Baseball before We Knew It: A Search for the Roots of the Game [Hardcover]

David Block (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2005

It may be America’s game, but no one seems to know how or when baseball really started. Theories abound, myths proliferate, but reliable information has been in short supply—until now, when Baseball before We Knew It brings fresh new evidence of baseball’s origins into play. David Block looks into the early history of the game and of the 150-year-old debate about its beginnings. He tackles one stubborn misconception after another, debunking the enduring belief that baseball descended from the English game of rounders and revealing a surprising new explanation for the most notorious myth of all—the Abner Doubleday–Cooperstown story.

 

Block’s book takes readers on an exhilarating journey through the centuries in search of clues to the evolution of our modern National Pastime. Among his startling discoveries is a set of long-forgotten baseball rules from the 1700s. Block evaluates the originality and historical significance of the Knickerbocker rules of 1845, revisits European studies on the ancestry of baseball which indicate that the game dates back hundreds, if not thousands of years, and assembles a detailed history of games and pastimes from the Middle Ages onward that contributed to baseball’s development. In its thoroughness and reach, and its extensive descriptive bibliography of early baseball sources, this book is a unique and invaluable resource—a comprehensive, reliable, and readable account of baseball before it was America’s game.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Given North American baseball fans'' nearly inexhaustible appetite for the arcana of their favourite sport, astonishingly few scholars have ever undertaken the detailed historical and anthropological research to find out where the game actually began. . . . Now, through painstaking bibliographic and archival research, on display in his extensive appendices, Block has established . . . the true forerunner of American baseball. . . . By pushing beyond baseball''s reputed origins in an English children''s game, David Block has discovered the game''s true origins in an even older English game."—Warren Goldstein, Times Literary Supplement

(Warren Goldstein Times Literary Supplement )

"The suggestion that America''s Game might have originated somewhere besides America so ''inflamed passions and patriotism,'' writes David Block, that the idea still burns us. . . . Block has produced a deliciously researched feast that lays this controversy to rest. . . . Block has assembled such a rich pile of evidence for the game''s European origins that one might wonder why there ever was a controversy. . . . Once an American reader gets past the disappointment of discovering baseball''s deep European roots, Block''s book is a perfect delight. He has unearthed magnificent medieval manuscripts . . . That show that baseball is just the latest in a very long line of stick-and-ball games."—Charles Hirshberg, Sports Illustrated

(Charles Hirshberg Sports Illustrated )

"As if this country doesn''t have enough to worry about, it turns out America''s national pastime may not even be American. At least according to Baseball before We Knew It, a new book by David Block. Block contends the origins of the game date to the mid-14th century and can be traced to northern Europe and parts of Africa. Hold on there, pal. What about good old Abner Doubleday? ''There''s no evidence he even played baseball,'' Block says. ''It''s simply a case of people passing down stories that have never been substantiated.'' Now, there''s something we seem to be very good at." —Morty Ain, ESPN: The Magazine

(Morty Ain ESPN: The Magazine )

"Baseball, Block convincingly argues, was not a product of rounders, and its essential form had already been established by the late 18th century. Where, then, did baseball come from? In search of an answer, Block, a retired systems analyst and an antiquarian book collector, has attacked baseball''s literary record with methodical zeal. The result is a joyfully discursive romp through the history of ball sports and a compelling new theory of the game''s origins."—New York Times Book Review

(New York Times Book Review )

"Baseball before We Knew It is a rare piece of historical research that transforms the historical landscape. It is also elegantly written and lightened with a subtle humor. No one who makes any claim to being a baseball historian or a student of the game can go forward without Block''s stunning work."—Sports Literature Association

(Sports Literature Association )

About the Author

David Block is a long-time collector of early baseball books and memorabilia, and is a passionate, lifelong fan of the game and its history.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: University of Nebraska Press; First Edition edition (March 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0803213395
• ISBN-13: 978-0803213395
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,141,290 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Breaking new ground, October 16, 2005

By 

Richard Hershberger (Maryland) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Baseball before We Knew It: A Search for the Roots of the Game (Hardcover)

I was initially not going to write a review of this book, as there are already many justly praising it. The one negative review, however, saying that this book has little in it not in Harold Peterson's "The Man Who Invented Baseball" (published over thirty years ago) gave me pause. On one level it is clearly true. I remember as a boy my father telling me about Alexander Cartwright and the New York Knickerbockers, and dismissing the Abner Doubleday story. I don't know that he read Peterson's book, but the timing is right and Peterson did popularize the Cartwright story. This provoked me to dig out my out copy of Peterson and read it for the first time in many years. I can now definitively assure you that David Block is most certainly not just recycling Peterson's book.

They agree that there were earlier versions of ball-and-stick games, which they discuss, and that the version of the game that has come down to us as modern baseball was standardized by the Knickerbocker club.

