Discusses baseball's history and the game's relationship to American society from the 1850s until the present day
Includes bibliographical references (pages 223-245) and index
The national game. Reflections on the rise of baseball in the 1850s and 1860s -- The mortar of which baseball is held together. Henry Chadwick and the invention of baseball statistics -- Incarnations of success. Charles Comiskey, Connie Mack, John McGraw, and Clark Griffith -- New ways of knowing. Baseball in the 1920s -- Adjusting to the new order. Branch Rickey, Larry MacPhail, and the Great Depression -- Unreconciled strivings. Baseball in Jim Crow America -- The shot heart 'round the world -- The homes of the Braves. Baseball's shifting geography, 1953-1972 -- Populist baseball. Baseball fantasies in the 1980s