Did modern baseball spontaneously arise from the genius of the American people? Did professionalism arise simply from a desire to turn baseball into a business? Did William Hulbert, organizer of the National League, really “save” baseball? These are three of the questions examined in this work about early baseball’s role in American culture. Beginning with an introduction to the sport as achievement and expression, the author takes a close look at the early demand in New York for “the best against the best” in baseball and argues that this demand was contradictory to society’s equally persistent demand that displays of “the best against the best” be locally accessible. This work offers insights into how baseball operated in its early days, with special attention paid to the National Association and how the National League came into being.

Freelance writer and researcher Tom Melville lives in Wisconsin.

Tom Melville
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 176
Bibliographic Info: notes, index
Copyright Date: 2001
pISBN: 978-0-7864-0962-4
eISBN: 978-0-7864-5051-0
Imprint: McFarland

Winner, Seymour Medal—Society for American Baseball Research.
“ambitious…stimulating…carefully researched and insightful…Melville is an extraordinarily diligent researcher”—Nineteenth Century Notes; “groundbreaking study deserves the highest praise…a ‘must’ read”—Nine; “a strikingly original assessment”—The SABR Bulletin; “a fine job…very well written…informative”—VCBC; “the story of its rapid rise and insights into how baseball operated in its early days”—Sports Collectors Digest.