This chronologically organized book is the first to provide comprehensive coverage of forfeits and successful protests of major league baseball games, educating the reader on the rules and prevailing styles of play at the time that each of the games was played. In addition to the date, location, and source information, this work provides capsule biographies of many of the principal characters involved (including, for instance, the obscure one-game umpire who perpetrated the first forfeited game in major league history in 1871).

David Nemec, a baseball historian, novelist, and playwright, has published six novels and authored or coauthored more than 30 books on baseball. The recipient of the Sporting News Research Award, he lives in Eastport, New York.
Eric Miklich is an authority on baseball rules and the game as it existed in the 19th century. He lives in North Babylon, New York.

David Nemec and Eric Miklich
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 252
Bibliographic Info: 20 photos, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2014
pISBN: 978-0-7864-9423-1
eISBN: 978-1-4766-1629-2
Imprint: McFarland

Table of Contents


Acknowledgments vi

Foreword by Pete Palmer 1

Preface 3

Forfeited Games 7

Successfully Protested Games 152

Bibliography 233

Index 235

“Nemec and Miklich illustrate through countless examples that the long road to baseball’s modern rules has been marked by over 100 years of heated conflicts brewed in the caldron of forfeited and successfully protested major league games. Wonderful…completely altered my understanding of the “evolution” of baseball’s rules.”—Peter Mancuso, chairman, Nineteenth Century Committee, Society for American Baseball Research; “Nemec and Miklich show us that major league baseball was more anarchic, and consequently more intriguing, in its infancy and adolescence. Most of the games occurred in baseball’s early days, which is the long suit of these two nineteenth century historians. A comprehensive reference work and a good read.”—William J. Ryczek, author of Baseball’s First Inning; “In this meticulously researched study, David Nemec and Eric Miklich shed light on the neglected subject of forfeits and successfully protested game. Their detailed analyses make this book a must for the baseball rules maven.”—Peter Morris, author of A Game of Inches.