Customer Reviews

Baseball : The Early Years

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Aside from the most comprehensive view of early baseball, Harold Seymour provides incredible insight as he takes the reader through every vital detail about the game's heritage. For a book written 40 years ago, it shows the author's masterful foresight of what baseball would, and did, become. Particularly compelling is how he shreds the Abner Doubleday myth before doing so was popular. His compilation and timeless analyses of baseball's sometimes painful adolescence gives the reader a solid baseline for understanding the difficulties that the sport is enduring today. It's fascinating proof that those who ignore history are condemned to repeat it. Anybody interested in baseball history will want to run right out and get his second volume, "The Golden Age" as soon as they finish this one

..., but it was not what I wanted to read. I love to read about baseball, and especially about 19th century baseball. However, this book deals more extensively with the management of the early leagues, and the development of the rules, administration, the problems of revolving, etc. I wanted to read about Ross Barnes, Deacon White, and the other great players of the era. I've seen the stats, but I am still looking for the book that will bring the National Association players back to life. (Any suggestions?)

Like I alluded to at the beginning, this may be just what you want to read. But if you are looking for a book about the players and what happened between the foul lines (and in the saloons), you might want to look somewhere else. (I much prefer David Nemec's "The Beer And Whisky League," on the narrower topic of the AA.)

This book gives great details into baseballs past. The author takes time to descirbe the feelings of both the players and fans on the sideline. At some times the reader may find themselves lost in the baseball time line, but with a little bit of bak tracking and side notes you will find your place in time. I only wish the book went deeper into the player's lives, but the ideal is the establishment of the game. You will set this book down knowing the truth of the game and the men who made it the way it is today. Good Read!!!!!

My wife bought this book many years ago for me, and I enjoyed it. I saw there was a new edition out, so I bought it, but it's not updated or revised, it just has the author's ex-wife's name appended to it now.