Base Ball on the Western Reserve - by James M Egan (Paperback)

About the Book

This hefty volume combines author commentary with first-hand accounts, documenting the spread of baseball in and around Cleveland, home to one of the earliest and most active baseball scenes outside of the eastern seaboard. Ordered chronologically and then geographically by town, chapters follow the games rise from the earliest reports on ball in 1841, to the era of loosely organized, town-to-town rivalries and semipro clubs, and finally up through the establishment of the professional, and eventually major league, sport.

Book Synopsis

Cleveland and the surrounding area was home to one of the earliest and most active baseball scenes outside of the eastern seaboard. This extraordinarily detailed history combines author commentary with first-hand accounts to document baseball's rapid development and popularization in the region during the decades following the Civil War. Ordered chronologically and then geographically by town, chapters follow the game's rise from the earliest reports on ball in 1841, to the era of loosely organized, town-to-town rivalries and semipro clubs, and finally through the early era of the professional, and eventually major league, sport.

Review Quotes

"exhaustively detailed...a glorious success. Any serious baseball fan would love to read [this book]. It's a home run of research and reporting...and reading."-Ohioana Quarterly; "Egan ... has done an incredible amount of research. His exhaustive culling of difficult-to-find small-town newspapers will be invaluable to researchers of early baseball in the Greater Cleveland area."-Journal of Sport History.

About the Author

James M. Egan, Jr., lives in Ohio.