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How Baseball Happened: Outrageous Lies Exposed! The True Story Revealed
The fascinating, true, story of baseball’s amateur origins. “Explores the conditions and factors that begat the game in the 19th century and turned it into the national pastime....A delightful look at a young nation creating a pastime that was love from the first crack of the bat.”―Paul Dickson, The Wall Street Journal
Baseball’s true founders don’t have plaques in Cooperstown. The founders were the hundreds of uncredited amateurs ― ordinary people ― who played without gloves, facemasks or performance incentives in the middle decades of the 19th century. Unlike today’s pro athletes, they lived full lives outside of sports. They worked, built businesses and fought against the South in the Civil War.
But that’s not the way the story has been told. The wrongness of baseball history can be staggering. You may have heard that Abner Doubleday or Alexander Cartwright invented baseball. Neither did. You may have been told that a club called the Knickerbockers played the first baseball game in 1846. They didn’t. You have read that baseball’s color line was uncrossed and unchallenged until Jackie Robinson in 1947. Nope. You have been told that the clean, corporate 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings were baseball’s first professional club. Not true. They weren’t the first professionals; they weren’t all that clean, either. You may have heard Cooperstown, Hoboken, or New York City called the birthplace of baseball, but not Brooklyn. Yet Brooklyn was the home of baseball’s first fans, the first ballpark, the first statistics―and modern pitching.
Baseball was originally supposed to be played, not watched. This changed when crowds began to show up at games in Brooklyn in the late 1850s. We fans weren’t invited to the party; we crashed it. Professionalism wasn’t part of the plan either, but when an 1858 Brooklyn versus New York City series accidentally proved that people would pay to see a game, the writing was on the outfield wall.
When the first professional league was formed in 1871, baseball was already a fully formed modern sport with championships, media coverage, and famous stars. Professional baseball invented an organization, but not the sport itself. Baseball’s amazing amateurs had already done that.
Thomas W. Gilbert’s history is for baseball fans and anyone fascinating by history, American culture, and how great things began.
Baseball’s true founders don’t have plaques in Cooperstown. The founders were the hundreds of uncredited amateurs ― ordinary people ― who played without gloves, facemasks or performance incentives in the middle decades of the 19th century. Unlike today’s pro athletes, they lived full lives outside of sports. They worked, built businesses and fought against the South in the Civil War.
But that’s not the way the story has been told. The wrongness of baseball history can be staggering. You may have heard that Abner Doubleday or Alexander Cartwright invented baseball. Neither did. You may have been told that a club called the Knickerbockers played the first baseball game in 1846. They didn’t. You have read that baseball’s color line was uncrossed and unchallenged until Jackie Robinson in 1947. Nope. You have been told that the clean, corporate 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings were baseball’s first professional club. Not true. They weren’t the first professionals; they weren’t all that clean, either. You may have heard Cooperstown, Hoboken, or New York City called the birthplace of baseball, but not Brooklyn. Yet Brooklyn was the home of baseball’s first fans, the first ballpark, the first statistics―and modern pitching.
Baseball was originally supposed to be played, not watched. This changed when crowds began to show up at games in Brooklyn in the late 1850s. We fans weren’t invited to the party; we crashed it. Professionalism wasn’t part of the plan either, but when an 1858 Brooklyn versus New York City series accidentally proved that people would pay to see a game, the writing was on the outfield wall.
When the first professional league was formed in 1871, baseball was already a fully formed modern sport with championships, media coverage, and famous stars. Professional baseball invented an organization, but not the sport itself. Baseball’s amazing amateurs had already done that.
Thomas W. Gilbert’s history is for baseball fans and anyone fascinating by history, American culture, and how great things began.
384 pages, Hardcover
Published September 15, 2020
137 people are currently reading
462 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 69 reviews
October 26, 2020
This book is very well researched. It's its focus on the little minutia and the need to be right that I couldn't get into. When I read a book about baseball history, I want stories, not a research paper or thesis. I often found my mind drifting off as I read this, realizing I hadn't absorbed anything I'd read over the last several pages and needing to go back and re-read it. Abner Doubleday may not have invented baseball but I'll gladly take that story over this one. After all do the origins of a sport from over 150 years ago really matter now? I'll go back to watching the World Series now instead.
Received a review copy from Ingram and Edelweiss. All thoughts are my own and in no way influenced by the aforementioned.
Received a review copy from Ingram and Edelweiss. All thoughts are my own and in no way influenced by the aforementioned.
January 8, 2021
Fascinating.It tickled my interest in the sport itself,technology, economic and historical trends, and helped to connect them to baseball 's development.
August 8, 2022
Love the premise. Did not live the execution. Great stories about the beginning of baseball, but the storytelling was choppy and meandering. It felt like a collection of newspaper articles rather than an actual book. All that being said, baseball is awesome and this book helped to shine a light on the beginning of my fave sport
June 28, 2024
It’s America’s favorite pastime: baseball. Not only did baseball spread across the nation mere decades after its birth, capturing the hearts and minds of millions of native-born Americans and immigrants alike, but it eventually traveled across the world as well, finding a home in places like Australia, Japan, and Cuba.
There are few things America prizes more than baseball and money. But how exactly did their relationship start? The two weren’t always so inextricably linked. What began as a small, locally-played game called “town ball,” quickly morphed into an early form of what we recognize as baseball today. However, the true story of baseball’s origin has long since been muddled, misinterpreted, or just straight up erased in favor of simpler, more coherent narratives. For example, baseball did not evolve from cricket, another popular game at the time. Nor was the game invented by Abner Doubleday, nor was it first played in Cooperstown, New York. There has long been speculation that these false origin stories were more or less fabricated for the personal or financial gain of early 20th century baseball historians. However, Thomas W. Gilbert is here to set the record straight in this wildly interesting and entertaining read.
Instead of a dry, dull historian droning on and on about the intricacies of 19th century player statistics, Gilbert chronicles the rise of baseball’s popularity with wit, passion, and sharply funny insight into the early years of the game. Gilbert has an authoritative but still humorous voice in this book that is both a love letter to early baseball and also a critique of some of its more shameful practices (racial and social exclusion, to name a few). Gilbert does not shy away from the darker moments of baseball’s beginnings, but also provides a loving and detailed account of the sport’s humble start, just after the start of a shaky country desperate to find a national identity.
Baseball was the true unifier; emerging from the Civil War damaged but not destroyed, baseball went on to spread all the way from New York to California, providing America with a much-needed common interest to heal a deeply wounded nation.
History buffs and baseball fans alike will certainly enjoy this read. It is not only a deep-dive into how baseball became the nation-wide money-making conglomerate that it is today, but it also shines a light on the booming economy, budding middle class, and immense cultural diversity of 19th century New York; this is almost as much of an ode to New York as it is to baseball. Most significant, thanks to Thomas W. Gilbert, we finally have the true story of our nation’s favorite pastime.
There are few things America prizes more than baseball and money. But how exactly did their relationship start? The two weren’t always so inextricably linked. What began as a small, locally-played game called “town ball,” quickly morphed into an early form of what we recognize as baseball today. However, the true story of baseball’s origin has long since been muddled, misinterpreted, or just straight up erased in favor of simpler, more coherent narratives. For example, baseball did not evolve from cricket, another popular game at the time. Nor was the game invented by Abner Doubleday, nor was it first played in Cooperstown, New York. There has long been speculation that these false origin stories were more or less fabricated for the personal or financial gain of early 20th century baseball historians. However, Thomas W. Gilbert is here to set the record straight in this wildly interesting and entertaining read.
