What do you think?
Rate this book
The Golden Game: The Story of California Baseball
This is a rich, beautifully written, beautifully illustrated history of California baseball from its origins in the Gold Rush in the 1850s to the arrival of the major leagues a century later with the coming of the San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers and later, the Angels, Athletics and Padres.
California’ has a unique role in baseball, producing more current major leaguers than any other state. Its history includes many national personalities well known to baseball Jackie Robinson, Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams, Casey Stengel, Billy Martin, Walter Johnson, and many more. Their stories are all told in The Golden Game, as well as the stories of the Pacific Coast League, the Japanese-American baseball experience in the state, the origins of the classic baseball poem, "Casey at the Bat," and much, much more.
An excellent, absorbing read for anyone who loves America's game.
California’ has a unique role in baseball, producing more current major leaguers than any other state. Its history includes many national personalities well known to baseball Jackie Robinson, Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams, Casey Stengel, Billy Martin, Walter Johnson, and many more. Their stories are all told in The Golden Game, as well as the stories of the Pacific Coast League, the Japanese-American baseball experience in the state, the origins of the classic baseball poem, "Casey at the Bat," and much, much more.
An excellent, absorbing read for anyone who loves America's game.
379 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2004
19 people want to read
About the author
Kevin Nelson
44 books7 followersKevin Nelson is the award-winning author of Operation Bullpen, The Golden Game, Lunches With Mr. Q, and many other books.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 8, 2019
Such a captivating read on the history of baseball in California. Would rec for anyone into sports or California history, it's so fascinating how baseball grew and changed over centuries in the same way that the country did. Also, you can start and finish it just in time on a CA to NY flight!
February 28, 2015
I picked up this book from the used section of one of my favorite bookstores, Petaluma’s Copperfield’s. I had seen it lying around for awhile and had thought it was a story about the Single A California League. Which would be interesting enough, but it wasn’t exactly high on my to-do list. Finally I forked over the seven smackers to see what it was all about.
It turns out that yes, the book does talk about the California League, but that is about #9 on its list of subjects covered. Rather it is about the state of California and its relationship to what in my humble opinion is the finest sport around. Starting with the likes of Alexander Cartwright making tours to the west coast in the mid-19th century to promote the sport (amongst other reasons), it continues on with how the burgeoning cities of San Francisco, Sacramento, and Los Angeles pick up the sport, and a brief history of early efforts in putting leagues together. Moving on, author Kevin Nelson (I keep reading that as “Kevin Nealon”) does an outstanding job of discussing the topic of Japanese Baseball in the first half of the 20th century, something I honestly hadn’t given much thought, but found to be fascinating.
The history of the various ballparks that have graced this state is discussed at the appropriate levels of detail, and much space is given to Major League players who were either born in, or spent significant time in California. All of this is supplemented by a good amount of pictures that this individual thoroughly enjoyed.
I will say that the book could use an editor, or at least a more thorough one. Obvious mistakes are all too frequent (I’ll just give one glaring example – the Florida Marlins did NOT win the World Series in 1994, in fact nobody did, as that was the season that ended in a lockout). But if you can look past that, this is a very enjoyable read.
It turns out that yes, the book does talk about the California League, but that is about #9 on its list of subjects covered. Rather it is about the state of California and its relationship to what in my humble opinion is the finest sport around. Starting with the likes of Alexander Cartwright making tours to the west coast in the mid-19th century to promote the sport (amongst other reasons), it continues on with how the burgeoning cities of San Francisco, Sacramento, and Los Angeles pick up the sport, and a brief history of early efforts in putting leagues together. Moving on, author Kevin Nelson (I keep reading that as “Kevin Nealon”) does an outstanding job of discussing the topic of Japanese Baseball in the first half of the 20th century, something I honestly hadn’t given much thought, but found to be fascinating.
The history of the various ballparks that have graced this state is discussed at the appropriate levels of detail, and much space is given to Major League players who were either born in, or spent significant time in California. All of this is supplemented by a good amount of pictures that this individual thoroughly enjoyed.
I will say that the book could use an editor, or at least a more thorough one. Obvious mistakes are all too frequent (I’ll just give one glaring example – the Florida Marlins did NOT win the World Series in 1994, in fact nobody did, as that was the season that ended in a lockout). But if you can look past that, this is a very enjoyable read.
April 21, 2013
This is a publication of the California Historical Society by an author named Kevin Nelson. California has always had a fascination with baseball. From some of the key parts of the PCL (early and now) to the big moves of New York teams to the state - to places like USC which holds more NCAA titles in baseball than any other university - it is a great history. Nelson has a fun way of writing and this is an informative book. I wish it would have been updated a bit - because even though is was completed in 2003 - there has been a lot
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews