Early Innings

"Readers [get] a box seat at the game that became a national obsession." - "London Review of Books". "[Shows] just how compelling original documents can be when shaped into a narrative ...that includes tales of attitudes, alliances, and deceits, as well as the development of performances, rules, and equipment." - "Canadian Journal of the History of Sport". "Ancient myths are shattered and new facts are uncovered." - "USA Today Baseball Weekly". "Fascinating collection." - "Washington Post". "Stories from the early days that no serious baseball fan would want to miss." - "Chattanooga Times". This compilation of 120 primary writings documents baseball's first century, from a loosely organized village social event to the arrival of the National League. Collecting from a wide range of sources - including newspaper accounts, letters, folk poetry, songs, and annual guides - Dean A. Sullivan of Fairfax, Virginia, progresses chronologically from the earliest known baseball reference (1825) to the creation of the "Doubleday Myth" (1908). Benjamin G. Rader, author of "Baseball: A History of America's Game" is a professor of history at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.