Customer Reviews

Where They Ain't: The Fabled Life and Untimely Death of the Original Baltimore Orioles, the Team That Gave Birth to Modern Baseball

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I used to avoid books about 19th century baseball, fearing that I'd find the game too unfamiliar to the one I grew up with. The rules were often different, the style of play was different, and you couldn't watch it on ESPN Classic.

"Where They Ain't", however, is one of the better baseball books I've read. Ostensibly about the old Baltimore Orioles of the National League in the 1890s, this book is really a micro-history of early baseball, tracing the game forward -- both on and off the field -- through the advent of Babe Ruth. Burt Solomon paints a very convincing picture of those Orioles as the team that had the singlemost impact on the way the game is played today. He chronicles the playing and early mangerial days of John McGraw, Ned Hanlon, Wilbert Robinson and Willie Keeler, and shows how they introduced the aggressive style of play -- the hit-and-run, the double-steal, the drag bunt, the Baltimore chop -- that still wins pennants today.

But more than profiling that now-defunct team, Solomon paints a vivid picture of the economics of the game at large. Playing in ornate wood stadiums, a team would be lucky to draw 5,000 fans (or "cranks", in the parlace of the time) to the grandstands and "bleacheries". The owners fiddled mercilessly with cost-cutting ideas such as contraction, team syndicates, and collusion. Indeed, that these ideas all failed so miserably (forging the birth of the rival American League, a revolution which swallowed its own children so rapidly that within three years you couldn't tell one league from the other) that your eyebrows will leap off your head when you see that today's owners are still using them! Certainly fans of the Minnesota Twins, Montreal Expos, and Baltimore Orioles (we've come full circle) will wince in agony as the old Oriole team was destroyed by league management three times in four years -- by ill-advised co-ownership with the Brooklyn Dodgers; by contraction out of the NL; and then by relocation to New York.

Solomon writes in a rich prose style, and footnotes his research extensively. It must have been fun poring through old newspaper accounts for the colorful game descriptions he ultimately finds. He subtly introduces us to historical changes, such as the three-strike out and the foot-long pitcher's rubber, with a broad "that will never catch on!" wink to the reader. My chief complaints would be that "Where They Ain't" is a slow read -- and one so entrenched in Baltimore geography that it's unfathomable that a map wasn't printed inside the book. I lived in Baltimore for parts of six years and even I frequently got lost in Solomon's directions.

Baseball hasn't changed much over the past 100 years. Players and owners still wrangle with one another with the latter claiming the former are overpayed. This is more than the story of the Orioles of the 1890's. It is also about the beginning of the success of the Dodgers and Giants and the beginning of the New York Yankees when the Baltimore franchise was moved to New York in 1903 to become the Highlanders. Rich colorful characters such as Willie Keeler, John McGraw, Joe Kelley, Hughie Jennings, and others populate this book when you played with injuries because you were encouraged to "take it like an old Oriole." Baseball historian Fred Lieb wrote a book entitled "The Baltimore Orioles" many years back about this subject, and it is with a great deal of thanks that I express to both him and Burt Solomon, the author of "Where They Ain't" for bringing American social history alive for us to enjoy. There is more to American history than wars, treaties, and presidents. Run, don't walk, to your nearest bookstore and buy this book. You can thank me later. This book is an easy five stars.

It's tempting to think that baseball has become a business only in the last 25 years or so. This wonderful book shows that even 100 years ago baseball was all business (frequently in a cutthroat way). Imagine if Steinbrenner or Turner owned several teams and switched the best players back and forth. Sounds crazy, right? That's exactly what "Syndicate Baseball" of the late 1800's was. The Baltimore Orioles and Brooklyn Superbas were owned by the same beer baron. Many of the Orioles best players (including 3 of the big 4) featured in Where They Ain't were transferred to Brooklyn. The same fate befell the Cleveland Spiders when all of their quality players were shipped to St. Louis in 1899. This book is populated by historical baseballers (Keeler, Kelley, Hanlon, McGraw) and scoundrels (the National League owners, especially Andrew Freedman). For the baseball fan who yearns for "the good old days" this is a must read.

This book was a masterful description of baseball's most notorious era. I bought the book, hoping to learn more about the Old Orioles, a legendary team. And I got more than I bargained for. I was thrust into a world of "Syndicate Baseball," where fans and players were ignored and the personal vendettas of the owners dictated the circumstances under which baseball would exist. I would highly recommend this book for any one interested in US history or merely in the history of baseball. Disclaimer- I am a devout Orioles fan and a native of Baltimore City.

