Before the World Series: Pride, Profits, and Baseball's First Championships

ISBN-13: 9780875803074 / Angielski / Twarda / 2003 / 262 str.

Larry G. Bowman

Opis

In baseball's most turbulent decade, the 1880s, the game's popularity swelled, basic rules such as balls and strikes were being refined, and entire leagues appeared and disappeared. Larry Bowman illustrates the growing pains of this uniquely American sport, casting baseball's early championships as a lens through which to view late-nineteenth-century America. The first World's Championship Series arose in an ad hoc manner when the Providence Grays faced the New York Metropolitans in 1884. Seeking to maximize profits, team owners promoted postseason baseball to ensure that one team could bill itself as the world's best. Tracing the history of seven championship series, Bowman recounts the frenzied negotiations and media hoopla that often preceded them. He also analyzes the emergence of mascots and superstitions, the evolution of the game's rules, and the impact of America's explosive urban growth on baseball's popularity. Before the World Series brings colorful figures to life - from Albert Spalding, Christian Von der Ahe, and Frederick Stearns to legendary Hall of Famers like Cap Anson, Charles Comiskey, and baseball's first union organizer, John Montgomery Ward. Shedding new light