Instead of a dry, dull historian droning on and on about the intricacies of 19th century player statistics, Gilbert chronicles the rise of baseball’s popularity with wit, passion, and sharply funny insight into the early years of the game. Gilbert has an authoritative but still humorous voice in this book that is both a love letter to early baseball and also a critique of some of its more shameful practices (racial and social exclusion, to name a few). Gilbert does not shy away from the darker moments of baseball’s beginnings, but also provides a loving and detailed account of the sport’s humble start, just after the start of a shaky country desperate to find a national identity.
Baseball was the true unifier; emerging from the Civil War damaged but not destroyed, baseball went on to spread all the way from New York to California, providing America with a much-needed common interest to heal a deeply wounded nation.
History buffs and baseball fans alike will certainly enjoy this read. It is not only a deep-dive into how baseball became the nation-wide money-making conglomerate that it is today, but it also shines a light on the booming economy, budding middle class, and immense cultural diversity of 19th century New York; this is almost as much of an ode to New York as it is to baseball. Most significant, thanks to Thomas W. Gilbert, we finally have the true story of our nation’s favorite pastime.
November 8, 2021
An uneven book. At times, it lost the thread of baseball into a general history of the period and I forgot why the tangent was started. At other times, it addressed some really interesting developments of early baseball.
July 25, 2024
Forget all you ever knew about America’s pastime — it wasn’t invented by Albert Doubleday in Cooperstown, nor did it rise from the ashes of the undefeated Cincinnati Red Stockings; instead, baseball was the emergence of cultural forces in New York in the 1840s and 1850s (specifically, in Brooklyn with its youth and self-creation, alongside the necessary room to spread its roots).
As John Thorn writes in the intro, baseball rose because of three factors: the novelty and excitement of play, the opportunity for urbanites to exercise amid fresh air, and the bidding of national identity, independent of Britain’s cricket.
Gilbert takes us through this rise and a pretty good definitive history of the Amatuer era of basebal — from the propagandizing of baseball, the birth of the modern fan, the marketing that baseball was and is inherently American, and how the early versions of the game were shared among Emerging Urban Bourgeoisie, appealing to “the literate, the forward-looking, and the reform-minded.”
“The Knickerbockers’ style, social exclusivity, and strict amateurism helped to sell baseball to the moralistic Protestant EUB as a participant sport and as an all-American alternative to cricket.” Despite these high hopes, even early baseball was enshroud in gambling (which helped promote and spread baseball) as well as drinking.
We get baseball as an escape from the city, to the rise of Elysian Fields in New Jersey — pleasure ground that targeted patrons who had time, money, and inclination for leisure activities, a new set of activities from a growing middle class.
We also get baseball as an inherently New York sport, offering the “alloy of geography, culture, and history” with “swelling size, wealth, and influence” along with an “island packed with smart, resourceful, and ambitious people” and a mercantile heritage with “ethnic, cultural, and religious diversity [that] gave it a further economic advantage”
And we get baseball as a way to exercise: “the success of baseball as a national participant sport fundamentally and forever changed American attitudes toward sports, exercise, and health.”
Of course, Gilbert also mixes a fair amount of raw history into this book, including the creation of the strike zone, overhand pitch, nine-inning play, etc., most of which were agreed upon in an effort to standardize and ultimately spread baseball throughout the country. And all that history wasn;t strictly baseball.
We get a lot about the aforementioned New York, but we also get a lot about industrial America in the late 19th century, connected by railroads that not only connected commerce but also ball clubs traveling from park to park. Both baseball teams and railroads started as “local, unconnected subcultures” and grew “systemized, standardized, and organized into instruments of national unification.”
The Civil War threw a wrench in baseball, but baseball also grew out of the Civil War, with army and POW camps spreading the game across the United States, complementing the pent-up demand built up during the war.
Finally we end with the end of the Amatruer Era, when clubs began contracting and paying its players, creating players that were commodities. In that way the Amatuer Era concluded because baseball had gotten so popular, with fans and money involved, that to paay players was teh natural progression for the sport, pulling the roots out from under each team and their regional influences to a more national game with players signing from team to team, regardless of hometown.
Concluding nicely in the Afterward, Gilbert writes, “The purpose of the amateur baseball movement was not only to build a better, healthier future and a more unified nation, but also to preserve that physicality and fraternity of traditional city culture, a culture that was endangered by the Industrial Revolution and the emergence of the modern middle class. When we build a green baseball diamond… we are reviving the ancient joy in youth, physical exercise, and companionship that enriched urban life and that the sport of baseball was created to save.”
As John Thorn writes in the intro, baseball rose because of three factors: the novelty and excitement of play, the opportunity for urbanites to exercise amid fresh air, and the bidding of national identity, independent of Britain’s cricket.
Gilbert takes us through this rise and a pretty good definitive history of the Amatuer era of basebal — from the propagandizing of baseball, the birth of the modern fan, the marketing that baseball was and is inherently American, and how the early versions of the game were shared among Emerging Urban Bourgeoisie, appealing to “the literate, the forward-looking, and the reform-minded.”
“The Knickerbockers’ style, social exclusivity, and strict amateurism helped to sell baseball to the moralistic Protestant EUB as a participant sport and as an all-American alternative to cricket.” Despite these high hopes, even early baseball was enshroud in gambling (which helped promote and spread baseball) as well as drinking.
We get baseball as an escape from the city, to the rise of Elysian Fields in New Jersey — pleasure ground that targeted patrons who had time, money, and inclination for leisure activities, a new set of activities from a growing middle class.
We also get baseball as an inherently New York sport, offering the “alloy of geography, culture, and history” with “swelling size, wealth, and influence” along with an “island packed with smart, resourceful, and ambitious people” and a mercantile heritage with “ethnic, cultural, and religious diversity [that] gave it a further economic advantage”
And we get baseball as a way to exercise: “the success of baseball as a national participant sport fundamentally and forever changed American attitudes toward sports, exercise, and health.”
Of course, Gilbert also mixes a fair amount of raw history into this book, including the creation of the strike zone, overhand pitch, nine-inning play, etc., most of which were agreed upon in an effort to standardize and ultimately spread baseball throughout the country. And all that history wasn;t strictly baseball.
We get a lot about the aforementioned New York, but we also get a lot about industrial America in the late 19th century, connected by railroads that not only connected commerce but also ball clubs traveling from park to park. Both baseball teams and railroads started as “local, unconnected subcultures” and grew “systemized, standardized, and organized into instruments of national unification.”
The Civil War threw a wrench in baseball, but baseball also grew out of the Civil War, with army and POW camps spreading the game across the United States, complementing the pent-up demand built up during the war.
Finally we end with the end of the Amatruer Era, when clubs began contracting and paying its players, creating players that were commodities. In that way the Amatuer Era concluded because baseball had gotten so popular, with fans and money involved, that to paay players was teh natural progression for the sport, pulling the roots out from under each team and their regional influences to a more national game with players signing from team to team, regardless of hometown.
Concluding nicely in the Afterward, Gilbert writes, “The purpose of the amateur baseball movement was not only to build a better, healthier future and a more unified nation, but also to preserve that physicality and fraternity of traditional city culture, a culture that was endangered by the Industrial Revolution and the emergence of the modern middle class. When we build a green baseball diamond… we are reviving the ancient joy in youth, physical exercise, and companionship that enriched urban life and that the sport of baseball was created to save.”
November 10, 2020
Gilbert has one mission in mind: to destroy the conventional wisdom behind all of baseball's origin stories.
Abner Doubleday invented baseball in Cooperstown, New York? A lie.
The 1845 New York Knickerbockers (not to be confused with the basketball team) was the first organized baseball club? Another lie.
The Cincinnati Red Stockings were the first professional baseball team? More bullshit.
