Baseball: A History of America's Favorite Game Hardcover - 2006

"Football is force and fanatics, basketball is beauty and bounce. Baseball is everything: action, grace, the seasons of our lives. George Vecsey's book proves it, without wasting a word."--Lee Eisenberg, author of The NumberIn Baseball, one of the great bards of America's Grand Old Game gives a rousing account of the sport, from its pre-Republic roots to the present day. George Vecsey casts a fresh eye on the game, illuminates its foibles and triumphs, and performs a marvelous feat: making a classic story seem refreshingly new. Baseball is a narrative of America's can-do spirit, in which stalwart immigrants such as Henry Chadwick could transplant cricket and rounders into the fertile American culture and in which die-hard unionist baseballers such as Charles Comiskey and Connie Mack could eventually become the tightfisted avatars of the game's big-money establishment. It's a celebration of such underdogs as a rag-armed catcher turned owner named Branch Rickey and a sure-handed fielder named Curt Flood, both of whom flourished as true great men of history. But most of all, Baseball is a testament to the unbreakable bond between our nation's pastime and the fans, who've remained loyal through the fifty-year-long interdict on black athletes, the Black Sox scandal, franchise relocation, and the use of performance-enhancing drugs by some major stars. Reverent, playful, and filled with Vecsey's charm, Baseball begs to be read in the span of a rain-delayed doubleheader, and so enjoyable that, like a favorite team's championship run, one hopes it never ends."Vecsey possesses a journalist's eye for detail and a historian's feel for the sweep of action. His research is scrupulous and his writing crisp. This book is an instant classic-- a highly readable guide to America's great enduring pastime." -- The Louisville Courier Journal From the Hardcover edition.

Details

• Title Baseball: A History of America's Favorite Game
• Author George Vecsey
• Binding Hardcover
• Edition First Edition
• Pages 252
• Volumes 1
• Language ENG
• Publisher Modern Library, New York, New York, U.S.A.
• Date August 15, 2006
• ISBN 9780679643388 / 0679643389
• Weight 0.88 lbs (0.40 kg)
• Dimensions 8.32 x 5.92 x 0.78 in (21.13 x 15.04 x 1.98 cm)
• Library of Congress subjects Baseball - United States - History
• Library of Congress Catalog Number 2006045033
• Dewey Decimal Code 796.357