That may make it look like they have similar theses, but they really do not. Peterson's thesis is right there in his title: someone invented baseball and he knows who it was. Earlier versions were fundamentally different from the Knickerbocker game, and the Knickerbocker game was the product one man's flash of genius. Earlier games are discussed, but they don't really matter, since the Knickerbocker game is taken as being so different. The discussions of earlier games mostly are there to discredit the Doubleday story, which typically has predecessor games being even more primitive than in the Cartwright story

Block's goal is also named in his title: he is seeking baseball's roots. The Knickerbocker game is part of a story that began centuries earlier. Earlier versions aren't a distraction, they are the story. Only by knowing what came before can we see what the Knickerbockers did and didn't do: what parts of their game were selections from an existing menu of options and what parts were true innovations. It turns out to be far more interesting than any myth of a heroic lone genius.

Why should we believe Block rather than Peterson? Peterson's is a book with no footnotes, but with detailed descriptions of events down to quoted conversations. Even if the events were found in histories that actually cited sources, we would know that this is fiction. Peterson probably considered it putting a human face on the story. I consider it making stuff up. He does that a lot. The chapters on early ball-and-stick games are a mish-mash of solid data, poorly understood facts, and utter fiction. So it is that he can, on adjacent pages, give two contradictory accounts of the origin of cricket. He has a story to tell and he isn't going to let facts get in the way. Block's book started out as an annotated bibliography of early baseball sources and Block is meticulous about documentation. When he is forced to interpret beyond the actual evidence he tells us this. You come away knowing exactly what is really known and what is educated guesswork. It is honest history.

I rarely give five stars in my reviews, but I have no qualms about doing so here. The book is quite simply the important book on the subject published in my lifetime. It may be surpassed some day, but that day isn't likely to be soon. For the foreseeable future this is the one book to own if you have any interest in the origins of baseball.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating Study of Baseball's Mist-Shrouded Origins, August 27, 2005

By 

Theo Logos (Pittsburgh, PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Baseball before We Knew It: A Search for the Roots of the Game (Hardcover)

Baseball is a "what have you done for me lately?" kind of game, which in part may explain how little has been written about the game's earliest origins. Add that to the facts that many baseball fans are satisfied to believe the false myth (discredited almost from the point that it was first put forward) that Abner Doubleday invented baseball out of whole clothe in Cooperstown, New York, and that some fans are only interested in baseball history that can be explained through statistics, and you begin to understand why the game's true origins have been so widely ignored.
David Block steps into this breach with a well researched, fascinating book that examines the history of our National pastime from its earliest origins through its evolution into the modern game. His original intent was simply to compile a bibliography of all the books and sources that touch on this subject, and indeed, nearly half the length of `Baseball Before We Knew It' is taken up with his bibliography and various appendices. He spends several chapters debunking not only the already thoroughly debunked Doubleday myth, but also challenging the more widely accepted theory that baseball evolved from the English game of rounders, and even calling into question how important Alexander Cartwright actually was in formulating the earliest rules of the official American game.
The most fascinating part of Block's book is his delving into the early European origins of Baseball. Much of his research here is not original, but he does have some interesting original interpretations of the scant evidence that can be gleaned from these early references to games that seem to have a family resemblance to baseball. In his last chapter he presents a theoretical flowchart of baseball's evolution from the Medieval European ball game called Longball, complete with all the various ball games that seemed to influence it and branch off from it on its way to becoming our modern game of American Baseball.
Block admits that his book is far from the last word on the subject, but hopes that it will reinvigorate fans interest in the often overlooked history of the game's origins. His extensive bibliography provides many clues for continued reading on the subject, though many of the cited sources are obviously rare and hard to find. `Baseball Before We Knew It' is a great contribution to the literature of the history of a game which is uniquely tied to the culture and history of the United States, and should be appreciated not only by the serious baseball fan, but by all of those with an interest in American cultural history.

Theo Logos

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Ultimate Baseball Book, February 25, 2005

By 

Angus A. Macfarlane (San Francisco, Ca) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Baseball before We Knew It: A Search for the Roots of the Game (Hardcover)

As soon as I began reading "Baseball Before We Knew It", I felt as though I were on a runaway horse--I kept exclaiming "Whoa, Whoa." Baseball is "America's pastime", but David Block becomes an international historical sleuth to uncover its true roots. Forget everything you have been led to believe about the origin of baseball and be prepared for the ultimate "who dunnit". Mr. Block even sheds new and intense light on the Abner Doubleday myth, not just dispelling it (again), but revealing perhaps a more nefarious agenda by Albert Spaulding, the baseball magnate who could not accept that, just maybe, baseball did not originate in America. Meticulously researched and documented, Mr. Block introduces us to all of baseball's possible ancestors. His conclusion is surprising but satisfying. This is not just "another history of baseball book", but the definitive work that will be defered to and refered to for a long time to come. And for the detail wonks, he provides footnotes, appendices and a bibliography which in and of itself is an example of thorough research. An absolute MUST READ. And a great gift to baseball-loving friends also.