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The untold story of baseball�s nineteenth-century origins: �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). 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. Perhaps you�ve read that baseball�s color line was first crossed by Jackie Robinson in 1947. Nope. Baseball�s true founders don�t have plaques in Cooperstown. They were hundreds of uncredited, ordinary people who played without gloves, facemasks, or performance incentives. 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. In this myth-busting history, Thomas W. Gilbert reveals the true beginnings of baseball. Through newspaper accounts, diaries, and other accounts, he explains how it evolved through the mid-nineteenth century into a modern sport of championships, media coverage, and famous stars�all before the first professional league was formed in 1871. Winner of the Casey Award: Best Baseball Book of the Year (less)

The untold story of baseball�s nineteenth-century origins: �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). You may have heard that Abner (…more)