While it is perhaps impossible to know the exact origins of baseball since bat-and-ball games have existed for centuries, these origin stories were accepted and advanced by the baseball establishment because they were a great way to market the sport nationally. These faulty origin stories were used to sell the idea that baseball was strictly an American sport (and an alternative to cricket) and designed to appeal to the sensibilities of the middle- and upper-classes.
Though this book is about 50 pages too long, it is a surprisingly entertaining book about nineteenth century baseball.
Abner Doubleday invented baseball in Cooperstown, New York? A lie.
The 1845 New York Knickerbockers (not to be confused with the basketball team) was the first organized baseball club? Another lie.
The Cincinnati Red Stockings were the first professional baseball team? More bullshit.
While it is perhaps impossible to know the exact origins of baseball since bat-and-ball games have existed for centuries, these origin stories were accepted and advanced by the baseball establishment because they were a great way to market the sport nationally. These faulty origin stories were used to sell the idea that baseball was strictly an American sport (and an alternative to cricket) and designed to appeal to the sensibilities of the middle- and upper-classes.
Though this book is about 50 pages too long, it is a surprisingly entertaining book about nineteenth century baseball.
May 22, 2023
One of the most detailed and interesting books on baseball history I've read. As the title suggests, it presents itself as the "true" history of the game and does a good job of supporting that premise. The era of the game it examines is that of the 19th century and attempts to sweep away most of baseball's origin stories and replace them with what the author posits is the actual/factual history of America's pastime. The detail the book contains makes it hard to argue the author's points, but I found some of the detail hard to follow while listening to the audiobook. Keeping track of all the names and places would probably have been easier for me if I had been reading rather than listening, which is why I ordered a paperback copy to reread later.
What I found more enjoyable than the facts was the dry humor. The narrator's (George Newbern) interpretation of the humor is very near perfect, and he sometimes comes across as almost snarky...which I loved.
What I found more enjoyable than the facts was the dry humor. The narrator's (George Newbern) interpretation of the humor is very near perfect, and he sometimes comes across as almost snarky...which I loved.
June 23, 2022
DNF.
A more accurate title would have been New York City: A 19th Century Baseball History. This book goes into exhausting detail about the the development of NYC and the economic histories of the people involved in creating baseball institutions, but not the game itself.
This is not a book about the origins of baseball, because the author defines origin of baseball as when was it first played in an organized fashion by adults. Where the adults got the idea of baseball from is not something the author explores.
A more accurate title would have been New York City: A 19th Century Baseball History. This book goes into exhausting detail about the the development of NYC and the economic histories of the people involved in creating baseball institutions, but not the game itself.
This is not a book about the origins of baseball, because the author defines origin of baseball as when was it first played in an organized fashion by adults. Where the adults got the idea of baseball from is not something the author explores.
September 28, 2020
In this, the Summer of the Plague, you know, the Summer when there was no real baseball, I was looking for some books on baseball as it used to be.....the early days.....in the beginning, that early. Those were the days when the players played not for money but for pride and enjoyment, not to mention, the exercise. And this looked like it might be a good book to dive into and re-live some of those early days.
Unfortunately, it didn't fulfill all those expectations. While it did go into those early days, and discussed some of the early players and the early days, the author (who lives in Brooklyn) spent too much time trying to convince the reader that baseball originated in Brooklyn and does make a halfway decent case for it. Too much time is spent however in denigrating the other teams which have a claim to being the first team as well. Actually, it all depends upon whether you're talking about amateur baseball or baseball that went one step beyond, but wasn't totally professional.
And, entirely too much time is spent in some instances in discussing the genealogy of certain players and/or possible founders of the game......do we really need 3 pages on the genealogy of someone who was arguably, a somewhat minor figure? I think not.
Also, it seems the author is in love with the word "bullshit" which he uses frequently to describe things with which he disagrees. There are other words and I'm no prude, but other words would have worked just as well.
I will give him credit for research - it has been meticulously researched and you can't fault the author for that.
Maybe it's just his writing style - have you ever had difficulty with a book because you couldn't really get into the author's writing style? Perhaps that's why I was disappointed to a certain extent with this book - which I'm sure others will praise and laud and say I'm crazy - well, that's there opinion - I just had a difficult time with the writing style for some reason.
In all fairness again, I think it's safe to say we both agree baseball wasn't invented by Abner Doubleday in Cooperstown, New York in 1839.
Overall, this is one of those books that had it's moments, such as his discussion of James Creighton, an early pitcher from the days when the pitcher tossed underhand, and the possibility Creighton invented the curve ball. Even though his career was cut short by his premature death at age 21, he did more for baseball than some who are in the Hall of Fame and the author and I can both agree that Creighton belongs there.
Like I said, the book has its moments. Definitely for the person who is interested in the early history of the game. But, I think I prefer John Thorn's "Baseball in the Garden of Eden" more.
Unfortunately, it didn't fulfill all those expectations. While it did go into those early days, and discussed some of the early players and the early days, the author (who lives in Brooklyn) spent too much time trying to convince the reader that baseball originated in Brooklyn and does make a halfway decent case for it. Too much time is spent however in denigrating the other teams which have a claim to being the first team as well. Actually, it all depends upon whether you're talking about amateur baseball or baseball that went one step beyond, but wasn't totally professional.
And, entirely too much time is spent in some instances in discussing the genealogy of certain players and/or possible founders of the game......do we really need 3 pages on the genealogy of someone who was arguably, a somewhat minor figure? I think not.
Also, it seems the author is in love with the word "bullshit" which he uses frequently to describe things with which he disagrees. There are other words and I'm no prude, but other words would have worked just as well.
I will give him credit for research - it has been meticulously researched and you can't fault the author for that.
Maybe it's just his writing style - have you ever had difficulty with a book because you couldn't really get into the author's writing style? Perhaps that's why I was disappointed to a certain extent with this book - which I'm sure others will praise and laud and say I'm crazy - well, that's there opinion - I just had a difficult time with the writing style for some reason.
In all fairness again, I think it's safe to say we both agree baseball wasn't invented by Abner Doubleday in Cooperstown, New York in 1839.
Overall, this is one of those books that had it's moments, such as his discussion of James Creighton, an early pitcher from the days when the pitcher tossed underhand, and the possibility Creighton invented the curve ball. Even though his career was cut short by his premature death at age 21, he did more for baseball than some who are in the Hall of Fame and the author and I can both agree that Creighton belongs there.
Like I said, the book has its moments. Definitely for the person who is interested in the early history of the game. But, I think I prefer John Thorn's "Baseball in the Garden of Eden" more.
March 17, 2022
That Abner Doubleday didn't 'invent' baseball in Cooperstown NY is pretty well known by today's fans of the game. Beyond that, Gilbert busts other theories and myths about the origins of the game in this very well researched work. Instead, he presents a messy and non-linear path through the nineteenth century. He goes deep into people and places long forgotten. It is a wonderful job of striking the balance that gives those who are not personally deeply entrenched in historical research an introduction to the characters who shaped the game, but also makes it entertaining for us who share his passion for the factual origins of the National Pastime.
March 16, 2021
Truly one of the best books I've ever read. My knowledge of the creation myth of baseball was honestly pretty limited beyond the fables surround Abner Doubleday, but Gilbert's engaging storytelling kept a lively narrative of the early characters and places in a young country and a brand new game.
Gilbert really detailed how he accomplished some of the harder bits of research, which probably won't appeal to everyone, but history wonks will be totally in their element and appreciate his efforts. I've already recommended this to non-baseball fans for the details surrounding the early days of New York/Brooklyn/Hoboken and everything in baseball's periphery at the time, which in many cases were astounding.
