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BASEBALL: A HISTORY OF AMERICAS FAVOURITE GAME PDF, EPUB, EBOOK George Vecsey | 272 pages | 24 Apr 2008 | Random House USA Inc | 9780812978704 | English | New York, United States Baseball: A History of Americas Favourite Game PDF Book It's baseball's "creation myth," says Vecsey. The author's biases color the account -- anti-DH, pro-National League, etc. The average for the 1, games in the season was 3, During the Civil War , soldiers from different parts of the United States played baseball together, leading to a more unified national version of the sport. Other players, such as Canseco and Gary Sheffield , have admitted to have either knowingly in Canseco's case or not Sheffield's using steroids. And after an appearance before Congress where he unlike McGwire emphatically denied using steroids, "period", slugger Rafael Palmeiro became the first major star to be suspended 10 days on August 1, for violating Major League Baseball's newly strengthened ban on controlled substances, including steroids, adopted on August 7, , starting in the season. For many years, the White Sox were owned and operated by Charles Comiskey , who paid the lowest player salaries, on average, in the American League. The science of maximizing effectiveness and career duration, while attempting to minimize injury and downtime, is an ongoing pursuit by coaches and kinesiologists. Subsequent professional black baseball clubs played each other independently, without an official league to organize the sport. Players who had been dramatically underpaid for generations came to be replaced by players who were paid extremely well for their services. The new rules also introduced base paths, foul lines and foul balls; in "town ball" every batted ball was fair, as in cricket , and the lack of runner's lanes led to wild chases around the infield. It's a beautifully written, idiosyncratic history of baseball. May 15, Jack rated it liked it. From to the s, African American participation in baseball rose steadily. Electro Merch. Of great value to individual top players are endorsement contracts wherein the player's fame is used to sell anything from sports equipment to automobiles, soda and underwear. During the late s, the Baseball Players Union became much stronger and conflicts between owners and the players' union led to major work stoppages in , , and Views Read Edit View history. An Anthropologist on the Team. Hellerman Eager to bring these big names to the West, Los Angeles gave Walter O'Malley , owner of the Dodgers, a helicopter tour of the city and asked him to pick his spot. After seeing a top-rank player sign with another team, the aggrieved owner wanted a mid-rank player in return, the so-called sixteenth player each club was allowed to protect 15 players from this rule. He would retire in with and that was just one of numerous records he achieved, many of which, including Total bases scored, still stand today. Its fiery leader Ban Johnson railed against the National League and promised to grab the best players and field the best teams. American society as a whole moved toward integration in the post-War years, partially as a result of the distinguished service by African American military units such as the Tuskegee Airmen , th Infantry Regiment , and others. Virtually all the key players on the Marlins team were soon traded or let go to save payroll costs although the Marlins did win a second world championship. These relocations can be seen as a full-circle ending to the classic era, which began with the moves of teams from Milwaukee and Baltimore. Jackie Robinson is also talked about, as well as how the Boston Red Sox were the last team in baseball to call a black person up onto their major league team. Informative, but most baseball fans will already have known a lot of the information. See also: Doping in baseball and Major League Baseball drug policy. Major League Baseball Good read You can't really go wrong with a book on baseball. Louis club, which was deliberately "stacked" by the league's president who owned that club , was the only club that was anywhere close to major-league caliber. Current Reviews in Musculoskeletal Medicine. Baseball: A History of Americas Favourite Game Writer He would retire in with and that was just one of numerous records he achieved, many of which, including Total bases scored, still stand today. View all 3 comments. Vecsey skips through these issues quickly and accurately, and he gives a good sense of how they affected the game on the field. While never prohibited in the same fashion as African Americans, Latin American players also benefitted greatly from the integration era. I don't know much about the old time players of baseball or how the game started. A new generation of sports agents arose, hawking the talents of free-agent players who knew baseball but didn't know the business end of the game. The next year, as a Yankee, he would hit 54 and in he hit It also talks about baseball during both World Wars and the Great Depression, which I found very interesting. Nineteen-year-old rookie first baseman Fred Merkle , later to become one of the best players at his position in the league, was on first base, with teammate Moose McCormick on third with two outs and the game tied. Some elite players on the big-city clubs made very good salaries, but Chicago was a notable exception. Every so often, the time-honored knuckleball puts in another appearance to bedevil batters; pitchers like Phil Niekro , Jesse Haines , and Hoyt Wilhelm have made the Hall of Fame throwing knuckleballs, and who knows when the next "Knucksie" will appear? Clubs in turn were required to play their full schedule of games, rather than forfeiting scheduled games once out of the running for the league championship, a practice that had been common under the National Association. Under this arrangement, losing lower-rated free agents would produce correspondingly smaller compensation. Branch Rickey ever heard of him? And I like that he plays favorites, given that he's covering such well-trodden ground. However, due to the —95 Major League Baseball strike which canceled the World Series , the new rules did not go into effect until the World Series. Jul 17, Stephen Euler rated it really liked it. I enjoyed reading this book. Then, it talks about how the actual creator of baseball of how we know it today, credited someone else with creating it, that had nothing to do with baseball his whole life. It was not unusual for a single baseball to last an entire game. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the s and before, are The home run race had generated nearly unbroken positive publicity, but Barry Bonds' run for the all-time home run record provoked a backlash over steroids, which increase a person's testosterone level and subsequently enable that person to bodybuild with much more ease. George Vecsey casts a fresh eye on the game, illuminates its foibles and triumphs, and performs a marvelous feat: making a classic story seem refreshingly new. Hall of Fame player Dave Winfield , for instance, has pointed out that urban America provides fewer resources for youth baseball than in the past. By , it ballooned to over members, including some clubs from as far away as California. The Hall formally opened in and, of course, remains open to this day. Roosevelt whether professional baseball should continue during the war. Some of the most memorable chapters were on Jackie Robinson, the commissioners of the game, the international aspect of the sport and performance enhancers usage. The baseball strike led to the cancellation of the World Series, and was not settled until the spring of Until the s, major league baseball franchises had been largely confined to the northeastern United States, with the teams and their locations remaining unchanged from to A must read for someone that knows already about the game but also to someone who wants to know a little bit more. All in all, though, it's a nice, concise history that hits all the important points of the game's history, be it great moments, funny tales, grave injustices, or downright absurdities. It was apparent, however, that Ruth's bat in the lineup every day was far more valuable than Ruth's arm on the mound every fourth day. See also: Doping in baseball and Major League Baseball drug policy. Baseball is everything: action, grace, the seasons of our lives. Main article: Black Sox Scandal. Washington Post. As a consequence, home runs were rare, and the "inside game" dominated—singles, bunts , stolen bases , the hit-and-run play, and other tactics dominated the strategies of the time. I used to read a baseball book every year at the beginning of the season, but have not done so in quite some time now. Baseball: A History of Americas Favourite Game Reviews I also detest all the noise and additional tomfoolery that takes place between innings. The New York Times. About George Vecsey. From to , the Negro World Series was revived. He even throws in a few anecdotes that were new to me. He lives in New York with his wife, an artist. It's a beautifully written, idiosyncratic history of baseball. The new rules also introduced base paths, foul lines and foul balls; in "town ball" every batted ball was fair, as in cricket , and the lack of runner's lanes led to wild chases around the infield. Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. Weight rooms and training equipment were improved.