Outside the Lines of Gilded Age Baseball: The Origins of the 1890 Players League

by Rob Bauer

The Players League of 1890 was the most revolutionary event in baseball’s history. It was an entire league run by the players themselves. Why did it happen? You love baseball and take pride in your knowledge of the game. But if you’re like many fans, you know almost nothing about baseball in the 1800s and the Players League that nearly upended baseball as we know it. This book explains all aspects of why baseball’s most innovative league came into existence. Rob Bauer will show you how greed, the reserve clause, and baseball’s structure played a critical role in the formation of the Players League. He is a member of the Society of American Baseball Research’s 19th Century Baseball Research Committee. Bauer has also presented research at the Baseball Hall of Fame. This book has the entire story of why the National League’s players struck out on their own in 1890 and created their own league. Some parts of the story are humorous, others tragic, but they reveal how 1890 became a turning point in baseball’s history.

319 pages, Paperback

Published June 11, 2018

About the author

I’m Rob Bauer, author of historical fiction and nonfiction books and owner of Rob Bauer Books. I hold a PhD in American History and was a Distinguished Doctoral Fellow at the University of Arkansas.

I love writing historical fiction. To me, it’s a continuation of what I used to do as a college professor—educate people about interesting historical events—except now I get to do so through fun stories. With historical fiction I hope I can reach a larger audience, too. My first novel is free to everyone on my website! You can find it at - http://robbauerbooks.com/a-free-ebook...

I also write nonfiction about baseball history because I’ve always loved the game, its history, and its lore. I sometimes joke that baseball may be the one thing in life I truly understand. Although I love the statistical side of the game, if you don’t, never fear because my histories go light on the statistics and heavy on what baseball was like in the past. They’re stories about baseball, but stories with a point.

The history blog on my website offers posts on a variety of interesting historical figures and events. I’d love to have you follow along at - http://robbauerbooks.com/blog/

When I’m not working on my next story or writing project, I enjoy spending time at the beach. And, oh yeah, I still read a history book or two. When I’m not watching baseball.

Reviews

[Chip Rickard · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. Bauer went deeper than most authors have in explaining why the players formed their own league. He profiled the leading figures of both the National League and the Brotherhood. The descriptions of some of the owners, the Boston ones in particular, were very sardonic. He even went into depth about why the American Association died. I wish there was more about the 1890 season. He abruptly ended the book after saying the Players League failed with no analysis whatsoever.

[Jarred Goodall · Rating 3 out of 5]

I applaud Dr. Bauer's research and effort to put together a story upon a subject with not much prominent literature existing about it. I learned a good amount about baseball's early struggles between players and management. However, I did not feel the story flowed very well, and the conclusion could have used more detail. Still, I recommend it to baseball fans, who carry a passion for the history of the game.

[Jed Fazakarley · Rating 2 out of 5]

A fluent book but very narrow: deals with the labour disputes and policies that led up to the Players League break. There’s nothing on any aspect of the League itself, nor is there much about the financing of the League or the logistical, practical, or political factors that enabled or inhibited its creation. There is also material here that overlaps with that in other books in Bauer’s series. The narrative is fairly colourful, with ample but judiciously selected quotations from primary sources. But it ultimately feels strange that Bauer has devoted a whole (albeit short) book to the Players League and yet made it feel like a “small” episode in baseball history. I would struggle to think who to recommend this to.