The Great 19th Century Encyclopedia of Major League Baseball [Illustrated] [Hardcover]

David Nemec (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 1997

A guide to baseball played between 1871 and 1900 features reports on each season's pennant race and championship series, including the rosters for each team, statistics for the players, and unique rule changes and plays that shaped the modern game. 12,500 first printing.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

For the true baseball fan, the past is never just the past; it's always prologue. This comprehensive and engaging volume performs a valiant CPR on professional baseball's infancy and early childhood, returning the Dark Ages from 1871-1900 to vivid life. Unlike most sports encyclopedias, it goes way beyond statistics, though there are, of course, pages of those. It's the prose that truly covers the bases here. Meticulously researched, with a grandstand full of enlightening anecdotes, its clear history brings the distant past into the present by showing how closely related--and far afield--the era of Anson and Spalding and Keeler is to that of Griffey and Maddux and Gwynn.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 864 pages
• Publisher: Dutton Adult; illustrated edition edition (March 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1556115008
• ISBN-13: 978-1556115004
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 7.3 x 2.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #676,712 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Unique book on an underappreciated topic, May 5, 2003

By 

John Corbett (Summerland, California United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Great 19th Century Encyclopedia of Major League Baseball (Hardcover)

For some reason, 1900/1901 seems to be a magical boundary for baseball history books. There are two possible reasons for this. First, 1900 or 1901 (depending on how you look at it) marked the beginning of the twentieth century, and, in the eyes of many, the "modern era" of baseball. Second, 1900 was the inagural season of the American League, the renamed incarnation of Ban Johnson's Western League. In 1901, the American League elevated itself to major-league status, initiating the two-league format that exists to this day.

While those are certainly convenient benchmarks, they arbitrarily overlook what came before as somehow "irrelevant" or not "modern". David Nemec's book proves that baseball is a story of gradual evolution, rather than an overnight coming of age. It can be argued that modern baseball began in 1871, the year that the first professional baseball (or Base Ball) league began play. The National Association of Base Ball Players officially recognized baseball as a business -- even if the Supreme Court still refuses to do so. Players were openly paid to play what many had argued was an amateur sport of gentlemen, clubs, exercise, and grand feasts. The NA had its share of problems -- gambling, contract-jumping, rowdiness, and organizational chaos. Teams came and went -- Philadelphia had three separate teams in 1875. One team, the Boston Red Stockings, was dominant in a field of teams with questionable talent. All a team needed to do was pay a $10 fee and they were in the association. Hence teams from Chicago and Boston were forced to play squads from Middletown (Connecticut), Fort Wayne (Indiana) and Keokuk (Iowa).

The National League of 1876 changed all of that. Unlike its predecessor, it centered around teams, not players. It instituted reforms such as the hated reserve clause and territorial rights and market threshholds. Gambling was not tolerated. Nor were Sunday games or beer at the park.

Baseball evolved over the following decades into the "modern" game that historians pick up from 1900. Batters were no longer out if their hits were caught after one bounce. Three strikes -- not four -- resulted in an out, while four balls -- instead of nine -- lead to a walk. Home plate became five-sided, and the pitcher's box was replaced by the familiar mound. This compensated for the move of the pitcher from 45 to 60 feet, 6 inches from the plate.

Nineteenth-century baseball also had its share of heros and characters. Cap Anson, who became the first player to amass 3,000 hits, was the primary figure behind the drawing of the racial color line to haunt the game for decades. Other greats included Dan Brouthers, Cal McVey, "King" Kelly, Wilbert Robinson, and so on.

Nemec's book captures the development of the game quite well through his season-by-season accounts from 1871 to 1900, showing the evolution of the rules of the game and the major events of each season. The book is liberally peppered with rare team and player photographs. Most importantly, the book is a virtual clearinghouse of statistics for nineteeth-century players.

Now for a few criticisms. While Nemec's style is chatty, with plenty of sidebars detailing unusual characters and trivia about nineteeth-century episodes, the text clearly reflects Nemec's passion for statistics. Some episodes revolve around debates over batting averages or pitching numbers that occured over a century after the fact. Nemec focuses on his personal disputes with accepted statistics, which is fine to a point, but he gets carried away with his "findings".

Also, while he spends a good deal of time on the changing nature of the rules of the game from year to year -- which is quite eye-opening -- he spends little time on some of the other, more subtle changes off the record books that were equally important. No mention is made of the development of modern equipment, such as masks or gloves, or how this affected the game or led to the changing of the rules. No discussions involved the way in which ballparks evolved, how baseball coverage changed, or how baseball became a truly modern business with expanding numbers and types of fans.

Having said all this, this is the most comprehensive and systematic treatment of nineteenth-century baseball yet compiled. If nothing else, this book's significance may lie in forging the path for other books to follow and expand upon its scope.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Historical Fans Bible, April 3, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Great 19th Century Encyclopedia of Major League Baseball (Hardcover)

A tremendous work on the games beginings. This book containsnumerous photos of 19th century baseball which brings the game alive.Every season is reviewed with complete statistics of team standings and players. There are many side articles on individual players, teams and accomplishments. The rules of play for each year are updated and there is a player and pitcher register for all who played.

A historical and statistical must! END

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Triple-Crown job, September 4, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Great 19th Century Encyclopedia of Major League Baseball (Hardcover)

The season stories and sidebars are all excellent. So are the photos. This isn't really a criticism, but I do wish the season stats for each player had been a bit fuller. I'd be glad to take a smaller type size if it meant getting in stats like batter strikeouts, sacrifice hits, etc. The same with the career stats. I like the way the author sorts the players according to the most prominent positions they played, but it would help not to have to look up stats like doubles and triples in other encyclopedias. This isn't really a big deal, just a suggestion if the author ever does a new edition of this wonderful book.