Jan Finkel

Peter Morris,

William J. Ryczek

This book completes the series of histories of the clubs and players responsible for making baseball the national pastime that began with Base Ball Pioneers, 1850–1870 (McFarland 2011). Forty clubs and hundreds of pioneer players from the first hotbeds of New York City, Philadelphia, New Jersey, and Massachusetts are profiled by leading experts on baseball’s early years. The subjects include legendary clubs such as the Knickerbockers of New York, the Eckfords and Atlantics of Brooklyn, the Athletics of Philadelphia, and Harvard’s first baseball clubs, and fabled players like Jim Creighton, Dickey Pearce, and Daniel Adams, but space is also given to less well remembered clubs such as the Champion Club of Jersey City and the Cummaquids of Barnstable, Massachusetts. What united all of these founders of the game was that their love of baseball during its earliest years helped to make it the national pastime.

The Clubs, Players and Cities of the Northeast That Established the Game

Base Ball Founders

By 1871, the popularity of baseball had spread so thoroughly across America that one writer observed, “It is as much our national game as cricket is that of the English.” While major league teams and athletes that played after this prophetic statement was made have been exhaustively documented and analyzed, those that led the game during its pioneer phase from 1850 to 1870 have received relatively little attention. In this welcome work, leading historians of early baseball provide profiles of more than fifty clubs and their players, from legendary teams such as the Red Stockings of Cincinnati and the Nationals of Washington to forgotten nines like the Pecatonica (Illinois) Base Ball Club and the Morning Star Club of St. Louis. Engaging narratives bring these long-ago clubs back to life, stimulating more research on this fascinating era and creating a standard reference source for all who study America’s national pastime.

The Clubs and Players Who Spread the Sport Nationwide

Base Ball Pioneers, 1850-1870

Leonard Levin

"Base Ball Founders completes the series of histories of the clubs and players responsible for making baseball the national pastime. More than 40 clubs and hundreds of pioneer players are profiled by leading experts on baseball's early years. The subjects include legendary clubs and fabled players but space is also given to less well remembered clubs"--

Peter Morris,

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