Where They Ain't: The Fabled Life and Ultimely Death of the Original Baltimore Orioles, the Team that Gave Birth to Modern Baseball

by Burt Solomon

Greedy owners, spoiled players, disillusioned fans -- all hallmarks of baseball in the 'nineties. Only in this case, it's the 1890s. We may think that business interests dominate the sport today, but baseball's early years were an even harsher and less sentimental age, when teams were wrenched from their cities, owners colluded and the ballplayers held out, and the National League nearly turned itself into an out-and-out cartel. Where They Ain't tells the story of that tumultuous time, through the prism of the era's best team, the legendary Baltimore Orioles, and its best hitter, Wee Willie Keeler, whose motto "Keep your eye clear, and hit 'em where they ain't" was wise counsel for an underdog in a big man's world.
Under the tutelage of manager Ned Hanlon, the Orioles perfected a style of play known as "scientific baseball," featuring such innovations as the sacrifice bunt, the hit-and-run, the squeeze play, and the infamous Baltimore chop. The team won three straight pennants from 1894 to 1896 and played the game with snap and ginger. Burr Solomon introduces us to Keeler and his colorful teammates, the men who reinvented baseball -- the fierce third baseman John McGraw, the avuncular catcher Wilbert Robinson, the spunky shortstop Hughey Jennings, and the heartthrob outfielder Joe Kelley, who carried a comb and mirror in his hip pocket to groom himself between batters.
But championships and color were not enough for the barons of baseball, who began to consolidate team ownership for the sake of monopoly profits. In 1899, the Orioles' owners entered into a "syndicate" agreement with the ambitious men who ran the Brooklyn Trolley Dodgers -- with disastrous results. The Orioles were destroyed (and the franchise folded), the city of Baltimore was relegated to minor-league status just when the city's industries were being swallowed up by national monopolies, and even Willie Keeler, a joyful innocent who wanted only to play ball, ultimately sold out as well. In Solomon's hands, the story of the Orioles' demise is a page-turning tale of shifting alliances, broken promises, and backstage maneuvering by Tammany Hall and the Brooklyn and Baltimore political machines on a scale almost unimaginable today.
Out of this nefarious brew was born the American League, the World Series, and what we know as "modern baseball," but innocence was irretrievably lost. The fans of Baltimore, in fact, would have to wait more than half a century for the major leagues to return. Where They Ain't lays bare the all-too-human origins of our national game and offers a cautionary tale of the pastime at a century's end.

Genres: Baseball, Sports, Nonfiction, History

320 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 4, 1999

About the author

I was born and raised around Baltimore, educated at Harvard College, and became a journalist in Boston and Washington, D.C. I was a prize-winning White House correspondent for National Journal and am currently a contributing editor at The Atlantic.
I've written three nonfiction books that read like fiction, and now three novels that stay close to nonfiction. My trilogy of John Hay mysteries showcases my detective at different stages of his life--the latest, "The Murder of Andrew Johnson," has Hay at age 36, recently a husband and newly a father, getting used to both.
I live in Arlington, Virginia, with my loving wife. I'm a proud father of two children who live nearby (lucky us!) and grandfather to three little guys (and a fourth on the way). I've started playing the violin of late, with more enthusiasm than talent.

Reviews

[Austin Gisriel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Burt Solomon has written a wonderful history of the original Baltimore Orioles, which as all good history does, involves the interwoven stories of the people involved. With the focus on John McGraw, Hughie Jennings, Wilbert Robinson, and especially "Wee" Willie Keeler, Where They Ain't details the rise and fall of the Orioles. The first "fall" landed most of the Orioles in Brooklyn; the second put the franchise in New York, that franchise now known as the Yankees. This is not just the story of ballplayers and team owners, but it is also the story of the people of Baltimore and how losing their Birds twice, three times really, affected the psyche of an entire city. Because this is a people story, it is a moving story--I must admit that the concluding page made me misty. Clearly, Solomon understands the hold that baseball can have on the people who love the game.

I highly recommend this to anyone interested in Oriole history or 19th century baseball, or especially to those who find poetry in the game.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for every true crank — you’ll meet the twirlers, you’ll read dates like “back in ‘eighty-seven,” you’ll learn of the horrid misdeeds from various magnates that forever connected the Baltimore and Brooklyn baseball clubs (the 2 cities I lived in in ‘twenty-four).

[Brendan · Rating 4 out of 5]

a superb history. gives you a feel for the game, not just that team

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun and enlightening book. It's about the 1882-1899 National League Baltimore Orioles, as advertised. But one could also make an argument that this book is a Willie Keeler biography that uses the Orioles as a framing story. With some generous dashes of John McGraw and Ned Hanlon and a soupçon of the 1901-02 AL Orioles. Solomon's prose is that of a seasoned journalist, he stays out of his own way and lets the story tell itself. It veers a little closer to "workman like" than "illuminating," but honestly, avoiding purple prose and hagiography in a baseball book is a feat unto itself.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a ride! This was a great learning experience about baseball in the late 1800s. The great Oriole team of the mid 1890s featured players such as McGraw, Jennings, Keeler, and others. The book covers how the players played, the owners penny-pinched, the fanatics reacted, and the franchises succeeded (or not). The cities of Baltimore and New York were featured throughout. A must read.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful look at the franchise that served as the seed for the modern game.

[Anthony Nelson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful look at the Orioles of the 1890's, the birth of the National and American leagues, and the changes in New York baseball around that time. Great history as well as just a look at sports.

[Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well-researched, thoroughly enjoyable book.

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a gem. Any baseball fan would enjoy this book and a must read for Baltimore Orioles fans.

[Christopher Long · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the Top 5 baseball books of all time!!!!!!!

[Spiros · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book that felt simultaneously very long, and at the same time slightly sketchy. Solomon tells the story of the Baltimore Orioles team that, starting in 1893, revolutionized the national game, focusing on the Big Four of John McGraw, Hughey Jennings, Joe Kelley, and "Wee" Willie Keeler, and puts that account into the much larger context of the political and financial machinations engaged in by the game's ownership. The phrase "Where They Ain't" turns out to be a pretty apt description of Baltimore which, nearly a century before the Colts snuck away in the middle of the night, was abandoned by franchises from two separate major leagues, and had to wait fifty years for another franchise. I feel that this book could have been about 50% longer, to give adequate coverage of both the Orioles and the larger picture.
Also, one passage, describing the Highlanders' new ballpark, had me slightly puzzled: "The huge two-dimensional bull rising out of the Bull Durham advertisement on the outfield fence seemed to join in [the excitement]." Surely any representation of a bull, that isn't a statue, will be two-dimensional?

[Dale Stonehouse · Rating 3 out of 5]

An important documentation of baseball history, albeit in a rather dry writing style. All modern ballplayers owe a debt to the Orioles for inventing the hit and run, sacrifice bunt and even the double squeeze play.

[Calvin · Rating 3 out of 5]

lots of fun, as much a book of history as of baseball.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

A ton of great info, awesome read

[B.lyon · Rating 5 out of 5]

actually a good baseball book amongst a sea of crap