Gilbert really detailed how he accomplished some of the harder bits of research, which probably won't appeal to everyone, but history wonks will be totally in their element and appreciate his efforts. I've already recommended this to non-baseball fans for the details surrounding the early days of New York/Brooklyn/Hoboken and everything in baseball's periphery at the time, which in many cases were astounding.
June 30, 2021
The book should be renamed, "How New York Happened and some baseball stories." The author spends too much time focusing on Brooklyn landmarks, New York society, and the lineage of people who are trivial to the story of baseball. However, it was a nice history book... just wish it had more baseball in it.
June 18, 2022
I've read a number of histories of early baseball, either about the game's evolution, its early great players, or remarkable seasons. So while I didn't feel I needed to dive into it further, I picked up this book at a library sale and started reading. It's excellent, with an interesting thesis that is well-proven in an entertaining way.
The book's author, a Brooklynite, makes the case that Brooklyn is the true home of what we consider to be "real" baseball. Author Thomas Gilbert easily demolishes the Abner Doubleday and Alexander Cartwright myths, and he explains briefly why the powers-that-were had decided to push those narratives. Gilbert also dismisses the idea that baseball is basically English rounders or another game, with minor modifications. Instead, he embarks on a proof that baseball is mostly an American invention that arose in New York City probably in the 1830s and was codified by highly competitive teams in Brooklyn and NYC in the 1840s. The leaders of those teams evangelized the game across the growing United States through barnstorming contests and by the efforts of individuals who set out as entrepreneurs on emerging frontiers such as Cincinnati and San Francisco. All roads trace back to NYC and Brooklyn.
By baseball, Gilbert means a game played with bases 90 feet apart, 9 players to a side, outs made by catching the ball or beating a runner to a base or tagging him with the ball (rather than hitting him with it). He also means games played for spectators to watch, rather than merely intramural contests between members of exclusionary clubs who played against themselves. That last requirement pulls in the Brooklyn teams, which were pioneers in challenging other clubs and in building permanent structures to accommodate fans (and charge them admission).
Little of that narrative would be disputed by anyone who's read beyond the weakest "baseball is a pastoral game" histories. What's a bit new is that Gilbert places the emphasis squarely on the rising classes of doctors, skilled tradesmen, bankers, railroad and shipping workers, and others of the emergent capitalist economy. He argues that these men had the interest, means, determination, and opportunity to build baseball into America's pastime. The key for these men was to encourage outdoor activity as an antidote to the toxicity of life in urban centers in the 19th century. Over and over, Gilbert shows how medical men were prime movers for teams. At the same time, he shows that other teams were built by men associated with the emerging industries of the time, which Gilbert attributes to their character (entrepreneurs always interested in the new thing) and opportunity (wealth that afforded them some leisure time). It all makes sense to me.
Gilbert's secondary purpose in explaining baseball's evolution is to place it in the context of a nation becoming a manufacturing power and starting to urbanize, while also expanding to the south and west. The same people, the same forces of the culture, that were transforming America were also involved in baseball. (For good and bad, as the game was highly associated with gamblers and racists even in those early days.) Baseball as a national game was seen as one way to knit the country together, though Gilbert explains that baseball severely exaggerated its importance to the national fabric in mythologizing itself after the Civil War. At the same time, it tried to ignore the fact that it was an urban game that city dwellers brought to suburbanites (Boston) and the countryside, rather than the other way around.
Gilbert lays all this out in extensive details, with rosters of teams and explanations of how the game was played -- such as that batters didn't have to swing until they wanted to, thus leaving pitchers to occasionally thrown 80 pitches per inning. His mini-histories of how a player came to the game and his impact are interesting. And there are fascinating asides about how language of the day crept into baseball, such as railroad "schedules" to "doubleheaders" (two railcars pulling a train). Or how other words came into being, such as "commuter," which was railroads "commuting" part of their freight rate to encourage individuals to use the trains as well.
If I have one quibble with the book, it's that the detail is occasionally boring. I skimmed over lists of teams in various leagues, for example. The book has a number of insert mini-chapters which duplicate information that's in the same main chapter, often on the facing page. I have no idea what the benefit of those mini-chapters is supposed to be. Similarly, some main points are repeated way too often, as if the author thinks we have no attention span. But I've found that to be a problem in a lot of history books written in the last decade, so maybe it's conscious decision these days.
Anyway, if you already know a fair amount about baseball, this will add to your depth of knowledge. If you are interested in US history, this will supplement your knowledge about the culture from the 1840s to 1870s. And if you just like entertaining reading, this will serve you as well.
The book's author, a Brooklynite, makes the case that Brooklyn is the true home of what we consider to be "real" baseball. Author Thomas Gilbert easily demolishes the Abner Doubleday and Alexander Cartwright myths, and he explains briefly why the powers-that-were had decided to push those narratives. Gilbert also dismisses the idea that baseball is basically English rounders or another game, with minor modifications. Instead, he embarks on a proof that baseball is mostly an American invention that arose in New York City probably in the 1830s and was codified by highly competitive teams in Brooklyn and NYC in the 1840s. The leaders of those teams evangelized the game across the growing United States through barnstorming contests and by the efforts of individuals who set out as entrepreneurs on emerging frontiers such as Cincinnati and San Francisco. All roads trace back to NYC and Brooklyn.
By baseball, Gilbert means a game played with bases 90 feet apart, 9 players to a side, outs made by catching the ball or beating a runner to a base or tagging him with the ball (rather than hitting him with it). He also means games played for spectators to watch, rather than merely intramural contests between members of exclusionary clubs who played against themselves. That last requirement pulls in the Brooklyn teams, which were pioneers in challenging other clubs and in building permanent structures to accommodate fans (and charge them admission).
Little of that narrative would be disputed by anyone who's read beyond the weakest "baseball is a pastoral game" histories. What's a bit new is that Gilbert places the emphasis squarely on the rising classes of doctors, skilled tradesmen, bankers, railroad and shipping workers, and others of the emergent capitalist economy. He argues that these men had the interest, means, determination, and opportunity to build baseball into America's pastime. The key for these men was to encourage outdoor activity as an antidote to the toxicity of life in urban centers in the 19th century. Over and over, Gilbert shows how medical men were prime movers for teams. At the same time, he shows that other teams were built by men associated with the emerging industries of the time, which Gilbert attributes to their character (entrepreneurs always interested in the new thing) and opportunity (wealth that afforded them some leisure time). It all makes sense to me.
Gilbert's secondary purpose in explaining baseball's evolution is to place it in the context of a nation becoming a manufacturing power and starting to urbanize, while also expanding to the south and west. The same people, the same forces of the culture, that were transforming America were also involved in baseball. (For good and bad, as the game was highly associated with gamblers and racists even in those early days.) Baseball as a national game was seen as one way to knit the country together, though Gilbert explains that baseball severely exaggerated its importance to the national fabric in mythologizing itself after the Civil War. At the same time, it tried to ignore the fact that it was an urban game that city dwellers brought to suburbanites (Boston) and the countryside, rather than the other way around.
Gilbert lays all this out in extensive details, with rosters of teams and explanations of how the game was played -- such as that batters didn't have to swing until they wanted to, thus leaving pitchers to occasionally thrown 80 pitches per inning. His mini-histories of how a player came to the game and his impact are interesting. And there are fascinating asides about how language of the day crept into baseball, such as railroad "schedules" to "doubleheaders" (two railcars pulling a train). Or how other words came into being, such as "commuter," which was railroads "commuting" part of their freight rate to encourage individuals to use the trains as well.
