Synopses & Reviews
The story of Jackie Robinson valiantly breaking baseballand#8217;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 and#8220;reconciliationand#8221; and a wish to avoid the issues of race that an integrated game necessarily raised.
and#160;The history of baseball during Reconstruction, asand#160;Swansonand#160;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 and#8220;national gameand#8221;and#8212;professional and appealing to white Northerners and Southerners alikeand#8212;trumped any movement toward civil rights. Focusing on Philadelphia, Washington DC, and Richmondand#8212;three cities with large African American populations and thriving baseball clubsand#8212;Swanson uncovers the origins of baseballand#8217;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.and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
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Review
“Readers [get] a box seat at the game that became a national obsession.”—London Review of Books London Review of Books
Review
“Ancient myths are shattered and new facts are uncovered.”—USA Today Baseball Weekly USA Today Baseball Weekly
Review
“Fascinating collection.”—Washington Post Washington Post
Review
“[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 Canadian Journal of the History of Sport
Review
“Fascinating collection.”Washington Post --USA Today Baseball Weekly
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"Aand#160;boon to scholars of both the early development of baseball and race relations after the Civil War."and#8212;Library Journal
Review
and#8220;Deeply researched and well written, Ryan A. Swansonand#8217;s When Baseball Went White carefully examines and#8216;the mechanics of segregationand#8217; that racially cleansed organized baseball during Reconstruction and in the process helped the game become our and#8216;national pastime,and#8217; at the expense of civil rights and racial justice.and#160; Swanson reveals, in fine detail, how a sport that would become a truly meaningful cultural practice and institution nevertheless became something less than it might have been.and#8221;and#8212;Daniel A. Nathan, president of the North American Society for Sport History and author of Saying Itand#8217;s So: A Cultural History of the Black Sox Scandal
Review
and#8220;Ryan Swanson's carefully researched and wonderfully nuanced study of baseballand#8217;s declining race relations during Reconstruction sheds considerable light on this oft-neglected topic. A must-read.and#8221;and#8212;Peter Morris, author of A Game of Inches and Level Playing Fields
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"Major League Baseball Profiles provides a fascinating and unique view of the scores of individuals who played a role in laying the foundation for the modern game. It is an indispensible resource for anyone wishing to gain a better understanding of the formative years of big-league baseball."and#8212;Jim Frutchey, Booklist
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"Nemec's books are wonderful . . . . I can see this book becoming as invaluable a resource to me as The Baseball Encyclopediaand#8212;something that will entertain and inform me for the rest of my life."and#8212;Pete Croatto, Biblio Buffet
Review
"Nemec and his team of writers/researchers have created a two-volume extravaganza of nineteenth century baseball biography that will be the definitive work for the foreseeable future and beyond."and#8212;Big Bad Baseball
Review
and#8220;David Nemec belongs in the Hall of Fame of early baseball research. Here, he uses a wealth of fascinating details to breathe life back into many little-known nineteenth-century ballplayers whose exploits and, at times, sheer grit are well worth remembering and celebrating.and#8221;and#8212;Edward Achorn, author of Fifty-Nine in and#8217;84: Old Hoss Radbourn, Barehanded Baseball, and the Greatest Season a Pitcher Ever Had
Review
and#8220;Whether you are a newcomer to the wonderful world of nineteenth-century baseball or consider yourself to be an expert, you will learn much in this wonderful collection of biographical sketches. While other books have focused on the great pennant races or teams of the era, no book has so vividly presented the colorful stories of so many players as these two volumes do. You will be entertained and you will be smarter, once you spend some time with these books.and#8221;and#8212;Mark Armour, chairman of SABRand#8217;s Baseball Biography Project and author of
Joe Cronin: A Life in BaseballSynopsis
"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. 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.
Synopsis
This compilation of 120 primary writings documents baseballs 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).
Synopsis
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).
Synopsis
In its infancy, major league baseball was anyoneand#8217;s game, open to a dizzying array of rogues and scamps, athletic giants and captains of industry, hustlers, managers, and umpires who transformed club-based teams into the first professional federations with formalized rulesand#8212;and commercial considerations. This two-volume workand#8212;with its profiles of every key contributor to the major league game from May 4, 1871, through December 31, 1900and#8212;is truly and#8220;inside baseball.and#8221;and#160;
and#160;Volume 1 profiles all the key position players and pitchers of the nineteenth century, giving detailed information about each playerand#8217;s role in the game, his debut and finale, high points and low, most important achievements, relationship to ground-breaking diamond occurrences, in addition toand#160;fascinating personal information.and#160;and#160;and#160;
and#160;More than a collection of mere facts and statistics, Major League Baseball Profiles provides a unique history of the evolution of major league baseball, from the date of the first major league game in 1871 through the 1900 season, which marked not only the close of a century but also the unofficial end of what many believe to be the formative period of the game.
Synopsis
In its infancy, major league baseball was anyoneand#8217;s game, open to a dizzying array of rogues and scamps, athletic giants and captains of industry, hustlers, managers, and umpires who transformed club-based teams into the first professional federations with formalized rulesand#8212;and commercial considerations. This two-volume workand#8212;with its profiles of every key contributor to the major league game from May 4, 1871, through December 31, 1900and#8212;is truly and#8220;inside baseball.and#8221;
Volume 2 features Hall of Famers who played in the era, as well as twenty other figures who arenand#8217;t yet enshrined but arguably should be because of their considerable impact on the game. It also profiles early day baseballand#8217;s crooks, madcaps, homicide victims, suicides, and missing persons, in addition to the managers, team owners, and umpires who helped give the game its structure and shape.and#160;and#160;
More than a collection of mere facts and statistics, Major League Baseball Profiles provides a unique history of the evolution of major league baseball, from the date of the first major league game in 1871 through the 1900 season, which marked not only the close of a century but also the unofficial end of what many believe to be the formative period of the game.
About the Author
David Nemec is the author of twenty-three baseball books, including Great Encyclopedia of 19th-Century Major League Baseball, winner of the Sporting News SABR Baseball Research Award.