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.

Page through a year-by-year journey through MLB’s oldest league and this is what you will get… End-of-year standings that include teams who placed 1st in Batting, Pitching, and Fielding. League notes highlighting rule changes, trends, trades, suspensions, and winning/losing streaks. Noteworthy games: high scores, batting fetes, records set End-of-the-year awards: Rookie of the Year, Cy Young, MVP, those entering the Hall of Fame, and World Series outcomes. What NL team has won the most Series championships? Who’s 2nd? All NL teams – past and present, are here, including the Boston Braves, Montreal Expos, and the Houston Astros. Which NL team changed their name to the Bees? A few years later, another became the Blue Jays! Both returned to their former selves a few years later. Follow the dynasties (the St. Louis Cardinals, New York/San Francisco Giants, and the Brooklyn/LA Dodgers), or legends like Wagner, Dean, or Musial; Jackie Robinson, Mays, Koufax, Bench, and Seaver. Those who soon followed were Gwynn, Maddux, Bonds, Walker and Larkin. Current stars like Joey Votto, Clayton Kershaw, Kris Bryant, Max Scherzer, Jacob de Grom, Nolan Arenado, Manny Machado, Paul Goldschmidt, and Fernando Tatis are also included.

Relive the games, moves, and players of the hard-hitting team that won the 1986 World Series. Vin Scully called the tenth-inning groundball in Game Six of the 1986 World Series—Mets versus Red Sox—that sealed a comeback, fueled a curse, and turned a batting champion into a scapegoat. But getting there was a long, hard slog with plenty of heartache. After being knocked out of contention the previous two seasons, the Mets blasted through the National League that year. They won blowouts, nailbiters, fights, and a 14-inning game that ended with one pitcher on the mound, another in right field, and an All-Star catcher playing third base. Matt Silverman covers famous baseball players including: Ron Darling, Dwight Gooden, Keith Hernandez, Darryl Strawberry and more. Going beyond the partying and excess, Silverman recounts in this book, step by step, the team’s meteoric rise in 1986, when they captured their first division title in over a decade, shattered the franchise record, and then won it all.

In the early 1870s, baseball was chaos, mired in mismanagement and corruption. William Hulbert, the owner of Chicago's National Association team, believed that a league run efficiently with honest competition would survive and flourish. Hulbert, relying on his pragmatic philosophy of "molasses now, vinegar later" and working with his prize recruit Albert Spalding, founded the National League in 1876. That inaugural season of the National League is chronicled in this heavily documented work. The league fell far short of Hulbert's dreams in its first season, but he stuck to his belief that integrity would win out in the end. He not only prohibited Sunday baseball and the sale and consumption of alcohol within the league's ballparks, but ousted two teams--New York and Philadelphia--from the league because they failed to meet their obligation to finish out the season. Despite the setbacks, scandals, and considerable opposition, all of which are thoroughly covered here, the National League survived its first year.

The 1936 Yankees, the 1963 Dodgers, the 1975 Reds, the 2010 Giants—why do some baseball teams win while others don’t? General managers and fans alike have pondered this most important of baseball questions. The Moneyball strategy is not the first example of how new ideas and innovative management have transformed the way teams are assembled. In Pursuit of Pennants examines and analyzes a number of compelling, winning baseball teams over the past hundred-plus years, focusing on their decision making and how they assembled their championship teams. Whether through scouting, integration, instruction, expansion, free agency, or modernizing their management structure, each winning team and each era had its own version of Moneyball, where front office decisions often made the difference. Mark L. Armour and Daniel R. Levitt show how these teams succeeded and how they relied on talent both on the field and in the front office. While there is no recipe for guaranteed success in a competitive, ever-changing environment, these teams demonstrate how creatively thinking about one’s circumstances can often lead to a competitive advantage. Purchase the audio edition.

During the Cleveland Indians' checkered 110-year history, only two of its teams have brought home baseball's ultimate prize. While the 1948 team continues to be revered by Clevelanders, little has been written about the 1920 team that won the city's first pennant and World Series. Few, if any, World Series championship teams faced as much adversity as did the 1920 Indians. Among the obstacles they faced were the death of their star pitcher's wife in May; the shadow of the Chicago "Black Sox" scandal; and the tragic deadly beaning of shortstop Ray Chapman, the only fatal injury ever sustained by a major league player on the field of play. This chronicle of that extraordinary season highlights an overlooked chapter in the history of one of baseball's most beloved underdogs.