Old Time Baseball: America's Pastime in the Gilded Age

by Harvey Frommer

In this delightful history of the sport, Frommer captures the flavor, smell, and craziness of the early days of baseball. Starting with its invention in 1842 by the descendant of a British sea captain (and not Abner Doubleday), Frommer traces the development of the sport from the first games on a vacant lot at 27th and Madison in New York to the turn of the century, when the National League was emerging as the preeminent forum for truly professional baseball.

Genres: Baseball, Sports

Hardcover

First published December 1, 2005

Reviews

[Ali Eagle-King · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book if full of intersting facts. However, it was not always the most exciting read. Definitely got a little slow and tough at times, but then could immediately have a change of pace and be much more intersting. I look forward to being able to spout off useless baseball facts at parties now!!

[Josh Avery · Rating 2.25 out of 5]

Book 58 of 2026:

On the day that the World Series starts, I wanted to take care of some more books that I have about the national pastime. This is a quick, yet detailed origin story about the early years of baseball.

This author, who is one of the better sources and historians of early baseball, does a pretty good job telling the story of the start of the sport. He debunks the long popular myth that Abner Doubleday invented the sport in Cooperstown, NY, when it was a version of the British game Rounders and Alexander Cartwright tweaked the rules, put nine guys on each side and it slowly turned into what it is today.

He breaks down the earliest versions of the professional leagues, while highlighting some of the characters that defined the early years of baseball. These were names like Cap Anson, "Old Hoss" Radbourn, Ed Delahanty, Mike "King" Kelly, Charles Hercules Ebbetts and Albert Goodwill Spalding, one of the first superstars of the game, who walked away in his prime to start his sporting goods equipment business, which made him a multi-millionaire.

What I liked: He got right to the point, using stats and properly footnoted stories to make this book easy to read and understand.

What I didn't like: It's not any sort of compelling character study about any of these guys. Cap Anson, for example, was a notorious racist and would refuse to put his team on the field even if there was even one black person in the stands. Some of these stories would have been am interesting sidebar.

It's a nice and tidy book that I will only recommend for anyone who wants to know about the history of baseball in a Cliff's Notes style of recap. It's not bad, not good, it's just there.

C+

[Chuck Neumann · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Old Time Baseball" is a good overview of 19th century baseball. Baseball changed a great deal from the 1870's to 1900, and by the end it was the game we know today. In the 1870's, the pitcher was only 45 feet from home plate in a "box" and tossed underhanded to a place the batter requested, nine balls would be required to walk the batter and foul balls were not considered strikes. At times, walks were considered hits and four strikes required for a strike out. By 1900 though, the game's rules pretty much have continued to today. The book covers the era in different ways. First, we get a year by year review of what occurred in baseball that year. Next the book covers the roots of the game, which doesn't include Abner Doubleday. Then the book looks at different areas of the game such as the ball parks, the rules, equipment, umpires and uniforms. Then follows a look at the leagues that formed, the National League in 1876 and its challengers and finally the American League. Chapter five gives brief looks at the stars of the 19th Century game, chapter six looks at the great teams of the era. All in all a very good look at this interesting era of the game. Highly recommend it.

[Joe Sukeforth · Rating 5 out of 5]

For what it is, it’s pretty much perfect. I knew a lot of the information already, but I learned about a few players I didn’t know about and learned a ton about the leagues that were formed before the National League. I’ve been playing OOTP21 in my spare time and This book has been in my bookshelf for a while... I’m glad I picked it up and read it.

[Chris Schaffer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice

[Joe · Rating 2 out of 5]

A quick and easy read, but it repeats a lot of myths and lacks source notes so take the information with a grain of salt.

[Ceejay · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you want to read a quick and informative history of Baseball in the 1800's, this is the book for you! Not only does it provide a history of the game, but it also presents chapters on the great players and teams of that era. The charts at the end of the book (most homers, etc.) are a great source of information when needed. How did baseball get to three strikes and four balls? How about uniforms? What about umpires? How did we end up with two major leagues? All that and more are covered.Did you know that at one point in early baseball you could get a runner out by throwing the ball at him and hitting him?! Did you know that in early baseball most teams only had one or two pitchers per team for a 40 to 70 game season?!I really loved this book, and it made me wish that there was a baseball game (tabletop or computer)that covered these early years.I can't recommend this book enough for those readers who love baseball.