Baseball: A History of America’s Favorite Game-Fast Shipping

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“Football is force and fanatics, basketball is beauty and bounce. Baseball is everything:action, grace, the seasons of our lives. George Vecsey’s book proves it, withoutwasting a word.”—Lee Eisenberg, author of The Number

In Baseball, one of the greatbards of America’s Grand Old Game gives a rousing account of the sport, from itspre-Republic roots to the present day. George Vecsey casts a fresh eye on the game,illuminates its foibles and triumphs, and performs a marvelous feat: making a classicstory seem refreshingly new.

Baseball is a narrative of America’s can-do spirit,in which stalwart immigrants such as Henry Chadwick could transplant cricket androunders into the fertile American culture and in which die-hard unionist baseballerssuch as Charles Comiskey and Connie Mack could eventually become the tightfistedavatars of the game’s big-money establishment. It’s a celebration of such underdogsas a rag-armed catcher turned owner named Branch Rickey and a sure-handed fieldernamed Curt Flood, both of whom flourished as true great men of history. But mostof all, Baseball is a testament to the unbreakable bond between our nation’s pastimeand the fans, who’ve remained loyal through the fifty-year-long interdict on blackathletes, the Black Sox scandal, franchise relocation, and the use of performance-enhancingdrugs by some major stars.

Reverent, playful, and filled with Vecsey’s charm, Baseball begs to be read in the span of a rain-delayed doubleheader, and so enjoyable that,like a favorite team’s championship run, one hopes it never ends.

“Vecsey possessesa journalist’s eye for detail and a historian’s feel for the sweep of action. Hisresearch is scrupulous and his writing crisp. This book is an instant classic—a highly readable guide to America’s great enduring pastime.”—
The Louisville CourierJournal