Deadball Stars of the National League: The Society for American Baseball Research (Photographic Histories)

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Pub. Date: February, 2007
Potomac Books, Inc.
368pp
ISBN-13: 9781574888607

A Century Ago, baseballs softened and darkened with grime as games wore on into late afternoon. Gloves were little more than oven mitts, but that didn't prevent Dode Paskert from making some of the most spectacular catches ever seen. Out on the mound, Spittin' Bill Doak loaded the ball with saliva before his pitches, while batters like Jake Daubert and Johnny Evers choked up on thick-handled bats, bunting or chopping for base hits. Wildfire Schulte and Gavy Cravath swung with all their might, going for extra bases, but John McGraw's strategy of "inside baseball" reigned supreme, thrilling fans with daring baserunning by speedsters like Bob Bescher and Max Carey. This was the Deadball Era, when baseball's popularity skyrocketed and fans watched their heroes perform in new concrete-and-steel ballparks. Those heroes -- from immortals such as Honus Wagner and Christy Mathewson to lesser-known stars like Sherry Magee and Larry Doyle, along with officials, owners, and managers -- come alive in this distinguished addition to baseball literature, a cooperative effort by more than seventy members of SABR's Deadball Era Committee.

This new volume is the first book establishing a relationship between Brassey’s, Inc. and the premier research organization in all of sports, the Society for American Baseball Research. This initial release allows you to return to one of the most colorful, popular, important, and distinct periods of baseball history. With the Society for American Baseball Research to guide you, you’ll learn about the stars, the regulars, and the people behind the scenes—who were all the leading lights of the senior circuit. Through them, follow the great game’s opening decades as the original eight National League franchises combated the American League, only to strike up a partnership with it and start the World Series in 1903, launching the major leagues as we know them today. Lavishly illustrated, featuring photographs and autographs of every player or person profiled, Deadball Stars of the National League gives fans a unique window into the game of “inside baseball,” a time when the stolen base and the sacrifice were a manager’s key weapons, when pitchers finished what they started, and when the baseball itself was a sodden, misshapen, tobacco-stained menace. Edited by Tom Simon and written and assembled by his fellow members of SABR’s Deadball Era Committee, the unique resource Deadball Stars of the National League reflects a defining era of baseball history.

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