If I have one quibble with the book, it's that the detail is occasionally boring. I skimmed over lists of teams in various leagues, for example. The book has a number of insert mini-chapters which duplicate information that's in the same main chapter, often on the facing page. I have no idea what the benefit of those mini-chapters is supposed to be. Similarly, some main points are repeated way too often, as if the author thinks we have no attention span. But I've found that to be a problem in a lot of history books written in the last decade, so maybe it's conscious decision these days.
Anyway, if you already know a fair amount about baseball, this will add to your depth of knowledge. If you are interested in US history, this will supplement your knowledge about the culture from the 1840s to 1870s. And if you just like entertaining reading, this will serve you as well.
March 20, 2025
I have always loved these cultural histories of America. Really interesting book, although there were times I wish he would have focused on other stuff than what he did.
April 6, 2024
How Baseball Happened: Outrageous Lies Exposed! The True Story Revealed is a somewhat entertaining tale of how America's pastime came to gain that bragging right.
As its title indicates, the book attempts to set the record straight with regard to how baseball got its start. Readers need to approach it without expecting to hear about a bunch of analytics or data; instead, author Thomas W. Gilbert emphasized a series of truths about the game's origins. It strictly focuses on the mid-to-late nineteenth century version of the game with little reference to how it has evolved to the MLB of today.
One thing which comes through is the centrality of New York to the sport of baseball.
While Philadelphia had a similar game which went by the name of town ball in the early to mid nineteenth century, it was the Brooklyn version of the game which ultimately won out as the accepted form of the sport. While a New York form of the game was played as early as the 1830s (as indicated by box scores in newspapers), it really seemed to take off after the 1860s.
Gilbert emphasizes just how amateur the game was before the 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings made official what had become a downplayed but nevertheless under the table aspect of baseball: remuneration of players for their time and skills. The Red Stockings traveled more than any team before them, and their 80+ game winning streak is discussed in the pages of How Baseball Happened.
The foundation of the National Association of Professional Baseball Players (NAPBP) in 1871 was a big part of the game's professionalization, and the book takes care to look at how this organization ushered in the move away from amateur status.
Expect to hear quite a bit about teams like the Brooklyn (and other cities with the team name) Excelsiors, the New York Mutuals, Brooklyn Atlantics, and Philadelphia Athletics.
Gilbert does go out of his way to talk about how the likes of Henry Chadwick and Asa Brainard played roles in popularizing the sport, and there are some interesting tidbits about the Bowery Boys and Tammany Hall's role in the game's development. The New York Knickerbockers and the role of class-based groups in the early evolution of baseball come into play early on.
At times, the book brings together the story of baseball with the story of the United States in the 1830s-1870s.
There are some little known anecdotes revealed: that early forms of baseball saw teams playing first to 21 runs-or sundown, whichever happened first-instead of nine innings. That teams did not at first play with gloves, resulting in games where catchers would reach double digits in passed balls, was another element of the game rendered unrecognizable today.
There is not an excessive focus on individual players, but Jim Creighton's transformation of the position of pitcher in the 1860s is one which the book can in no way overlook.
To hear Gilbert tell it, the sport was not quite the post-Civil War north south/uniter some of its promoters credited it with being. It might have helped on the margins, but the author indicates this was a bit overblown. But one thing which does come through is that it won out over cricket in the years following the war. The Britishness of the latter sport clearly put it a disadvantage in a relatively young nation looking for its own identity.
So with regard to baseball's "founders"...What about Abner Doubleday? How about Alexander Cartwright? Gilbert credits these guys with doing a lot for the sport, but the main point he drives home is that many individuals playing the game for pleasure on their own volition were the ones responsible for helping baseball gain its America's pastime status.
How Baseball Happened is a so-so recounting of baseball's evolution. It is by no means a terrible work of nonfiction, and readers will gain some knowledge of how the sport moved from a fun neighborhood/after work activity to a multi-billion dollar industry.
It is not, however, a knock out of the park. The pacing is pedestrian and the layout of the presentation is a bit scattershot, making for a sports book which earns an average rating.
-Andrew Canfield Denver, Colorado
As its title indicates, the book attempts to set the record straight with regard to how baseball got its start. Readers need to approach it without expecting to hear about a bunch of analytics or data; instead, author Thomas W. Gilbert emphasized a series of truths about the game's origins. It strictly focuses on the mid-to-late nineteenth century version of the game with little reference to how it has evolved to the MLB of today.
One thing which comes through is the centrality of New York to the sport of baseball.
While Philadelphia had a similar game which went by the name of town ball in the early to mid nineteenth century, it was the Brooklyn version of the game which ultimately won out as the accepted form of the sport. While a New York form of the game was played as early as the 1830s (as indicated by box scores in newspapers), it really seemed to take off after the 1860s.
Gilbert emphasizes just how amateur the game was before the 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings made official what had become a downplayed but nevertheless under the table aspect of baseball: remuneration of players for their time and skills. The Red Stockings traveled more than any team before them, and their 80+ game winning streak is discussed in the pages of How Baseball Happened.
The foundation of the National Association of Professional Baseball Players (NAPBP) in 1871 was a big part of the game's professionalization, and the book takes care to look at how this organization ushered in the move away from amateur status.
Expect to hear quite a bit about teams like the Brooklyn (and other cities with the team name) Excelsiors, the New York Mutuals, Brooklyn Atlantics, and Philadelphia Athletics.
Gilbert does go out of his way to talk about how the likes of Henry Chadwick and Asa Brainard played roles in popularizing the sport, and there are some interesting tidbits about the Bowery Boys and Tammany Hall's role in the game's development. The New York Knickerbockers and the role of class-based groups in the early evolution of baseball come into play early on.
At times, the book brings together the story of baseball with the story of the United States in the 1830s-1870s.
There are some little known anecdotes revealed: that early forms of baseball saw teams playing first to 21 runs-or sundown, whichever happened first-instead of nine innings. That teams did not at first play with gloves, resulting in games where catchers would reach double digits in passed balls, was another element of the game rendered unrecognizable today.
There is not an excessive focus on individual players, but Jim Creighton's transformation of the position of pitcher in the 1860s is one which the book can in no way overlook.
To hear Gilbert tell it, the sport was not quite the post-Civil War north south/uniter some of its promoters credited it with being. It might have helped on the margins, but the author indicates this was a bit overblown. But one thing which does come through is that it won out over cricket in the years following the war. The Britishness of the latter sport clearly put it a disadvantage in a relatively young nation looking for its own identity.
So with regard to baseball's "founders"...What about Abner Doubleday? How about Alexander Cartwright? Gilbert credits these guys with doing a lot for the sport, but the main point he drives home is that many individuals playing the game for pleasure on their own volition were the ones responsible for helping baseball gain its America's pastime status.
How Baseball Happened is a so-so recounting of baseball's evolution. It is by no means a terrible work of nonfiction, and readers will gain some knowledge of how the sport moved from a fun neighborhood/after work activity to a multi-billion dollar industry.
It is not, however, a knock out of the park. The pacing is pedestrian and the layout of the presentation is a bit scattershot, making for a sports book which earns an average rating.
-Andrew Canfield Denver, Colorado
February 24, 2022
If it weren’t for that 7th grade cosmology lesson, which apparently used multiple colored Sharpie pens to sketch an indelible picture in my mind of the expanding universe, I may have rated this deeply-researched work by Thomas W. Gilbert higher than three stars, and I may not have been left with an annoying feeling.
