Showcasing two influential decades of home runs, stolen bases, and national heroes, David Lee Poremba invites us to take an in-depth look back through the history of baseball in The American League: The Early Years. Poremba has collected over 200 images and captions in this new volume that documents the fledgling American League and its charismatic teams, from its creation in 1901 to its lively rebirth as America's Pastime in 1920. Founded nearly a century ago when Western League President Ban Johnson renamed the circuit in 1900, the American League defied the norm. Amidst the struggles to name a National League president and the expiration of the National Agreement which governed the baseball world, Johnson leapt into open competition for players and fans. Seen in this extensive photographic collection are the historic players lured away from the National League and into the higher paying American League, including Ty Cobb, "Shoeless" Joe Jackson, "Wee" Willie Keeler, Cy Young, Nap Lajoie, and many others. With the introduction of the cork-centered baseball in 1910 and the advent of the Sultan of Swat, Babe Ruth, the game of baseball would change forever.

These two critically-acclaimed volumes mark the beginning of a monumental multi-volume study of baseball by the man whom Sports Illustrated has called "the Edward Gibbon of baseball history." Now available in paperback, Harold Seymour's The Early Years and The Golden Age together recount the true story of how baseball came into being and how it developed into a highly organized business and social institution.The first volume, The Early Years, traces the growth of baseball from the time of the first recorded ball game at Valley Forge during the revolution until the formation of the two present-day major leagues in 1903. By investigating previously unknown sources, Seymour uncovers the real story of how baseball evolved from a gentleman's amateur sport of "well-bred play followed by well-laden banquet tables" into a professional sport where big leagues operate under their own laws. Offering countless anecdotes and a wealth of new information, Seymour explodes many cherished myths, including the one which claims that Abner Doubleday "invented" baseball in 1839. He describes the influence of baseball on American business, manners, morals, social institutions, and even show business, as well as depicting the types of men who became the first professional ball players, club owners, and managers, including Spalding, McGraw, Comiskey, and Connie Mack.The second volume, The Golden Age, explores the glorious era when the game truly captured the American imagination, with such legendary figures as Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb in the spotlight. Beginning with the formation of the two major leagues in 1903, when baseball officially entered its "golden age" of popularity, Seymour examines the changes in the organization of professional baseball--from an unwieldy three-man commission to the strong one-man rule of Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis. He depicts how the play on the field shifted from the low-scoring, pitcher-dominated game of the "dead ball" era before World War I to the higher scoring of the 1920's "lively ball" era, with emphasis on home runs, best exemplified by the exploits of Babe Ruth.Taken together, these volumes offer a serious and dramatic study of the game both on the field and in the business offices.

Showcasing two influential decades of home runs, stolen bases, and national heroes, David Lee Poremba invites us to take an in-depth look back through the history of baseball in The American League: The Early Years. Poremba has collected over 200 images and captions in this new volume that documents the fledgling American League and its charismatic teams, from its creation in 1901 to its lively rebirth as America's Pastime in 1920. Founded nearly a century ago when Western League President Ban Johnson renamed the circuit in 1900, the American League defied the norm. Amidst the struggles to name a National League president and the expiration of the National Agreement which governed the baseball world, Johnson leapt into open competition for players and fans. Seen in this extensive photographic collection are the historic players lured away from the National League and into the higher paying American League, including Ty Cobb, "Shoeless" Joe Jackson, "Wee" Willie Keeler, Cy Young, Nap Lajoie, and many others. With the introduction of the cork-centered baseball in 1910 and the advent of the Sultan of Swat, Babe Ruth, the game of baseball would change forever.

Showcasing two influential decades of home runs, stolen bases, and national heroes, David Lee Poremba invites us to take an in-depth look back through the history of baseball in The American League: The Early Years. Poremba has collected over 200 images and captions in this new volume that documents the fledgling American League and its charismatic teams, from its creation in 1901 to its lively rebirth as America's Pastime in 1920. Founded nearly a century ago when Western League President Ban Johnson renamed the circuit in 1900, the American League defied the norm. Amidst the struggles to name a National League president and the expiration of the National Agreement which governed the baseball world, Johnson leapt into open competition for players and fans. Seen in this extensive photographic collection are the historic players lured away from the National League and into the higher paying American League, including Ty Cobb, "Shoeless" Joe Jackson, "Wee" Willie Keeler, Cy Young, Nap Lajoie, and many others. With the introduction of the cork-centered baseball in 1910 and the advent of the Sultan of Swat, Babe Ruth, the game of baseball would change forever.

The riveting story of four men—Larry Doby, Bill Veeck, Bob Feller, and Satchel Paige—whose improbable union on the Cleveland Indians in the late 1940s would shape the immediate postwar era of Major League Baseball and beyond. In July 1947, not even three months after Jackie Robinson debuted on the Brooklyn Dodgers, snapping the color line that had segregated Major League Baseball, Larry Doby would follow in his footsteps on the Cleveland Indians. Though Doby, as the second Black player in the majors, would struggle during his first summer in Cleveland, his subsequent turnaround in 1948 from benchwarmer to superstar sparked one of the wildest and most meaningful seasons in baseball history. In intimate, absorbing detail, Luke Epplin's Our Team traces the story of the integration of the Cleveland Indians and their quest for a World Series title through four key participants: Bill Veeck, an eccentric and visionary owner adept at exploding fireworks on and off the field; Larry Doby, a soft-spoken, hard-hitting pioneer whose major-league breakthrough shattered stereotypes that so much of white America held about Black ballplayers; Bob Feller, a pitching prodigy from the Iowa cornfields who set the template for the athlete as businessman; and Satchel Paige, a legendary pitcher from the Negro Leagues whose belated entry into the majors whipped baseball fans across the country into a frenzy. Together, as the backbone of a team that epitomized the postwar American spirit in all its hopes and contradictions, these four men would captivate the nation by storming to the World Series--all the while rewriting the rules of what was possible in sports.

Connie Mack was the Grand Old Man of baseball. This book, spanning first fifty-two years of Mack's life, covers his experiences as player, manager, and club owner. It tells how Mack, a school dropout at fourteen, created strategies for winning baseball and principles for managing men long before there were notions of defining such subjects.