Ballists, Dead Beats, and Muffins: Inside Early Baseball in Illinois

by Robert D. Sampson

Baseball’s spread across Illinois paralleled the sport’s explosive growth in other parts of the country. Robert D. Sampson taps a wealth of archival research to transport readers to an era when an epidemic of “base ball on the brain” raged from Alton to Woodstock. Focusing on the years 1865 to 1869, Sampson offers a vivid portrait of a game where local teams and civic ambition went hand in hand and teams of paid professionals displaced gentlemen’s clubs devoted to sporting fair play. This preoccupation with competition sparked rules disputes and controversies over imported players while the game itself mirrored society by excluding Black Americans and women. The new era nonetheless brought out paying crowds to watch the Rock Island Lively Turtles, Fairfield Snails, and other teams take the field up and down the state. A first-ever history of early baseball in Illinois, Ballists, Dead Beats, and Muffins adds the Prairie State game’s unique shadings and colorful stories to the history of the national pastime.

264 pages, Hardcover

Published May 2, 2023

Reviews

[John Dahlke · Rating 5 out of 5]

When picking up historical non-fiction my biggest worry is that it will take something I am interested in, and make it dry. This is not the case with this book. While looking at baseballs earliest years in just one state Robert Sampson has done an excellent job of making the history entertaining and readable. I had a hard time putting it down and was fascinated by the stories of the games earliest pioneers.