Gilbert’s deep, narrow dive into baseball’s nascent era is set amid the backdrop of mid-19th century east coast America, mostly New York. The dive is, at times, interesting, but often goes so deep as to confound efforts to maintain focus and continuity. While Gilbert tenaciously ferrets out story after story of base ball’s interdependence with contemporary society, many of the stories reveal some very depressing societal warts. After finishing this read, if not for my stunted optimism that each generation gently, almost imperceptibly, nudges the needle of inherent goodness in the positive direction, I could easily have ended up out on a ledge somewhere in the big city, determined to end it all, convinced humanity is dark and doomed.
More detrimental to my appreciation for this work than those challenging deep societal dives is how barely a page goes by without Gilbert reminding us how central New York and New Yorkers were to the standardization and spread of base ball. Granted, many New Yorkers, with their money, the leisure-time afforded them by their privileged social statuses, and their travels for business or military purposes, were integral to the spread of base ball. However, Gilbert stresses the New Yorkers’ roles so doggedly, often in a tone making it sound as if New Yorkers have some inherent quality that makes all other lesser citizens want to follow them like Mary’s little lamb, that it quickly becomes cloying.
In that seventh grade cosmology lesson the teacher demonstrated how a spotted balloon could represent the expanding universe. Picture yourself on any of the many spots on the balloon, and watch as we inflate the balloon. Note how the other spots all seem to be moving away from your spot, as if you were the center of the universe. Pick another spot. Your new spot seems to be at the center of the expanding universe. Pick another. And another. The results are the same. Every spot seems to be the center of the universe if that is where you focus. Every time Gilbert brags about New York or a New Yorker all I could see is that spotted balloon. I would have loved it if instead of just giving cursory mentions to town ball in Philadelphia or the fastpitch version of the game in Boston he dug deeper into those alternate versions of the game. I suspect those pastimes too, if examined exclusively, would also appear to be at the center of the expanding baseball universe. I’d venture to say every related game had its role to play, its characters worthy of mention. Yet Gilbert is focused almost exclusively on New York.
So, thanks to that indelible cosmological memory from over 50 years ago I couldn’t help but de-star my review. You sit on one spot and one spot only then that spot is going to appear to be the center of the expanding universe. Thinking about that choice of focusing almost exclusively on one spot leads me to the vexatious feeling that the voice I hear narrating How Baseball Happened is coming from one of those fans who has joyously been predicting a subway Series every Spring since 1970.
Of course I predict a Phillies’ championship 8 out of every 10 years, so…
Gilbert’s deep, narrow dive into baseball’s nascent era is set amid the backdrop of mid-19th century east coast America, mostly New York. The dive is, at times, interesting, but often goes so deep as to confound efforts to maintain focus and continuity. While Gilbert tenaciously ferrets out story after story of base ball’s interdependence with contemporary society, many of the stories reveal some very depressing societal warts. After finishing this read, if not for my stunted optimism that each generation gently, almost imperceptibly, nudges the needle of inherent goodness in the positive direction, I could easily have ended up out on a ledge somewhere in the big city, determined to end it all, convinced humanity is dark and doomed.
More detrimental to my appreciation for this work than those challenging deep societal dives is how barely a page goes by without Gilbert reminding us how central New York and New Yorkers were to the standardization and spread of base ball. Granted, many New Yorkers, with their money, the leisure-time afforded them by their privileged social statuses, and their travels for business or military purposes, were integral to the spread of base ball. However, Gilbert stresses the New Yorkers’ roles so doggedly, often in a tone making it sound as if New Yorkers have some inherent quality that makes all other lesser citizens want to follow them like Mary’s little lamb, that it quickly becomes cloying.
In that seventh grade cosmology lesson the teacher demonstrated how a spotted balloon could represent the expanding universe. Picture yourself on any of the many spots on the balloon, and watch as we inflate the balloon. Note how the other spots all seem to be moving away from your spot, as if you were the center of the universe. Pick another spot. Your new spot seems to be at the center of the expanding universe. Pick another. And another. The results are the same. Every spot seems to be the center of the universe if that is where you focus. Every time Gilbert brags about New York or a New Yorker all I could see is that spotted balloon. I would have loved it if instead of just giving cursory mentions to town ball in Philadelphia or the fastpitch version of the game in Boston he dug deeper into those alternate versions of the game. I suspect those pastimes too, if examined exclusively, would also appear to be at the center of the expanding baseball universe. I’d venture to say every related game had its role to play, its characters worthy of mention. Yet Gilbert is focused almost exclusively on New York.
So, thanks to that indelible cosmological memory from over 50 years ago I couldn’t help but de-star my review. You sit on one spot and one spot only then that spot is going to appear to be the center of the expanding universe. Thinking about that choice of focusing almost exclusively on one spot leads me to the vexatious feeling that the voice I hear narrating How Baseball Happened is coming from one of those fans who has joyously been predicting a subway Series every Spring since 1970.
Of course I predict a Phillies’ championship 8 out of every 10 years, so…
May 5, 2023
How Baseball Happened is a revisionist history of early baseball that attacks some of the Official Stories put out by the professional leagues– like that baseball’s official rules were created by the Civil War general Doubleday; that the Cinncinati Red Stockings were the first professional team, and that Jackie Robinson was the first black man to play pro ball. The Doubleday story is low-hanging fruit at this point, as there’s nothing to substantiate it at all, but Gilbert also tags out other ideas about baseball’s early history, arguing against it being evolved from rounders. The book is strongest at its beginning, because once it passes the midpoint Gilbert tends to wander off course, passing not only the foul line but exiting the stadium completely — as he did when he got into the extensive genealogy of someone tangentially connected to JFK, or to the business enterprises of players, and made me despair that I was not reading the physical book and couldn’t just skip ahead to something with a baseball connection. Race is a frequent theme in the book, as things were less organized and more fluid in the days of amateur ball, and the color line of the professional organizations hadn’t been adopted yet, let alone been broken by Jackie Robinson. Gilbert argues that baseball more or less organically, with the rules-as-we-know them developing in New York and then steadily growing in popularity. Its history was tied to the history of the United States throughout the 20th century, the Civil War exposing soldiers from across the country to the sport (including down South, where prisoners of war sometimes played it to pass time. Urbanization and the trends that followed — cheap newspapers, for instance — also played their part. Key to the professionalization of baseball was that people kept showing up uninvited to watch it: ball clubs were strictly self-organized things, often growing out of other organizations (like a musicians’ group!) who wanted to have a good time playing ball against other organizations, and the men playing always had day jobs: there were rules, in fact, against paying players and making the sport a mercenary advertised. The ball club was a club, not a business enterprise, but as crowds willing to pay to watch the games continued to arrive, eventually the innocence of youth was destroyed and now we have the MLB, whose teams frequently have no real connection or loyalty to the cities that host them. This title was frequently interesting, especially in the beginning but got off-topic much too often for me. This one is close to eleven hours long and has a good narrator, George Newbern.
May 21, 2021
This was my third baseball book this spring (I usually read just two). I forgot I ordered it from the library, actually. It took so long to come! So I got distracted and read other books. Then it surprised me by showing up.
I liked it, though past the halfway mark Gilbert got a little into the weeds. He taught me something about baseball that I thought was really interesting, though, and that I can't remember ever being covered in other baseball books. Gilbert takes you back to the world of 1840s NYC/Brooklyn, where these neighborhood and kind of "guild" associations started forming into baseball clubs for fun. There were already cricket clubs, but they were kind of fancy and took themselves more seriously, and baseball seemed distinctly "American." So the early world of baseball was made up of these clubs that were actually clubs, and often all the guys on the team were also part of the same firefighter unit (those were all private clubs too) or later, militia/Civil War unit (also organized privately), or maybe they are all meatpackers or something. One interesting thing Gilbert points out is you can learn something about these people from the names of the clubs - you start getting names like Unions or Nationals which tells you about political affiliation.
