Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611

  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Ballists, Dead Beats, and Muffins: Inside Early Baseball in Illinois

Ballists, Dead Beats, and Muffins: Inside Early Baseball in Illinois

Sampson, Robert D.

Hardcover

Baseball & Softball19th Century United States HistoryRegional: Midwest

ISBN10: 025204505X
ISBN13: 9780252045059
Publisher: Univ Of Illinois Pr
Published: May 2 2023
Pages: 264
Language: English
Winner of the Russell P. Strange Book of the Year Award from the Illinois State Historical Society

Baseball's spread across Illinois paralleled the sport's explosive growth in other parts of the country.Robert D. Sampson taps a wealth of archival research to transport readers to an era when an epidemic of base ball on the brain raged from Alton to Woodstock. Focusing on the years 1865 to 1869, Sampson offers a vivid portrait of a game where local teams and civic ambition went hand in hand and teams of paid professionals displaced gentlemen's clubs devoted to sporting fair play. This preoccupation with competition sparked rules disputes and controversies over imported players while the game itself mirrored society by excluding Black Americans and women. The new era nonetheless brought out paying crowds to watch the Rock Island Lively Turtles, Fairfield Snails, and other teams take the field up and down the state.

A first-ever history of early baseball in Illinois, Ballists, Dead Beats, and Muffins adds the Prairie State game's unique shadings and colorful stories to the history of the national pastime.

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