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.

The study of baseball history and culture shows the national pastime to be a forum of debate where issues of sport, labor, race, character and the ethics of work and play are decided. An understanding of baseball calls for consideration of different perspectives. This very readable textbook offers insights into baseball history as a subject worthy of scholarly attention. Each chapter introduces a specific disciplinary approach--history, economics, media, law and fiction--and poses representative questions scholars from these fields would consider. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.

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.

'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?

Disapproving scolds. Sexist condescension. Odd theories about the effect of exercise on reproductive organs. Though baseball began as a gender-neutral sport, girls and women of the nineteenth century faced many obstacles on their way to the diamond. Yet all-female nines took the field everywhere. Debra A. Shattuck pulls from newspaper accounts and hard-to-find club archives to reconstruct a forgotten era in baseball history. Her fascinating social history tracks women players who organized baseball clubs for their own enjoyment and even found roster spots on men's teams. Entrepreneurs, meanwhile, packaged women's teams as entertainment, organizing leagues and barnstorming tours. If the women faced financial exploitation and indignities like playing against men in women's clothing, they and countless ballplayers like them nonetheless staked a claim to the nascent national pastime. Shattuck explores how the determination to take their turn at bat thrust female players into narratives of the women's rights movement and transformed perceptions of women's physical and mental capacity. Vivid and eye-opening, Bloomer Girls is a first-of-its-kind portrait of America, its women, and its game.

Ernest J. Lanigan was the nephew of Sporting News founder Al Spink and one of three men in his immediate family to gain acclaim as a newspaperman. As sports editor for the New York Press and official scorer for a handful of World Series, he was the premier statistician of his day. Lanigan compiled the first baseball encyclopedia in 1922, and it is reprinted here with each of its twelve annual supplements. As the original publisher advertised on the book’s title page, it “[c]omprises a review of Professional Baseball, the history of all Major League Clubs, playing records and unique events, the batting, pitching and base running champions, World’s Series’ statistics and a carefully arranged alphabetical list of the records of more than 3500 Major League ball players, a feature never before attempted in print.”

Addie Joss (1880-1911) mowed down batters for the Cleveland Broncos/Naps from 1902 to 1910 before his career was cut short by his tragic death from tubercular meningitis in 1911. With a career ERA of 1.89 and two no-hitters, Joss earned Hall of Fame election despite a career that lasted less than ten years, the only player to do so. In the off-season, Joss also excelled as a sportswriter for the Toledo News-Bee and the Cleveland Press, filling the empty winter months penning stories about the game he knew firsthand. This collection of Joss's newspaper columns and World Series reports is a treasury of the deadball era with intimate first-person observations of the game and its players from the first decade of the American League. Informative annotations, archival photographs, and a brief biography complete the work.