Edward Achorn

Interesting, well-researched book takes us back to a time when baseball was nothing like it is today--or for that matter, nothing like it was even 50 or 75 years ago. Back to the days when a team had two pitchers and one might pitch both ends of a doubleheader. Or when one of the owners might have to step in and play right field when a player was injured during the game and there were no substitutes available. Or when a pitcher could earn the name "Jumping Jack Jones" for his delivery, which included jumping in the air to throw his fastball. This is the story of the American Association in 1883 and the pennant race between the St. Louis Browns, the main focus on the book, and the Philadelphia Athletics. It's also a book that touches upon the story of Moses Fleetwood Walker, the major leagues' first black player, long before Jackie Robinson, and the hateful racism of baseball legend Cap Anson, who refused to let his team play if Walker was on the field. And there's so much more here as well. You'll come away with a much better understanding of 19th century baseball, including how the game itself was played, what the men who played it were like, what their owners were like, what travel was like (horrendous), and what the fanatics--because that was what they were called then--were like. How I would love to have a time machine that let me go back and see one of those great contests between the Browns and Athletics.… (mais)

Being the story of Charley Radbourn's magnificent accomplishment, nearly unimaginable today, of pitching to fifty-nine wins in the 1884 season, told against a background of life in Providence, for whom he pitched, in the day, and incorporating such biographical information about Radbourn as is known. The author does a good job here of telling his story and weaving together the baseball threads with the period color taken from Providence and the league in general at that time. The only misgivings I might have about the book's readability is that it may have a bit too much baseball for the general reader and a bit too much 'not-baseball' for the fan..… (mais)