Baseball 1845-1881
Altadena, Ca. Privately Printed, 1961. First Edition. Cloth. First edition. Hardcover leatherette; 359 pps.; illustrated with photos and woodcuts. Still one of the very best source books on 19th century baseball, from its "invention" and codification by Alexander Cartwright and the Knickerbocker Club of New York through the start of the 1880s. Orem, working from rare original newspaper and periodical accounts, gives a chronological account of the leading games, events and players including the great teams of the amateur era (such as the Eckford, Atlantic and Excelsior Clubs of Brooklyn, the Unions of Morrisania (The Bronx), and the Athletics of Philadelphia), the first openly professional team (the 1868-70 Cincinnati Red Stockings); the National Association (the game's first professional league), and the founding and rise to dominance of the National League. Much of the information, as well as many of the illustrations, contained herein can to this day be found nowhere else. A very fine, fresh apparently unused copy. Issued without dust jacket. As New. Item #D7956
Price: $34.95