He also gives some detail about how the New York game came to take over for the Philadelphia game, and the Massachusetts game, and there are some fascinating details here about connections - New York had shipping connections to New Orleans, and to Portland, Maine, so New York style baseball got to those places pretty quick, even as people in, say, Boston, were playing the Massachusetts style game.
Anyway, pleasant little read. I read some of this on a beautiful May afternoon at Castle Island, watching the boats and listening to the Red Sox take the lead, lose the lead, take the lead, lose it again, and then finally pull off a win. Much better than last year's pandemic baseball books, when baseball was on hiatus and everything was depressing.
I liked it, though past the halfway mark Gilbert got a little into the weeds. He taught me something about baseball that I thought was really interesting, though, and that I can't remember ever being covered in other baseball books. Gilbert takes you back to the world of 1840s NYC/Brooklyn, where these neighborhood and kind of "guild" associations started forming into baseball clubs for fun. There were already cricket clubs, but they were kind of fancy and took themselves more seriously, and baseball seemed distinctly "American." So the early world of baseball was made up of these clubs that were actually clubs, and often all the guys on the team were also part of the same firefighter unit (those were all private clubs too) or later, militia/Civil War unit (also organized privately), or maybe they are all meatpackers or something. One interesting thing Gilbert points out is you can learn something about these people from the names of the clubs - you start getting names like Unions or Nationals which tells you about political affiliation.
He also gives some detail about how the New York game came to take over for the Philadelphia game, and the Massachusetts game, and there are some fascinating details here about connections - New York had shipping connections to New Orleans, and to Portland, Maine, so New York style baseball got to those places pretty quick, even as people in, say, Boston, were playing the Massachusetts style game.
Anyway, pleasant little read. I read some of this on a beautiful May afternoon at Castle Island, watching the boats and listening to the Red Sox take the lead, lose the lead, take the lead, lose it again, and then finally pull off a win. Much better than last year's pandemic baseball books, when baseball was on hiatus and everything was depressing.
July 16, 2022
I decided to read this book because I am a relatively new baseball fan who was curious about the origins of baseball, and, wow, was this book ever not for me.
The book's premise is "everything you know about the history of baseball is wrong," and that doesn't really work well when you know nothing about the history of baseball because it assumes you know everything it's disproving and mostly doesn't tell you what the things it's disproving actually are.
Apparently baseball as we know it grew organically out of the bat and ball game played in NYC, which was eventually popularized and spread out across the country via the new rail networks to displace the existing bat and ball games already played locally in various cities, given a boost by the number of people getting together to fight the Civil War. It also beat out cricket, although some of the first baseball players were cricketers, because of extreme anti-English prejudice, so it was easy to sell baseball as an American game. And while this was the Amateur Era and no one was officially getting paid to play, a bunch of people seem to have been getting paid under the table. I have no idea which parts of this are controversial, but there you go.
There's also a lot of discussion of economics and demographics, which I liked, but if you're here for baseball and only baseball you may not be interested in the discussions of the class, race, and gender of baseball players.
So, overall it was a decent book but it was clearly meant for Advanced Baseball History class and not Baseball History 101 and I feel like there was probably a book I should have read first but I have no idea what that book would have been.
The book's premise is "everything you know about the history of baseball is wrong," and that doesn't really work well when you know nothing about the history of baseball because it assumes you know everything it's disproving and mostly doesn't tell you what the things it's disproving actually are.
Apparently baseball as we know it grew organically out of the bat and ball game played in NYC, which was eventually popularized and spread out across the country via the new rail networks to displace the existing bat and ball games already played locally in various cities, given a boost by the number of people getting together to fight the Civil War. It also beat out cricket, although some of the first baseball players were cricketers, because of extreme anti-English prejudice, so it was easy to sell baseball as an American game. And while this was the Amateur Era and no one was officially getting paid to play, a bunch of people seem to have been getting paid under the table. I have no idea which parts of this are controversial, but there you go.
There's also a lot of discussion of economics and demographics, which I liked, but if you're here for baseball and only baseball you may not be interested in the discussions of the class, race, and gender of baseball players.
So, overall it was a decent book but it was clearly meant for Advanced Baseball History class and not Baseball History 101 and I feel like there was probably a book I should have read first but I have no idea what that book would have been.
March 19, 2024
This is a great book for any lover of baseball and baseball history. Gilbert traces the origins of baseball from its earliest conception in the early 19th century in New York, through its early development in Brooklyn, through the Civil War, through baseball "missionaries," and until the advent of acknowledged, legitimate professional baseball in 1869.
The title is important: it is about how baseball *happened*, not how it was "invented." It was not invented. Baseball as we know it today does not have one inventor or even a small group of inventors. There were many bat-and-ball games in the US and throughout the world at this time. The baseball we know today is the result of a particular bat-and-ball game winning out as THE bat-and-ball game that toppled all others, including Cricket. It is the result of social, political, geographical, and economic factors that all came together to make the baseball we know today. This book does a good job of describing those contributing factors and how baseball happened in the midst of them all.
There are times (a decent number of them) where the author goes off into details that are not necessary for overall goal of the book, so you might find yourselves skipping some things, like I did. But in general this is a great book and will help you understand what the origins of baseball truly are and how it became the national sport and pastime.
The title is important: it is about how baseball *happened*, not how it was "invented." It was not invented. Baseball as we know it today does not have one inventor or even a small group of inventors. There were many bat-and-ball games in the US and throughout the world at this time. The baseball we know today is the result of a particular bat-and-ball game winning out as THE bat-and-ball game that toppled all others, including Cricket. It is the result of social, political, geographical, and economic factors that all came together to make the baseball we know today. This book does a good job of describing those contributing factors and how baseball happened in the midst of them all.
There are times (a decent number of them) where the author goes off into details that are not necessary for overall goal of the book, so you might find yourselves skipping some things, like I did. But in general this is a great book and will help you understand what the origins of baseball truly are and how it became the national sport and pastime.
March 21, 2021
“How Baseball Happened” is an apt title. The author demonstrates that modern baseball is the result of happenstance and not some fully formed sport introduced to America. In fact, there were several early forms of the game being played in the cities of the 1840s (and earlier); New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and elsewhere all had amateur leagues. Any one of these locally-grown games could have gained dominance to become the nationwide sport.
But it was New York’s version that came to the forefront. In the early days, volunteer firemen were the ones who formed clubs, with the social cohesion proving important. Then there was James Creighton who began pitching overhand with something of a windup, skirting the rules which required slow, underhand pitches; previously, batters could wait for the perfect pitch and runs climbed into double digits, so strikes and the strike zone were created. As for the Civil War, it spread the New York game to other states via POW camps, with NY railroads and the Eire Canal pushing the game further west.
Although the author doesn’t quite find his pace until page 50 or so, the book as a whole is very well researched. It focuses heavily on social history as it influenced baseball, rather than simply introduce a litany of games, clubs, and players. Definitely worth a read for anyone loves baseball.
But it was New York’s version that came to the forefront. In the early days, volunteer firemen were the ones who formed clubs, with the social cohesion proving important. Then there was James Creighton who began pitching overhand with something of a windup, skirting the rules which required slow, underhand pitches; previously, batters could wait for the perfect pitch and runs climbed into double digits, so strikes and the strike zone were created. As for the Civil War, it spread the New York game to other states via POW camps, with NY railroads and the Eire Canal pushing the game further west.
Although the author doesn’t quite find his pace until page 50 or so, the book as a whole is very well researched. It focuses heavily on social history as it influenced baseball, rather than simply introduce a litany of games, clubs, and players. Definitely worth a read for anyone loves baseball.
