When Johnny Came Sliding Home

When Johnny Came Sliding Home PDF Author: William J. Ryczek
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 9780786405145
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 328

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Book Description
As the Civil War ended, the thoughts of many Northern soldiers turned to a game that some had learned about for the first time during the war--baseball. Their newfound interest in the sport, combined with the postwar economic boom and the resultant growth of many cities, took the game from one practiced by a few amateur clubs in New York City before the war to a professional sport covering almost the entire northeastern United States. Researched from primary sources, the game of the late 1860s is described season-by-season: the fields, the crowds, the strategy, the rules, the style of play, and the confusing struggles to crown a national champion, with all the chicanery and machinations of the contenders. Such landmark events as the Washington Nationals' pioneering 1867 tour and the Cincinnati Red Stockings' undefeated 1869 season are covered.

When Johnny Came Sliding Home

When Johnny Came Sliding Home PDF Author: William J. Ryczek
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 9780786405145
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 328

Get Book Here

Book Description
As the Civil War ended, the thoughts of many Northern soldiers turned to a game that some had learned about for the first time during the war--baseball. Their newfound interest in the sport, combined with the postwar economic boom and the resultant growth of many cities, took the game from one practiced by a few amateur clubs in New York City before the war to a professional sport covering almost the entire northeastern United States. Researched from primary sources, the game of the late 1860s is described season-by-season: the fields, the crowds, the strategy, the rules, the style of play, and the confusing struggles to crown a national champion, with all the chicanery and machinations of the contenders. Such landmark events as the Washington Nationals' pioneering 1867 tour and the Cincinnati Red Stockings' undefeated 1869 season are covered.

Jews and Baseball

Jews and Baseball PDF Author: Burton A. Boxerman
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 1476605149
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 644

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Book Description
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.

Level Playing Fields

Level Playing Fields PDF Author: Peter Morris
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
ISBN: 149621109X
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 255

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Book Description
Most baseball fans want to hear about stellar players and spectacular plays, statistics and storied franchises. Level Playing Fields sheds light on a usually unnoticed facet of the game, introducing fans and historians alike to the real fundamentals of baseball: dirt and grass. In this lively history, Peter Morris demonstrates that many of the game's rules and customs actually arose as concessions to the daunting practical difficulties of creating a baseball diamond. Recovering a nearly lost and decidedly quirky chapter of baseball history, Level Playing Fields tells the engaging story of Tom and Jack Murphy, brothers who made up baseball's first great family of groundskeepers and who played a pivotal role in shaping America's national pastime. Irish immigrants who tirelessly crafted home-field advantages for some of baseball's earliest dynasties, the brothers Murphy were instrumental in developing pitching mounds, permanent spring training sites, and new irrigation techniques, and their careers were touched by such major innovations as tarpaulins and fireproof concrete-and-steel stadiums. Level Playing Fields is a real-life saga involving craftsmanship, resourcefulness, intrigue, and bitter rivalries (including attempted murder!) between such legendary figures as John McGraw, Connie Mack, Honus Wagner, and Ty Cobb. The Murphys' story recreates a forgotten way of life and gives us a sense of why an entire generation of American men found so much meaning in the game of baseball.

A Game of Inches

A Game of Inches PDF Author: Peter Morris
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1566636779
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 663

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Book Description
"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.

Baseball Prospectus 2018

Baseball Prospectus 2018 PDF Author: Baseball Prospectus
Publisher: Turner Publishing Company
ISBN: 1681626454
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 1209

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Book Description
The 2018 edition of The New York Times Bestselling Guide. PLAY BALL! The 23rd edition of this industry-leading baseball annual contains all of the important statistics, player predictions and insider-level commentary that readers have come to expect, along with significant improvements to several statistics that were created by, and are exclusive to, Baseball Prospectus, and an expanded focus on international players and teams. Baseball Prospectus 2018 provides fantasy players and insiders alike with prescient PECOTA projections, which The New York Times called “the überforecast of every player’s performance.” With more than 50 Baseball Prospectus alumni currently working for major-league baseball teams, nearly every organization has sought the advice of current or former BP analysts, and readers of Baseball Prospectus 2018 will understand why! Visit www.baseballprospectus.com for year-round baseball coverage

Base Ball Founders

Base Ball Founders PDF Author: Peter Morris
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 1476603782
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 341

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Book Description
This book completes the series of histories of the clubs and players responsible for making baseball the national pastime that began with Base Ball Pioneers, 1850-1870 (McFarland 2011). Forty clubs and hundreds of pioneer players from the first hotbeds of New York City, Philadelphia, New Jersey, and Massachusetts are profiled by leading experts on baseball's early years. The subjects include legendary clubs such as the Knickerbockers of New York, the Eckfords and Atlantics of Brooklyn, the Athletics of Philadelphia, and Harvard's first baseball clubs, and fabled players like Jim Creighton, Dickey Pearce, and Daniel Adams, but space is also given to less well remembered clubs such as the Champion Club of Jersey City and the Cummaquids of Barnstable, Massachusetts. What united all of these founders of the game was that their love of baseball during its earliest years helped to make it the national pastime.

A Companion to American Sport History

A Companion to American Sport History PDF Author: Steven A. Riess
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1118609409
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 921

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Book Description
A Companion to American Sport History presents a collection of original essays that represent the first comprehensive analysis of scholarship relating to the growing field of American sport history. Presents the first complete analysis of the scholarship relating to the academic history of American sport Features contributions from many of the finest scholars working in the field of American sport history Includes coverage of the chronology of sports from colonial times to the present day, including major sports such as baseball, football, basketball, boxing, golf, motor racing, tennis, and track and field Addresses the relationship of sports to urbanization, technology, gender, race, social class, and genres such as sports biography Awarded 2015 Best Anthology from the North American Society for Sport History (NASSH)

Historical Dictionary of Baseball

Historical Dictionary of Baseball PDF Author: Lyle Spatz
Publisher: Scarecrow Press
ISBN: 0810879549
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 505

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Book Description
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.

When Baseball Went White

When Baseball Went White PDF Author: Ryan A. Swanson
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
ISBN: 0803255187
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Book Description
The story of Jackie Robinson valiantly breaking baseball’s color barrier in 1947 is one that most Americans know. But less recognized is the fact that some seventy years earlier, following the Civil War, baseball was tenuously biracial and had the potential for a truly open game. How, then, did the game become so firmly segregated that it required a trailblazer like Robinson? The answer, Ryan A. Swanson suggests, has everything to do with the politics of “reconciliation” and a wish to avoid the issues of race that an integrated game necessarily raised. The history of baseball during Reconstruction, as Swanson tells it, is a story of lost opportunities. Thomas Fitzgerald and Octavius Catto (a Philadelphia baseball tandem), for example, were poised to emerge as pioneers of integration in the 1860s. Instead, the desire to create a “national game”—professional and appealing to white Northerners and Southerners alike—trumped any movement toward civil rights. Focusing on Philadelphia, Washington DC, and Richmond—three cities with large African American populations and thriving baseball clubs—Swanson uncovers the origins of baseball’s segregation and the mechanics of its implementation. An important piece of sports history, his work also offers a better understanding of Reconstruction, race, and segregation in America.

Sport and National Identity in the Post-War World

Sport and National Identity in the Post-War World PDF Author: Dilwyn Porter
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 113445693X
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Book Description
This book provides a broad range of international case studies to examine how sport has helped to shape national identities, and how national cultures have shaped sport.