But Didn't We Have Fun?: An Informal History of Baseball's Pioneer Era, 1843-1870 [Hardcover]

Peter Morris (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 21, 2008

The story of baseball in America begins not with the fabled Abner Doubleday but with a generation of mid-nineteenth-century Americans who moved from the countryside to the cities and brought a cherished but delightfully informal game with them.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Morris (Game of Inches) explores the earliest days of baseball through the voices of players and journalists who wrote about it in the 27-year period in the mid-19th century before professional baseball emerged. The earliest versions of bat-and-ball games—some of the variants are town ball, wicket and even patch ball—were eventually displaced and standardized in 1845 when the Knickerbocker Club of New York City published rules that eliminated such practices as throwing the ball and hitting a base runner (an act sometimes known as soaking) to make an out. The text is an intriguing study for students of baseball history curious about how aspects of the game developed, such as the foul ball, sliding, balls and strikes, and the role of the umpire. As the game spread from its origins in New York and its popularity grew, Morris writes that two factors brought the pioneer era of amateur play to an end: the Civil War and the increasing seriousness of players who changed games from ceremonial pastime to cutthroat competitions. Morris has done vast research and quotes many of his sources at length. His focus on a detailed account of baseball's development, however, does not provide much insight into the people who played the game. (Mar.)
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Review

I first heard about Peter Morris because he was one of America’s preeminent Scrabble players. Now he has achieved an even greater distinction: one of America’s preeminent baseball historians. But Didn’t We Have Fun? is exhaustively researched and artfully written—an invaluable contribution to the early history of our sport and our country. (Stefan Fatsis )

If you think baseball’s rich history begins with the American League in 1901, or with the National League in 1876, or even with the National Association in 1871, think again. Thanks to Peter Morris, now we know that the game’s pioneer days—the nearly four decades prior to the first professional ‘league’—might have been the richest of them all. (Rob Neyer )

Peter Morris takes us on a fascinating and highly entertaining journey through the earliest—the very earliest—days of our National Pastime. To read this book is to see Baseball emerging from its womb and blinking its eyes and stretching its arms as it begins to take shape and through trial and error grows into its remarkable and compelling existence. (Donald Honig )

Abner Doubleday just struck out. If you ever wondered where baseball came from—really came from—this story is for you. It’s the real story of how America’s game is much more about America than it is about a game. Entertaining and informative, I think Morris is headed for another medal. (Will Carroll )

In this title, which is sure to be popular, prolific baseball historian Morris engagingly describes the poorly appreciated early years of the game as it evolved to adopt a consistent set of rules. The well-known but much-misunderstood contributions of the New York Knickerbocker Club are reviewed fully, together with the fascinating depictions of the development of umpiring, professionalism, and sportsmanship. A fine addition to all collections. (Library Journal )

Morris, a baseball scholar and historian, shows us around the ancient, pre-professional era of baseball with charming familiarity and dense, nuanced detail. (Abe Lebovic Amnew York )

Entertaining and informative. (Jonathan Yardley Washington Post )

Morris is very clear: The pioneers did have fun. (Book Digest )

An entertaining, enlightening journey. For fans and non-fans alike, Morris’s book serves as an interesting window into the leisure culture of the nation leading up to and following directly after the Civil War. (Wilson McBee Popmatters )

Morris’s study of baseball’s evolution during its pre-professional years is a model of careful scholarship, use of original sources, and elegant writing. (Choice )

As the pages turn, professional baseball comes together before our eyes, and a bunch of diverse tributaries of proto-baseball flow, year by year, into the mighty, formalized, commercial river that we know today as the National Pastime. (Ted Anthony Associated Press )

Dedicated statistics geeks will revel in the seemingly inexhaustible supply of arcane facts and figures…. A useful reference for diehard baseball historians. (Kirkus Reviews )

The text is an intriguing study for students of baseball history curious about how aspects of the game developed. (Publishers Weekly )

Concise, clear, and colorful, this book is a delight to mind and spirit. (Boston Sunday Globe )

[T]horoughly researched, entirely engaging…Morris achieves his main purpose, and more. He traces the game's westward advance-often along canal and railroad routes-and its evolution toward competitiveness and standardized rules. As he does, he takes the reader deep into the culture of 19th-century America, as revolutions in transportation and mass communication pushed everything, even casual pastimes, toward professionalization and commercialization. (Providence Journal )

Morris's love of baseball is palpable throughout the book…. His enthusiasm adds to the charm with which he tells his story. (The Historian )

[Scholars] may find that Porter's challenging, almost taunting tone inspires them to express their own beliefs and conclusions more forcefully, in keeping or at odds with what they will read in his essay. (Journal Of Genocide Research )

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Ivan R Dee; First edition. edition (January 21, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1566637481
• ISBN-13: 978-1566637480
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #941,825 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A modern history of early baseball, March 7, 2008

By 

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

This review is from: But Didn't We Have Fun?: An Informal History of Baseball's Pioneer Era, 1843-1870 (Hardcover)

The study of early baseball has made great strides the past couple of decades. Our knowledge is both broader and deeper than before. There has been a steady trickle of work by academic historians, a flow of work by amateurs (some of it excellent) and a community of researchers gathered under the aspices of the Society for American Baseball Research and its 19th century committee.

By the nature of things it takes a while for such knowledge to work its way from specialists to books for the general reader. There have books published quite recently that could have been written forty years ago.

There are numerous possible examples illustrating this point. Perhaps the best is the anachronistic expectation that early baseball players and organizations were motivated pretty much like modern baseball players and organizations. We often see sniggering condescension at the early Knickerbockers for wasting their time on banquets when they should have been practicing. The implicit assumption is that their motivation was to win games, but they kept getting distracted; or if this wasn't their motivation, it should have been. This is a hopeless way to approach history, and utterly commonplace. If we are to understand the Knickerbockers we need to understand their motivations, not impose our modern expectations on them.

It is a great pleasure to see in Peter Morris's new book. He makes available recent work, combined with his knack for ferretting out an impressive collection of old accounts. He puts the familiar events into context, and allows us to approach the early players on their own terms. This is a modern history of early baseball.

This isn't to say that there are no points to disagree on. There certainly are interpretations that can be disputed. This isn't the final word on the subject, but that isn't the point. This is part of an ongoing conversation, now made available to anyone interested.

As always, Morris's writing is admirably readable. Early baseball geeks will keep a bookmark to refer to the endnotes nearly every page, but there is no need for the less obsessive to notice them.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Baseball Book, May 16, 2008

By 

Ruth P. Doak (Silver Spring, MD USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: But Didn't We Have Fun?: An Informal History of Baseball's Pioneer Era, 1843-1870 (Hardcover)

I am unable to write a review from personal experience, but I gave the book as a gift to my 54-year-old son who is a great fan of baseball from his childhood. He reports that he found the book "fascinating" because it told of an era of baseball which is not familiar to current fans. After that glowing report, I ordered a second copy to give to a friend. Ruth Doak

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tons on new information, April 28, 2008

By 

Marc Ranger "Baseball fan" (québec, canada) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: But Didn't We Have Fun?: An Informal History of Baseball's Pioneer Era, 1843-1870 (Hardcover)

Simply put, I have over 70 baseball books and Peter Morris's one of the best! You want to know how baseball started? Why Americans played the game? Why and how baseball changed? How it became a pro game? Peter Morris has written an enchanting, wonderful ride into baseball's origins. It's the closest you'll get to time travel. This is the book. Go get it.