Inventing Baseball: The 100 Greatest Games of the 19th Century

by Bill Felber (Editor), John Thorn (Introduction), Paul Browne

A project of SABR's Nineteenth Century Committee, INVENTING BASEBALL brings to life the greatest games to be played in the game's early years, starting with a game in 1833. From the "prisoner of war" game that took place among captive Union soldiers during the Civil War (immortalized in a famous lithograph), to the first intercollegiate game (Amherst versus Williams), to the first professional no-hitter, the games in this volume span 1833–1900 and detail the athletic exploits of such players as Cap Anson, Moses "Fleetwood" Walker, Charlie Comiskey, Mike "King" Kelly, and John Montgomery Ward. Lavishly illustrated with almost 200 photos and images from the era.

42 SABR members contributed chapters to the effort, including Bill Felber, Bill Nowlin, Bob Bailey, Bob Tiemann, Casey Tibbitts, Charles Faber, Cliff Blau, Craig Waff, David Arcidiacano, Dick McBane, Donald Jensen, Edward Achorn, Frank Vaccaro, Greg Rhodes, Irv Goldfarb, James Rygelski, Jean-Pierre Caillault, Jeff Samoray, Jerry Casway, Jerry Grillo, Jim Overmyer, Jimmy Keenan, Joanne Hulbert, John Bauer, John Husman, John Thorn, John Zinn, Jon Barnes, Kathy Torres, Lyle Spatz, Mark Pestana, Mike Harrington, Parker Bena, Patricia Millen, Paul Browne, Peter Mancuso, Phil Dixon, Rich Bogovich, Richard Hershberger, Terry Gottschall, W. Lloyd Johnson, and William Lamb. Special thanks to Skip McAfee.

Genres: Baseball

308 pages, Paperback

First published April 11, 2013

Reviews

[Blaine DeSantis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful sourcebook on the early game of baseball. There are 100 games, and it is really great to be able to see boxscores and write ups about some of the games best players, in the actual games they played in. Pay specific attention to the game played in the shadow of the Pyramids in Giza, Egypt, along with the Cuban Giants victory over the Cincinnati Red Stockings (a first for a "colored" professional team over a white professional team. The research is out of this world and many different folks contributed the game stories. We forget these early days, and early games, but it was a better game, a game with more strategy and was actually a lot more fun then todays strikeout/home run game. Well worthy reading for a baseball fans or any sports fan in general.