The Old Ball Game: Baseball's Beginning

by Mark Alvarez

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• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0924588098
• ISBN13: 9780924588099
• Release Date: January 1990
• Publisher: Redefinition, Incorporated
• Length: 191 Pages
• Weight: 1.85 lbs.

Customer Reviews

A colorful look at the creatoin of our national pastime

This volume on the origin of baseball was part of the series of books on the sport put out by Redefinition in 1990, in an obvious imitation of the type of books put out by Time-Life. Mark Alvarez covers both how "The Old Ball Game" evolved as well as the great players of the 1870's when the game turned professional. The first half of the book looks at the stick-and-ball games that make up the Common Ancestors of baseball, The Doubleday Myth that sprang up regarding the game in America, The New York Game that made the sport popular, and the spreading of baseball For Health and Recreation purposes throughout the country. The second half covers the birth of the professional game, from The Wright Brothers (Harry and George) to the sport's initial Growing Pains and the influence of Father Chadwick. Diamond Dust covers the formation of the rules, The Great Tour that took American baseball players to England, and the creation of the National League as A Major Undertaking. "The Old Ball Game" features dozens of contemporary illustrations (mostly drawings rather than photographs), full page and one column biographies and stats on the great players such as Deacon White and George Hall, and such nice little gems as the official rules of Town Ball and the Knickerbockers along with the jargon of the game's early days such as "striker," "plugging" and "cranks." These books came out in the wake of Ken Burns' celebrated "Baseball" documentary and one of the nice things about them is that they definitely complement that epic work. Baseball fans will find these informative and colorful (in a USA Today sort of way).