If there was ever a place in America where a city and its baseball team were as close as family, it was Brooklyn. The legacy of this relationship comes down to us in stories of childhoods spent at Ebbets Field and in the stories of Jackie Robinson and Branch Rickey, whose courage changed the face of America. Baseball in Brooklyn goes back to the beginning of the sport, when a young city embraced a new game and, like missionaries, carried it to the nation. This book tells the story of that beginning and concludes with the heart-wrenching move of the franchise to the West Coast after the 1957...

If there was ever a place in America where a city and its baseball team were as close as family, it was Brooklyn. The legacy of this relationship comes down to us in stories of childhoods spent at Ebbets Field and in the stories of Jackie Robinson and Branch Rickey, whose courage changed the face of America. Baseball in Brooklyn goes back to the beginning of the sport, when a young city embraced a new game and, like missionaries, carried it to the nation. This book tells the story of that beginning and concludes with the heart-wrenching move of the franchise to the West Coast after the 1957...

From the Introduction:

Renewed interest in nineteenth century baseball just a trickle when SABR's pioneering Nineteenth Century Stars was published has become a steady stream. Every year since 1989 has seen the publication of one or more new books devoted entirely to the nineteenth century game, and books that treat the whole history of baseball are less likely than they were to undervalue the nineteenth century. It is even possible to witness authentic early baseball, as played by dozens of vintage ball clubs, many of them representing historic villages and museums.

Most of...

Boston and the American League have shared a history since the circuits debut in 1901. The Boston Americans outdrew their established National League counterparts the first year of their existence and never looked back. The century-long love affair between Boston and the team that soon became known as the Red Sox began to blossom in 1903 as the Americans captured the first-ever World Series. The Red Sox: From Cy to the Kid depicts the early history of the American League franchise from Boston, beginning with pitching legend Cy Young, center fielder Tris Speaker, and a young phenomenon named...

Dubbed "America's Game" by Walt Whitman, baseball has been enjoyed in our nation's capital by everyone from young boys playing street stickball to Presidents throwing out the inaugural first pitch of the season. Just 13 years after Alexander Cartwright codified baseball's rules, the Washington Nationals Baseball Club formed and in 1867 toured the country spreading the "baseball gospel." By 1901 the team became one of the first eight major league teams in the newly formed American League. Players such as Walter Johnson, probably the greatest pitcher of all time, and other Senators under the...