May 11, 2022
The “Doubleday Myth” has long-since been debunked, but don’t let that get in the way of a chance to sell books. Mr. Gilbert’s book looks at baseball, the beginning of the sport, the emerging popularity, and inevitable monetization.
The book talks about the first baseball players and their occupations and other interests besides baseball. It talks about the social standings of the teams’ players and those that organized those teams. There is plenty of highbrow, pretentious vocabulary sprinkled with occasional profanities to connect with the plebeian reader.
Despite this, the book is not without its merits. It is well-researched, and the reader can easily imagine the social club chowder suppers that followed the games. One could almost long for a box score or a newspaper’s description before them when reading about the individual games. Biographies and backstories aid the reader when talking about the players. The book provides plenty of intrigue, but leaves the reader with unanswered questions.
The book talks about the first baseball players and their occupations and other interests besides baseball. It talks about the social standings of the teams’ players and those that organized those teams. There is plenty of highbrow, pretentious vocabulary sprinkled with occasional profanities to connect with the plebeian reader.
Despite this, the book is not without its merits. It is well-researched, and the reader can easily imagine the social club chowder suppers that followed the games. One could almost long for a box score or a newspaper’s description before them when reading about the individual games. Biographies and backstories aid the reader when talking about the players. The book provides plenty of intrigue, but leaves the reader with unanswered questions.
August 13, 2024
Feast or famine. There were plenty of fascinating story passages and chapters that were really great, but then half of the book was a ton of listing of people and teams and locations and dates without anything interesting to tie them together. I understand why it had to be like that, this stuff isn't particularly recorded anywhere else, but I would be a lot happier if I could have read a book half the length because I was able to skip chapters that didn't have cool stories and just get a brief outline of the history that happened in that time.
Still, if you can get it cheap or from the library, you should absolutely thumb through it and read the parts about Elysian Fields, James Creighton, Dr. Joseph B. Jones, and John P. Joyce & the earliest version of the Cincinnati Red Stockings. Just don't be afraid to skip through the list stuff to get to a narrative part if you find it too dull.
Still, if you can get it cheap or from the library, you should absolutely thumb through it and read the parts about Elysian Fields, James Creighton, Dr. Joseph B. Jones, and John P. Joyce & the earliest version of the Cincinnati Red Stockings. Just don't be afraid to skip through the list stuff to get to a narrative part if you find it too dull.
February 12, 2025
It’s an unusual label for this book: How Baseball Happened. And then there’s a second name: Outrageous Lies Exposed. The True Story Revealed!
The book wants to say things about baseball that none of use have thought about in the 1800’s It’s a book that takes us back to a time in our country that we have never heard of.
The book took New York and Brooklyn in the middle of the 1800’s. The first game came in 1845. The author gives some things about Africans who let to being playing baseball – but they did it with only their other Black guys.
Most of the chapters have an unusual word to keep the book going on. And in Chapter 2, we get are surprised: many Black men played baseball in New York.
Put the book is taken up in Philadelphia. And it works on the history parts that we didn’t know.
The material in the book gives some things that most of us knew or ever heard about.
The book wants to say things about baseball that none of use have thought about in the 1800’s It’s a book that takes us back to a time in our country that we have never heard of.
The book took New York and Brooklyn in the middle of the 1800’s. The first game came in 1845. The author gives some things about Africans who let to being playing baseball – but they did it with only their other Black guys.
Most of the chapters have an unusual word to keep the book going on. And in Chapter 2, we get are surprised: many Black men played baseball in New York.
Put the book is taken up in Philadelphia. And it works on the history parts that we didn’t know.
The material in the book gives some things that most of us knew or ever heard about.
December 16, 2022
This book tackles a largely unexplored region in the history of a game which has no shortage of books and histories going back (mostly) to the advent of two league professional system in 1901. A relative handful of books cover the late 1800's and the rise of the National League, the old American Association, leading to the rise of what would become the MLB.
Unfortunately, the author dropped the ball on this effort. Meticulously researched, he seems intent on sharing every tidbit, incident, statistic and ancillary factoid he uncovered. The result is a mind-numbing jumble of superfluous information that clouds the potential to tell an enthralling story of the game evolved from multiple baseball-like games prevalent in the 1830's and 1840's. The prose is dry and highly journalistic, devoid of drama or joy. It was a struggle to complete.
Unfortunately, the author dropped the ball on this effort. Meticulously researched, he seems intent on sharing every tidbit, incident, statistic and ancillary factoid he uncovered. The result is a mind-numbing jumble of superfluous information that clouds the potential to tell an enthralling story of the game evolved from multiple baseball-like games prevalent in the 1830's and 1840's. The prose is dry and highly journalistic, devoid of drama or joy. It was a struggle to complete.
April 28, 2021
Love the Stories, But...
There was, withiut a doubt, some interesting and exciting information here; things that I would not have known had I not read this book. But be prepared. It's a barrage of non-stop facts, dates, names, figures, and recaps; most defintely too much. If I hadn,'t read a third of them, it wouldn't have mattered. If I hadn't read half of them, the book would have gotten five stars.
And as for the audio book, SKIP IT. The reader, intrying to be conversational, takes very audible breaths in 75% of the book, seems to be sighing in ither places, and in still other spots, gets the inflections completely wrong. It's as if he know nithing if ounctuation and what the symbols mean.
There was, withiut a doubt, some interesting and exciting information here; things that I would not have known had I not read this book. But be prepared. It's a barrage of non-stop facts, dates, names, figures, and recaps; most defintely too much. If I hadn,'t read a third of them, it wouldn't have mattered. If I hadn't read half of them, the book would have gotten five stars.
And as for the audio book, SKIP IT. The reader, intrying to be conversational, takes very audible breaths in 75% of the book, seems to be sighing in ither places, and in still other spots, gets the inflections completely wrong. It's as if he know nithing if ounctuation and what the symbols mean.
May 21, 2022
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED - Excellent study on the real rise and history of baseball with a good timeline on how we get from the 1840's version to the professional version by the 1870's, and a thorough debunking of the Doubleday myth and other wrong versions of baseball history. Wanted to give it five stars, but (1) the author states that the Kansas City Royals are named for the royal blue color (most accounts have it the other way around - they use royal blue because they're the Royals, named for the American Royal Livestock Show), and (2) a passage indicating that the National League did not have a New York or Brooklyn team between 1876 and 1883, when the Hartford, CT franchise played in Brooklyn in 1877.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 2, 2022
How Baseball Happened in Brooklyn would have been a better title. Chapter five is titled "It Happened in Brooklyn" and that is really what this book is about.
This is a detailed and well-told tale yet the prose shines and sparkles only when New York baseball is the subject. There is a 60+ page chapter on the Philadelphia and Boston bat-and-ball games that drags on, nearly lifeless.
This book also contains the best write up I have read of Jim Creighton.
I'm glad I read the book but it could have been trimmed by 25-50 pages and been just as impactful if not more.
This is a detailed and well-told tale yet the prose shines and sparkles only when New York baseball is the subject. There is a 60+ page chapter on the Philadelphia and Boston bat-and-ball games that drags on, nearly lifeless.
This book also contains the best write up I have read of Jim Creighton.
I'm glad I read the book but it could have been trimmed by 25-50 pages and been just as impactful if not more.
December 27, 2020
I really enjoyed this book. I am a fan of all kinds of baseball and really enjoyed learning more about its beginnings. Some of the simple origin stories I had heard just didn’t make sense and this book helped to unpack the truth and add nuance to the stories that have been only partially told. I especially enjoyed the chapters about baseball during the Civil War and the 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings.
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