robinson, the man who broke the colour line. This one-of-a-kind classic features rare and candid interviews with ballplayers who played and lived through the first generation of integration in baseball. This is an important document of the struggle for civil rights in America with a timely and affectionate message: if baseball has done it, the rest of society can too.

Baseball's First Inning

Baseball's First Inning PDF Author: William J. Ryczek
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 0786482834
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 270

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Book Description
This history of America's pastime describes the evolution of baseball from early bat and ball games to its growth and acceptance in different regions of the country. Such New York clubs as the Atlantics, Excelsiors and Mutuals are a primary focus, serving as examples of how the sport became more sophisticated and popular. The author compares theories about many of baseball's "inventors," exploring the often fascinating stories of several of baseball's oldest founding myths. The impact of the Civil War on the sport is discussed and baseball's unsteady path to becoming America's national game is analyzed at length.

The Mental Game Of Baseball

The Mental Game Of Baseball PDF Author: H. A. Dorfman
Publisher: Taylor Trade Publications
ISBN: 1888698543
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 359

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Book Description
In this book, authors H.A. Dorfman and Karl Kuehl present their practical and proven strategy for developing the mental skills needed to achieve peack performance at every level of the game.

The Baseball Whisperer

The Baseball Whisperer PDF Author: Michael Tackett
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 0544386396
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 285

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Book Description
“Field of Dreams was only superficially about baseball. It was really about life. So is The Baseball Whisperer . . . with the added advantage of being all true.” —MLB.com From an award-winning journalist, this is the story of a legendary coach and the professional-caliber baseball program he built in America's heartland, where boys would come summer after summer to be molded into ballplayers—and men. Clarinda, Iowa, population 5,000, sits two hours from anything. There, between the cornfields and hog yards, is a ball field with a bronze bust of a man named Merl Eberly, who specialized in second chances and lost causes. The statue was a gift from one of Merl’s original long-shot projects, a skinny kid from the Los Angeles ghetto who would one day become a beloved Hall-of-Fame shortstop: Ozzie Smith. The Baseball Whisperer traces the “deeply engrossing” story (Booklist, starred review) of Merl Eberly and his Clarinda A’s baseball team, which he tended over the course of five decades, transforming them from a town team to a collegiate summer league powerhouse. Along with Ozzie Smith, future manager Bud Black, and star player Von Hayes, Merl developed scores of major league players. In the process, he taught them to be men, insisting on hard work, integrity, and responsibility. More than a book about ballplayers in the nation’s agricultural heartland, The Baseball Whisperer is the story of a coach who put character and dedication first, reminding us of the best, purest form of baseball excellence. “Mike Tackett, talented journalist and baseball lover, has hit the sweet spot of the bat with his first book. The Baseball Whisperer takes one coach and one small Iowa town and illuminates both a sport and the human spirit.” —David Maraniss, New York Times-bestselling author of Clemente and When Pride Still Mattered

How Baseball Happened

How Baseball Happened PDF Author: Thomas W. Gilbert
Publisher: Godine+ORM
ISBN: 1567926886
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 332

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Book Description
The untold story of baseball’s nineteenth-century origins: “a delightful look at a young nation creating a pastime that was love from the first crack of the bat” (Paul Dickson, The Wall Street Journal). You may have heard that Abner Doubleday or Alexander Cartwright invented baseball. Neither did. You may have been told that a club called the Knickerbockers played the first baseball game in 1846. They didn’t. Perhaps you’ve read that baseball’s color line was first crossed by Jackie Robinson in 1947. Nope. Baseball’s true founders don’t have plaques in Cooperstown. They were hundreds of uncredited, ordinary people who played without gloves, facemasks, or performance incentives. Unlike today’s pro athletes, they lived full lives outside of sports. They worked, built businesses, and fought against the South in the Civil War. In this myth-busting history, Thomas W. Gilbert reveals the true beginnings of baseball. Through newspaper accounts, diaries, and other accounts, he explains how it evolved through the mid-nineteenth century into a modern sport of championships, media coverage, and famous stars—all before the first professional league was formed in 1871. Winner of the Casey Award: Best Baseball Book of the Year

The Baseball Counting Book

The Baseball Counting Book PDF Author: Barbara Barbieri McGrath
Publisher: Charlesbridge Publishing
ISBN: 0881063339
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 35

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Book Description
Step up to the plate with this counting book about America's favorite pastime. THE BASEBALL COUNTING BOOK is spring training for little sluggers. The count is zero to zero when the ump calls, "Play ball!" Nine innings later we've counted balls, strikes, players, fans, and more, all the way to twenty. No one strikes out with these fun rhymes. Little leaguers will find themselves counting their way through practice and pointing out all the new things they've learned about this great game when they watch the pro's on TV or at the parks. Early readers will hit a home run with this charming counting book.

When Baseball Went White

When Baseball Went White PDF Author: Ryan A. Swanson
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
ISBN: 0803235216
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 273

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Book Description
"Explains how in the decade following the Civil War, baseball became segregated because its leaders wanted to grow its presence and appeal to Southerners, and wanted to professionalize it. The result was the exclusion of black players that lasted until 1947"--