Base Ball Founders: The Clubs, Players and Cities of the Northeast That Established the Game

by Peter Morris (editor), William J. Ryczek (Editor), Jan Finkel (Editor)

Base Ball Founders completes the series of histories of the clubs and players responsible for making baseball the national pastime that began with the 2011 Base Ball Pioneers, 1850-1870 (McFarland). More than 40 clubs and hundreds of pioneer players from the first hotbeds of New York City, Philadelphia, New Jersey, and Massachusetts are profiled by leading experts on baseball's early years. The subjects include legendary clubs such as the Knickerbockers of New York, the Eckfords and Atlantics of Brooklyn, the Athletics of Philadelphia, and Harvard's first baseball clubs, and fabled players like Jim Creighton, Dickey Pearce, and Daniel Adams, but space is also given to less well remembered clubs such as the Champion Club of Jersey City and the Cummaquids of Barnstable, Massachusetts. What united all of these pioneers was that their love of baseball during its early growth pains helped to make it the national pastime.

Genres: Baseball

340 pages, Paperback

First published May 31, 2013

Reviews

[Sean McGurr · Rating 4 out of 5]

Presented as a number of scholarly-researched articles about a number of various base ball (yes, two words) teams from the Northeast in the 19th century, this books focuses on an important time in the history of the game. From 1850-1870, the game went through many changes: move to professionalism, spread across the country, rules were codified, and fans sprung up. This books focuses on the teams and players of clubs such as the Knickerbockers, Eagles, Atlantic, Eckfords, and others. You won't get stories about Babe Ruth or Cy Young, but you will learn about George Zettlein and James Creighton, stars of their time. This book is essential for scholars (the research and documentation is noteworthy), historians of the game, and those who just want to learn more about pastimes in the 19th century. Not necessarily a book you will pick up and read from cover to cover, the articles lend themselves to one-off readings.