A Game of Brawl: The Orioles, the Beaneaters, and the Battle for the 1897 Pennant [Hardcover]

Bill Felber (Author), Edward M. Kennedy (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2007

It was probably the most cutthroat pennant race in baseball history. And it was a struggle to define how baseball would be played. This book recreates the rowdy, season-long 1897 battle between the Baltimore Orioles and the Boston Beaneaters. The Orioles had acquired a reputation as the dirtiest team in baseball. Future Hall of Famers John McGraw, Wee Willie Keeler, and “Foxy” Ned Hanlon were proven winners—but their nasty tactics met with widespread disapproval among fans. So it was that their pennant race with the comparatively saintly Beaneaters took on a decidedly moralistic air.

 

Bill Felber brings to life the most intensely watched team sporting event in the country’s history to that time. His book captures the drama of the final week, as the race came down to a three-game series. And finally, it conveys the madness of the third and decisive game, when thirty thousand fans literally knocked down the gates and walls of a facility designed to hold ten thousand to watch the Beaneaters grind out a win and bring down baseball’s first and most notorious evil empire.

(20070108)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Labor disputes, prolonged contract holdouts and widespread suggestions of cheating—Felber's account of the national pastime isn't a telling of current events but of the 1897 pennant race between the Boston Beaneaters and Baltimore Orioles. Stark contrasts in philosophy and team makeup create the best rivalries, and Felber, executive editor of the Manhattan Mercury in Kansas, excels at demonstrating the dissimilarities between these two evenly matched opponents. As Felber points out, Boston's team had ruled the early part of the decade with clean play that mirrored the city's puritanical approach to life, while the Orioles, representing less genteel Baltimore, had won the last three league championships thanks in part to their ungentlemanly methods and roughhouse tactics. As the two teams battle for the pennant up until the last week of the season, Felber gives a spirited retelling of the season, giving life to greedy owners, rabid fans, drunken ballplayers and terrorized umpires, all the while bringing to life an era of baseball when home runs were a rarity, players fielded with no gloves and starting pitchers threw almost 400 innings a season. (Sept.)
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Review

“Felber . . . excels at demonstrating the dissimilarities between these two evenly matched opponents. . . . [He] gives a spirited retelling of the season, giving life to greedy owners, rabid fans, drunken ballplayers and terrorized umpires, all the while bringing to life an era of baseball when home runs were a rarity, players fielded with no gloves and starting pitchers threw almost 400 innings a season.”—Publishers Weekly

(Publishers Weekly )

“Bill Felber has woven a picturesque tale of how baseball was played more than 100 years ago in the rowdy days of the 1890s. The story, although concentrating on the 1897 pennant race between Baltimore and Boston, vividly describes the atmosphere of the game on and off the field, and in doing so creates a rollicking good tale to boot.”—Pete Palmer, coeditor of ESPN Baseball Encyclopedia, 4th edition

(Palmer, Pete )

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: University of Nebraska Press; 1St Edition edition (September 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0803211368
• ISBN-13: 978-0803211360
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,037,673 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Bill Felber is executive editor of The Manhattan Mercury, the daily newspaper of Manhattan, Ks. He is a native of Chicago. Interests include journalism, golf, baseball and history.

He has written the following books:
125 Years of Professional Baseball, published in 1924 by Triumph Books
The Horse in War, published in 2001 by Chelsea.
The Book On The Book, published in 2004 by St. Martins
A Game of Brawl, published in 2008 by Bison Press.

His latest book, Under Pallor, Under Shadow, will be published by Bison Press in the spring of 2011. It is the story of the 1920 American League baseball pennant race, examining the intersection and consequences of three noteworthy developments. 1. The death of Ray Chapman. 2. The arrival of Babe Ruth in New York. 3. The exposure of the Black Sox scandal.

His writing and research can also be examined at www.billfelber.com. Included at this website is his unpublished novel, What So Proudly We Hailed, a fictionalized treatment of the same 1920 pennant race.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An Aptly Named Book, January 4, 2008

By 

C. W. Emblom "Bill Emblom" (Ishpeming, Michigan USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Game of Brawl: The Orioles, the Beaneaters, and the Battle for the 1897 Pennant (Hardcover)

This book covers the 1897 pennant race between the Boston Beaneaters and the Baltimore Orioles, or the Bostons vs. the Baltimores. Baseball at this time in its history was, indeed, a game of brawl. Players fought on the field, there was rowdiness among fans, umpires exchanged punches with players, oftentimes without penalty, and teams took turns seeing who could invent new profanities to hurl at one another. Games often had only one umpire, two if it was of special significance, and players took advantage by cutting corners while running bases while the lone umpire wasn't watching. With a runner on base an umpire would position himself behind the pitcher to better make calls on the bases. Games were played on ill-kept infields, and players literally kept their eye on a ball and suffered injury. Treatment for a swollen closed eye was leeches to draw out the blood. Boston sent their Royal Rooters contingent to Baltimore to cheer on their heroes, chief among them, John Francis Fitzgerald, better known as "Honey Fitz", grandfather of our late President Kennedy. The book primarily covers the 1897 pennant race between the Beaneaters and Orioles, won by Boston. The top two teams then faced off in the Temple Cup series since there was no World Series at the time. The final section of the book covers what happened to several of the participants, many of which ended up in Baseball's Hall of Fame. Some died from consumption (tuberculosis), Chick Stahl and Patsy Tebeau were suicides, while Marty Bergen murdered his family and then slit his own throat. One drawback for me in the book was too much of a play-by-play from one game to the next as the season is covered. The game of baseball was going through a chaotic time during this period with ineffective leadership in the league, and a thorough cleansing was necessary. If you are interested in this period of the game's history I would recommend this book to you.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Baseball in the late 19th century, September 15, 2008

By 

Frank J. Konopka (Shamokin, PA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Game of Brawl: The Orioles, the Beaneaters, and the Battle for the 1897 Pennant (Hardcover)

Today we think of baseball as almost a gentleman's sport, with only occasional outbursts over disputed calls. In the late 19th century, however, the Baltimore Orioles epitomized the rough and tumble aspect of the game, and turned it from "baseball " into "basebrawl".The life of an umpire in that era was a very stressful one, with only one man assigned to cover the entire field, and be subjected to scorn and abuse, and often physical danger, from not only the players, but from the "cranks" (that's what fans were called then, and perhaps it's a very apt name). This well-written book tells the story of the 1897 season, that came down to a fight for the pennant between the "outlaw" Orioles, and the "gentlemanly" Boston Beaneaters. There is an almost day-by-day account of the season, and it's quite captivating to the reader. Once the main tale is finished, the author gives some brief summaries of the further careers and lives of a few of the participants. Some went on to further acclaim and eventual enshrinement in the Baseball Hall of Fame, and some died suddenly and tragically, often by their own hands. This is a story of a bygone era when the "sport" of baseball was more of a war than a game. It's fascinating reading, and I highly recommend it.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Old time baseball, September 4, 2009

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J. R. Bailey (Dublin 6, Ireland) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Game of Brawl: The Orioles, the Beaneaters, and the Battle for the 1897 Pennant (Hardcover)

This is a fascinating look at turn of the century Boston baseball. Having been in Boston for the 2004 World Series parade, and seeing the intensity of the New England Boston fans then, it is salutary to see the same intensity a century earlier. If anyone wishes to read an enthralling history of a particular period in American League history - this is your book. It is also a guide to New England society of the turn of the 20th century.