Baseball: The Early Years (Oxford Paperbacks) - Softcover

Seymour, Harold; Seymour Mills, Dorothy; Seymour, Dorothy Z.; Mills, Dorothy Jane

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0195059123 ISBN 13: 9780195059120

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1989

Synopsis

Now available in paperback, Harold Seymour and Dorothy Seymour Mills' Baseball: The Early Years recounts the true story of how baseball came into being and how it developed into a highly organized business and social institution.

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, the book 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, the authors explode many cherished myths, including the one which claims that Abner Doubleday "invented" baseball in 1839. They describe 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.

Note: On August 2, 2010, Oxford University Press made public that it would credit Dorothy Seymour Mills as co-author of the three baseball histories previously "authored" solely by her late husband, Harold Seymour. The Seymours collaborated on Baseball: The Early Years (1960), Baseball: The Golden Age (1971) and Baseball: The People's Game (1991).

About this title

About the Author:

Harold Seymour, Ph.D., baseball's leading historian, was a college history professor for more than fifteen years. Moreover, he knows baseball firsthand through experience as batboy for the Brooklyn Dodgers, high school PSAL and college player, organizer and field manager of amateur and semipro teams, and major-league bird dog.

Dorothy Seymour Mills is the author or co-author of 25 books, including historical novels and children's books. She is a member SABR, the North American Society for Sports History, and the Association for Women in Sports Media.

Review:

Praise for Volume I:

"An important reference, very readable."--The New York Public Library

"Indispensable."--Dr. Daniel Boorstin, Director, Library of Congress

"Will remain the basic reference for baseball history."--New York Historical Review

"First-rate history....[Seymour] gives a full picture of player salaries, of owner deceits, of public frenzy."--The Baltimore Sun

"Half of what will be the most comprehensive, serious, authoritative, and sociological study of baseball ever put to paper."--San Francisco Chronicle

"It puts baseball...firmly in the American picture....[An] admirable book."--The Times Literary Supplement (London)

"[Seymour] has the intellectual's passion for facts, but he writes with the light touch of a sports writer."--New York Daily News

"Stands in a class by itself."--St. Petersburg Times

"Right off the bat, let me say that this history of baseball stands in a class by itself."--John Barkham, Saturday Review Syndicate

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 1989
• ISBN 10: 0195059123
• ISBN 13: 9780195059120
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 392