Customer Reviews

Our Game: An American Baseball History

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is truly one of the best books on baseball history I have ever read. I did have to read it for Dr. Alexander's baseball history course, but I enjoyed every minute of it. He is definitely the best historian I have ever met.

As the reviews allude, Our Game is a very good crash course in baseball history. Its more historical review than commentary on players. Alexander sticks pretty much to the facts and happenings of any given year in baseball, without delving into personal opinion on the events themselves. A good read for the baseball fans who wants to expand his knowledge of the game's history without going through too much trouble.

Visiting the USA back in 92' I got hooked on baseball and wanted a general outline of how the game developed, was organized, played professionally - and of course I also wanted the stories of legends and get my hands on some of the triva, we europeans never heard of before. "Our Game" gave all that to me, and more. Well written, with a rock-solid historic overview, this book is a great historic guide for a true baseball-novice like myself. I will add, that I have a college degree in history and therefore can compare "Our Fame" with other historic monographs. In my opinion it rates among the best. To me it was meant as a booster and from here I moved on to read more detailed studies and books on the subject

Good book for a baseball fan to learn the history of the game.

Charles Alexander's book Our Game is a straight forward historical account of the national pasttime. In an age where very few people are interested in "pure" history, Alexander has managed to pen an intelligent and informative book that gets to the point quickly and provides the reader with a complete histroy of baseball.

Professor Alexander is a pioneer is the field of sports history, but his short history of baseball pales in comparison to what has cme since. He never fails to take a potshot at his betes noire, nor cackle over his pet theories, making this a hard read.

Charles Alexander's book Our Game is a straight forward historical account of the national pasttime. In an age where very few people are interested in "pure" history, Alexander has managed to pen an intelligent and informative book that gets to the point quickly and provides the reader with a complete history of baseball.

To learn of some of the obscure and not-so-obscure baseball history lessons, this is a good read. That's worth 3 stars. The self-gratification and self-indulgence the author does throughout the book left me wondering if he was not just a bit full of himself while he penned about our pasttime. I enjoy some of the facts of baseball included here but would have enjoyed a thinner version without all of the bragadocious ways of the author.