Autumn Glory: Baseball's First World Series (Hardcover)

by Louis P. Masur (Author) "THE CROWD IN BOSTON GATHERED EARLY..." (more)
Key Phrases: National League, New York, Fred Clarke (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
At the heart of this book by Masur (1831: Year of Eclipse) are eight in-depth, almost play-by-play, retellings of the games of the 1903 World Series between the Boston Americans and the Pittsburgh Pirates. Though the accounts of 100-year-old games can become tedious ("In the second inning, both teams went down easily"), for the most part Masur's storytelling skills ("He walked slowly, but not because of age. Pitchers always had a deliberate way about them") keep the book moving. Interspersed among the game recaps is a closely considered, detailed account of how the World Series was invented. Punctuated by chapters with titles like "War," "Peace," "Winter" and "Spring," Masur's presentation of the violent birth of the fall classic as the result of a bitter war between the established National League and upstart American League takes on a decidedly Yeatsian tone. Thankfully, the dense, political nature of these chapters is balanced by more colorful tales of the era, like Pittsburgh manager Fred Clarke being "pummeled" black and blue by an opposing player and the New York Giants' Christy Mathewson winning three games of a four-game regular season series versus the Pirates that demonstrate how much and how little the game has changed over the years. Despite a summer release in honor of the Series's centennial, Masur's work is a prime example of a winter baseball book: a story to stoke the fire of baseball lovers whose hope of a World Series title has become every fan's entitlement for the past century. Illus.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
In October 1903, the Boston Americans and the Pittsburg (no h in those days) Pirates played the first World Series of baseball, a five-of-nine game contest that Boston won in eight. With the one-hundredth anniversary of that landmark event on the horizon, a valuable new book tells the story. Masur, with a historian's meticulous eye and a fan's open heart, alternates chapters that detail each game of that series and some of the history and the season that preceded it. The game chapters, based on contemporary accounts from a century ago, read as freshly as a report from yesterday: it is astonishing how familiar it all is. The Bostons had the Royal Rooters, an assemblage of raucous fans who traveled between Philadelphia and Boston. The Pirates had Deacon Phillippe, an indefatigable and almost unbeatable pitcher. The war between the established National League and the upstart American League, the players' league hopping, the ubiquitous importance of betting, and the immense popularity of "base ball" across class lines are carefully documented. GraceAnne DeCandido
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Hill and Wang; 1st edition (June 3, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0809027631
• ISBN-13: 978-0809027637
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #301,077 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The first World Series, August 4, 2003

By	Frank J. Konopka (Shamokin, PA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

It is appropriate, in this 100th anniversary of the first baseball World Series, that there is a book telling all about it. It's especially appropriate that this book is extremely well-written, interesting and informative. We readers are treated to a history of the rivalry between the established National League, and the upstart American League. We are given thumbnail biographies of many of the personalities of that era, both club owners and players. There is a concise recitation of the "Peace Conference" that effectively ended the rivalry, and we also get to review the respective seasons of the eventual Leagues champions. Each of the eight Series games is then covered out by out, but it's not boring in the least. Along the way we also learn a lot about the way some of the baseball rules we take for granted were established, including the umpire's hand signals, and the foul/strike rule. The fans played a major part in the game, particularly the Royal Rooters from Boston, whose antics would amaze today's somewhat rowdy supporters. This is a book well worth reading, not only for baseball fans, but for lovers of the unusual aspects of American history.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Birth Of Baseball As A Modern Game & American Ritual, July 5, 2003

By	Norman Goldman "Editor of Bookpleasures.com" (Montreal) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

The year was 1903 when the first World Series was played between the Boston Americans of the newly formed American League and the Pittsburgh Pirates of the National League.
As historian Louis P. Mazur author of Autumn Glory-Baseball's First World Series,states, "the story of the first World Series is the story of the birth of baseball as a modern game, as an American ritual."

In 1901 the American League claimed major-league status and what ensued for the next two years was a constant raiding by the American League of players from the National League. In 1903 a truce agreement was signed between the two leagues that ultimately led to the playing of the first World Series. It was decided that the team who won the best of nine games would be declared baseball's champion of the world.