"Where They Ain't," as baseball fans know, is part of the phrase used by Willie Keeler as an explanation of where he hit the ball. Unfortunately appropriately it describes the Orioles major league team relationship with Baltimore between the end of 1902 and 1953. The book opens and closes with Wee Willie's life, transitioning into the Oriole baseball team that identifies so well with him, not to mention John McGraw and Wilbert Robinson. In all, it is a very good book detailing how, basically, Baltimore got the short end of the stick twice in less than 5 years, once each by the National and American Leagues (an equal opportunity shafting). Solomon tells the story well and brings a closeness of Baltimore to the team and the sense of loss when the team leaves, and it's a book that I would recommend for your baseball library.

This look at the rise and fall of the original Orioles, and of the changes in baseball that shepharded in the "modern" era is both fascinating and very well-written. Solomon brings the long dead stars of the 1890s to vivid life, while reflecting on the dual nature of baseball as both game and business, and while looking at American life in the same era. This work shows that in some ways little has changed - contraction is a very old idea, as is franchise relocation - and that in some ways the game has benefitted from the end of the reserve clause and the occasional need to reinvent itself.

The reader gets the chance to meet some fascinating characters, such as the young John McGraw, before his days as a manager; Charlie Ebbets, the name behind Ebbets field; and Ned Hanlon, perhaps the father of strategic baseball. Moreover, this book captures the essence of the great pennants races of the past, when winning the regular season title was everything. And it's truly bizarre to learn how much was stolen from Baltimore to build all three of NYC's major league teams.

I highly recommend this to baseball fans of all stripes, as well history buffs.

This is a super book. Being a huge Orioles fan I was easily caught up in the delightful narrative that Solomon provides while also giving his reader detailed statistics and insight. This book will take you away from the modern frustrations of baseball while simultaneously showing you that while the times and names change, baseball really hasn't changed in 125 years or so. I also delighted in learning that the current NY Yankees(BOO!) were once the Baltimore Orioles.

Many will know that Dimaggio broke Wee Willie Keeler's hitting streak of 44 consecutive games, or will know the name of Ty Cobb's manager Hughie Jennings, or the name of the much-feared Giants manager John McGraw (who turns out to be the combined Ty Cobb and Tony Gwynn of his day), but this book brings these legendaries to life in the days when they themselves were playing, all on the same team as it turns out! Also included is Ned Hanlon, a little known manager who seems to have practically invented modern baseball training and tactics, "Iron Man" Joe McGinnity, Cy Young (he of the famous award), Kid Nichols, Charles Ebbets and other distant whispers. There is even the occasional mention of Babe Ruth. The book does everything right, knowing when to slow down and just enjoy the subject and when to fast forward to the next salient points. There is a nice collection of photos, thorough appendices and wondeful footnotes that are a pleasure to read in themselves. Overall, Solomon and his editorial team have created a fascinating immersion in the time when fans were "cranks" and hurlers were "twirlers".

I've read this book twice and both times I couldn't put it down. Mr. Solomon spins a tale worthy of any novel and it's all true. As a chronicle of late 19th and early 20th Century baseball it is insurpassed in rich detail. The reader feels transported back to that time period. As a story, the characters are so realistically portrayed that you'd swear Solomon knew each of the players personally or at least had the opportunity to interview them at length. In short, this book reads like a compelling novel but it actually happened just as Mr. Solomon describes. The only other work I can compare it to is Shelby Foote's three-volume series on the Civil War. I consider Burt Solomon the equal of Mr. Foote.

My favorite era in baseball is the Deadball
Era, with the years from 1903-1919, but another wild time was the 1890s, highlighted by the amazing Baltimore Orioles. There was only one league then: the National League.

This account of that period, the Orioles and the team's best hitter, "Wee Willie" Keeler, is a good read for all fans who love baseball history. Keeler was not just a fantastic hitter but a really interesting man. Of course, so was half the team led by the even-more-famous third baseman-later-turned-manager John McGraw.

Author Burt Solomon did his homework. The Orioles and all their ups and downs are detailed both on and off the ballfield. The business end of baseball was brutal back then (not that it's ever been admirable). Sometimes the book gets bogged down with all the financial dealings but overall it's a good read. It makes you shake your in amazement and frustration how stupid baseball was run and how bad a shake the city of Baltimore and its team got. In other words, similar to the stupidity of today's baseball "leadership" where they start World Series games at 10 o'clock at night, as we just witnessed.

All the stories about the "cranks" along with the crazy bloodthirsty Orioles were fun. I'm telling you: baseball fans who ignore the early days of the sport are missing out on the some of the greatest sports stories of all time. You almost can't go wrong reading about anything that happened on the diamond between 1890 and 1920.

"Where They Ain't" is a famous baseball quote from Keeler, who was asked the secret to this hitting. "Just hit `em where they (the fielders) ain't," he replied. Sounds good to me.