Baseball for Everyone: 150 Years of America's Game [Hardcover]

Janet Wyman Coleman (Author), Elizabeth V. Warren (Author)

Book Description

Grade Level: 3 and up

For the baseball buff, a history of the game from street to stadium

This colorful tour of baseball's history, illustrated with folk art and collectibles, shows why the sport is called "America's Pastime". It's truly a game for everyone. From pick-up games played by children, Civil War soldiers, firemen, and college students, to the formation of the first professional leagues, this is a democratic look at the sport illustrated with early baseball cards, paintings, quilts, signs, carved bats, and more. The great players are here, too, depicted by the fans who loved them.

Anyone who has ever collected baseball cards or drawn a picture of a favorite player will appreciate this history of America's homegrown sport, celebrated in American folk art.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 4-8-This broad look at the history of baseball covers the origins of the game as well as players from as far back as 1900 to present-day heroes such as Rickey Henderson. Credits indicate that this book is based on Warren's The Perfect Game: America Looks at Baseball (Abrams, 2003) and an exhibit of the same name organized by the American Folk Art Museum in New York, which is currently on view. Keeping this in mind, readers will notice that the major highlight of this book is the colorful photography. Not only is there a reproduction of the valuable 1909 Honus Wagner baseball card, but a multitude of baseball statues, sculptures, balls and bats, paintings, and baseball-themed quilts also appear. Image credits are given at the beginning of the book. This title provides more narrative text and artwork than Paul Rosenthal's America at Bat (National Geographic, 2002), but it lacks the popular appeal of James Kelley's informative Baseball (DK, 2000). A supplemental purchase where the marriage of baseball folk art and the history of the game will be appreciated.
Blair Christolon, Prince William Public Library System, Manassas, VA
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Gr. 4-6. Based on an exhibition called The Perfect Game: America Looks at Baseball, this unusual anecdotal history of baseball, from eighteenth-century "town ball" to Sammy Sosa, is illustrated with American folk and outsider art related to the theme, plus an array of pictures of early balls, bats, and other artifacts. On topical spreads gathered within broad chronological sections, Coleman, aided by Elizabeth Warren, former curator of the American Folk Art Museum in New York, covers the growth of such developments as the Little, National, Negro, and Women's Leagues; reservation baseball; the game's international spread; its most renowned players (and goats); and its "New Heroes." The text frequently refers to the accompanying illustrations, and it occasionally highlights a particular artist, such as photographer Charles M. Conlon. Despite a few factual miscues (for instance, the "house that Ruth built" was hardly "the first baseball stadium in America"), this merits attention for showing baseball's integral relationship to American culture, and some of the creative ways in which ordinary fans have expressed their love for the game. John Peters
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 48 pages
• Publisher: Harry N. Abrams (May 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0810945800
• ISBN-13: 978-0810945807
• Product Dimensions: 10.2 x 10.2 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,565,505 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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