Baseball Fever: Early Baseball in Michigan

by Peter Morris

Baseball seems tailor-made for the historian, yet even today, after almost a century and a half of organized play, baseball's origins remain unclear. Most accounts focus on Eastern teams and the advent of professionals, but how the game spread across a predominantly rural America to become our national pastime is a question still largely unresolved.

In this well-researched study of Michigan baseball from the 1830s to the 1870s, baseball scholar Peter Morris offers many answers. Drawing on such sources as personal memoirs, period photographs, and an extensive, often hilarious variety of newspaper accounts, he paints a vivid portrait of a game that was widely---if erratically---played well before the Civil War and gradually evolved from an informal amusement into an activity for local groups of young men and finally into a serious, organized sport.

Baseball began with pick-up "raisin'" games---so called because they took place after rural roof-raisings---played purely for fun by any number of participants, with myriad local variations. The first amateur clubs appeared in the 1850s and were often ridiculed for playing a child's game---"baseball fever" was then a term of mockery---but as they persevered and issued challenges to other teams from nearby towns, rivalries developed, rules began to conform, and a tradition started to take shape.

Tournaments, often connected with county fairs, and increased newspaper coverage gave the game new momentum after the Civil War, and what had been sociable matches became serious contests, sometimes marred by bad blood. Enclosed grounds changed the nature of the game--most notably with respect to home runs--and allowed teams to charge admission, which introduced a new element of commercialism, community involvement, and a heightened sense of competition. Ultimately, it brought about a level of play that made the best "amateur" clubs able to challenge professional teams from the East when they toured the country.

As he traces the exploits of clubs like the Excelsiors, the Wahoos, and the Unknowns, season by season and often game by game, Morris adds a wealth of new detail to the story of baseball's early days, showing how decades of at least nominally amateur play prepared the way for the advent of the National League in the 1870s, and with it the true beginnings of the professional sport we know today. In the process, he also paints a fascinating portrait of the attitudes, values, and lives of rural Americans in the mid-nineteenth century.

Peter Morris, a former English instructor at Michigan State University, is a specialist in nineteenth-century baseball and an active member of the Society for American Baseball Research.

Genres: Baseball

392 pages, Hardcover

First published March 3, 2003

Reviews

[Rachel Whitaker · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book mainly because I know the author :) Although I'm not that into baseball, I do love history, so found it enjoyable (gotta love the numerous colorful quotes from 19th-century newspapers). Also, it's an interesting look at how sports came to occupy such a significant place in our culture.

[Jeff Koslowski · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are a fan of the early history of baseball and are from Michigan, this book is the end all be all. It is meticulously researched and sticks to the thesis without any diversion. Sometimes it can feel like there is too much research but each city has a story and so the quantity will equal quality.

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Baseball..Michigan...history all blended into a wonderful book about the history of baseball in Michigan. Morris is a splendid writer and knows more about baseball's sometimes majestic, sometimes misunderstood, and sometimes really surprising history. Good stuff. Really good stuff!

[Marc · Rating 3 out of 5]

A meticulous look at how the game and its administration evolved - if you can digest dates, scores, and lineups for matches held 150 years ago