Within an historical context, Masur provides his readers with an inning- by-inning account of all of the games of the series, score cards of each game, statistics, a composite record, newspaper commentaries, anecdotes, backroom shenanigans among various baseball executives, and generally a dramatic insight as to why until to-day baseball, as the author states, "best embodies in the realm of sport the American ideal of life. Baseball allows individuals to shine, but individual performance alone will not result in success. Teamwork matters. By fusing the individual and the group, the solitary and the communal, baseball illustrates what it means to be an American."

As an added bonus, readers are introduced to some of the greatest players of by gone days such as, Cy Young, Jimmy Collins, Hobe Ferris, Honus Wagner, Jimmy Sebring, Bill Dinneen and so many others, who now form part of Baseball's Hall of Fame.
To put faces to names, sprinkled throughout the book are black and white photos of the two teams as well as some of baseball's principals.

Although the story is about a series that had taken place one hundred years ago, there is a "dèja vu" feeling when you read about the owners' greed, unruly players, and fans' unrest.
As the French say "plus ca change, plus c'est la même chose"- the more things change the more it is the same thing.
However, baseball has still prevailed and will probably continue to be played until doomsday.

This review first appeared on bookpleasures.com

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Grand Slam of a Book!, June 21, 2003

By	Bookreporter.com (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

Highly acclaimed author Louis P. Masur has nothing to worry about. His new book, AUTUMN GLORY: Baseball's First World Series, hammers Bob Ryan's tome about the 100th anniversary of the 1903 championship between the Boston Americans and the Pittsburgh Pirates out of the proverbial ballpark.

While Ryan is one of the most renowned sports columnists in the country working for the Boston Globe, his book doesn't even come close to unearthing the full story of professional baseball in America during its infancy at the turn of the 20th-century. Ryan's work largely centers on the relationship between Globe baseball writer Tim Murnane and Boston player-manager and Hall of Famer Jimmy Collins. But there was much, much more to the story of this inaugural World Series than just a friendship between a pro ballplayer and a sportswriter.

Masur's scholarly work, complete with numerous photos, box scores and statistics, tells the story of the breathtaking series, but also examines the off-field doings among legendary baseball men at the time like Charles Comiskey, Ban Johnson, and Henry Killilea.

Even before the first World Series pitch was thrown by immortal hurler Cy Young at the Huntington Avenue Grounds, professional baseball was coming apart at the seams. That is until a Peace Conference in January involving several highly controversial owners at the time realized that the ongoing "war" between the fledgling American League and National League had to come to an end if America's pastime was to continue.

Masur also does a great job of illustrating how controversial Cincinnati Reds owner John T. Brush did all he could to squash the peace negotiations that the owners reached until he realized that doing so would bankrupt his ball club. Brush was so distraught over his defeat that he refused to gather with the rest of the National League owners to sing "In the Good Old Summer Time."

AUTUMN GLORY is an absolute treasure trove of how passionate fans were about their baseball teams in Boston and Pittsburgh during the early days of the game. Masur dedicates eight different chapters to provide in-depth information about each game of the thrilling series that Boston, believe it or not, won five games to three (originally the World Series had a best-of-nine format, as opposed to the best-of-seven format that is used today).

Masur, who is a professor of history at City College of New York, editor of the prestigious REVIEWS OF AMERICAN HISTORY and author of two other previous works, does a fine job at bringing to life numerous ballplayers who were stars of the game 100 years ago. Through tireless research of several newspapers, magazines and diaries by Masur, the importance of players like Boston pitcher Bill Dinneen, who was clearly more dominant than Young during the series, and Pittsburgh Hall of Famer Honus Wagner, is evident throughout the book.

Another fascinating aspect of AUTUMN GLORY is the impact of gambling in the game of baseball by players as well as fans. Masur again does stellar work in narrating the rampant gambling that infected the sport up until 1919 and the great Black Sox scandal.

Certainly both Ryan's book and AUTUMN GLORY overlap in some areas, but Masur crafts his story of this utterly important event in a much finer fashion.

--- Reviewed by David Exum