'Our Base Ball Club and How It Won the Championship' by Noah Brooks is a charming novel that follows the story of Alice Howell and her beloved baseball team, the Catalpa Nine, as they fight for the championship against their rivals, the Jonesville Nine. In a town divided by class and social status, the Catalpas must band together to overcome the well-trained and rough Jonesvillians. Will they be able to win the championship and bring pride to their town?

The Great Match (1877) and Our Base Ball Club (1884) were the two earliest novels to incorporate baseball as a major plot element, and each is reprinted here for the first time since its original publication. Edited and introduced by baseball scholars Trey Strecker and Geri Strecker, this volume, the tenth in the McFarland Historical Baseball Library, is for anyone with an interest in early baseball and its place in the nineteenth century popular imagination.

Our Base Ball Club by Noah Brooks: First published in 1884, this book provides a detailed account of the rise of baseball as a national pastime in the United States. Focusing specifically on the young players of the Germantown Cricket Club in Philadelphia, the book captures the excitement and energy of early baseball games and offers valuable insights into the social and cultural forces that shaped the development of the sport. Key Aspects of the Book "Our Base Ball Club": Sports History: The book provides a unique historical perspective on the development of baseball as a national pastime in the United States. Cultural Significance: Brooks's account of the Germantown Cricket Club team illuminates the social and cultural forces that shaped the development of baseball and its place in American society. Personal Stories: The book tells the stories of individual players and their experiences, giving readers a sense of the human dimension of the sport and its impact on the lives of those who played it. Noah Brooks was an American journalist, editor, and author who wrote extensively about American politics, culture, and society in the late 19th century. Our Base Ball Club was one of his most popular books, providing a unique perspective on the history of baseball in the United States and its cultural significance.

By 1871, the popularity of baseball had spread so thoroughly across America that one writer observed, "It is as much our national game as cricket is that of the English." While major league teams and athletes that played after this prophetic statement was made have been exhaustively documented and analyzed, those that led the game during its pioneer phase from 1850 to 1870 have received relatively little attention. In this welcome work, leading historians of early baseball provide profiles of more than fifty clubs and their players, from legendary teams such as the Red Stockings of Cincinnati and the Nationals of Washington to forgotten nines like the Pecatonica (Illinois) Base Ball Club and the Morning Star Club of St. Louis. Engaging narratives bring these long-ago clubs back to life, stimulating more research on this fascinating era and creating a standard reference source for all who study America's national pastime.