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Baseball: The People's Game
In The People's Game , Dorothy Seymour Mills and Harold Seymour produce an authoritative, multi-volume chronicle of America's national pastime. The first two volumes of this study - The Early Years and The Golden Age -won universal acclaim. The New York Times wrote that they "will grip every American who has invested part of his youth and dreams in the sport," while The Boston Globe called them "irresistible."
Now, in The People's Game , the authors offer the first book devoted entirely to the history of the game outside of the professional leagues, revealing how, from its early beginnings up to World War II, baseball truly became the great American pastime. They explore the bond between baseball and boys through the decades, the game's place in institutions from colleges to prisons to the armed forces, the rise of women's baseball that coincided with nineteenth century feminism, and the struggles of black players and clubs from the later years of slavery up to the Second World War.
Whether discussing the birth of softball or the origins of the seventh inning stretch, the Seymours enrich their extensive research with fascinating details and entertaining anecdotes as well as a wealth of baseball experience. The People's Game brings to life the central role of baseball for generations of Americans.
On August 2, 2010, Oxford University Press made public that it would credit Dorothy Seymour Mills as co-author of the three baseball histories previously "authored" solely by her late husband, Harold Seymour. The Seymours collaborated on The Early Years (1960), The Golden Age (1971) and The People's Game (1991).
Now, in The People's Game , the authors offer the first book devoted entirely to the history of the game outside of the professional leagues, revealing how, from its early beginnings up to World War II, baseball truly became the great American pastime. They explore the bond between baseball and boys through the decades, the game's place in institutions from colleges to prisons to the armed forces, the rise of women's baseball that coincided with nineteenth century feminism, and the struggles of black players and clubs from the later years of slavery up to the Second World War.
Whether discussing the birth of softball or the origins of the seventh inning stretch, the Seymours enrich their extensive research with fascinating details and entertaining anecdotes as well as a wealth of baseball experience. The People's Game brings to life the central role of baseball for generations of Americans.
On August 2, 2010, Oxford University Press made public that it would credit Dorothy Seymour Mills as co-author of the three baseball histories previously "authored" solely by her late husband, Harold Seymour. The Seymours collaborated on The Early Years (1960), The Golden Age (1971) and The People's Game (1991).
672 pages, Paperback
First published April 19, 1990
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About the author
Dorothy Seymour Mills
18 booksAlso known as Dorothy Z. Seymour and Dorothy Jane Mills.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 23, 2018
This is an incredibly detailed history of grassroots baseball, from its origins as street and sandlot children's game, to college play, all the way to military play, industrial play and its union answer, prisoner baseball teams, and seperate worlds of women's baseball and black baseball. It mainly covers the 19th century until just after World War 2. In order to understand how completely dominant the game was at every level of ordinary peoples in the United States, as the professional levels only represented the very top of the talent iceberg. Some of it feels somewhat dated, but overall this is a must read for anyone interested in social and cultural histories of sports, even just simply as a reference guide.
June 5, 2021
Very interesting, but what a slog to read. For someone who usually reads a book in under a week tops, the fact it took me over a month to get through this says something. It’s very dry, not especially narrative driven. Each section reads like an entirely different book.
August 26, 2009
For all you diehard baseball fans, Seymour offers this book, jam-packed with everything you never wanted to know about our “National Pastime.” Not to disparage the author’s incredible effort, but this is waaay too much information about unorganized baseball history. That is, sandlot ball, street/stick ball, early collegiate ball, probably prison ball and I don’t know what else. I don’t know what else because so far as I can surmise, I'll have to check this out of the library – while renewing online the maximum two times each – at least eight times total to get through it! I finally placed this in my 1/2 way until I said No Way Goodreads category after the second checkout/12th week. But as I’m only on page 206, I’m not even close to being a third of the way through this beast.
Certainly there are many interesting factoids in Seymour’s story. From Dizzy Dean’s first acorn-wrapped-in-cloth baseball to Japan sending teams to the US for scrimmages over a century ago. The problem is this seems like a Phd dissertation gone wild. Perhaps not surprising as Seymour is/was a Cornell professor. Nevertheless, there are far too many statistics and numbers that don’t relate to batting averages, ERA, nor anything else a baseball aficionado would care about. Even for those interested in urban history, the tabulations revolving around how many diamonds were provided per capita in a South Cleveland neighborhood in 1923 are beyond the pale. He uses the full term “et cetera” for God’s sake! That’s almost as obnoxious as the Cash for Clunkers program!
Anyway, perhaps I’ll take another crack or four at this – if only to prove my superiority over those at some sports bar who, unlike myself, actually know what’s going on in baseball.
Certainly there are many interesting factoids in Seymour’s story. From Dizzy Dean’s first acorn-wrapped-in-cloth baseball to Japan sending teams to the US for scrimmages over a century ago. The problem is this seems like a Phd dissertation gone wild. Perhaps not surprising as Seymour is/was a Cornell professor. Nevertheless, there are far too many statistics and numbers that don’t relate to batting averages, ERA, nor anything else a baseball aficionado would care about. Even for those interested in urban history, the tabulations revolving around how many diamonds were provided per capita in a South Cleveland neighborhood in 1923 are beyond the pale. He uses the full term “et cetera” for God’s sake! That’s almost as obnoxious as the Cash for Clunkers program!
Anyway, perhaps I’ll take another crack or four at this – if only to prove my superiority over those at some sports bar who, unlike myself, actually know what’s going on in baseball.
August 17, 2012
Seymour's final of three volumes (too bad he didn't live to finish the history of baseball past the Golden Age). This book was a bit of a detour as he explained baseball outside of the major leagues - company teams, prison teams, little league, etc.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews