A. G. Spalding and the Rise of Baseball
The Promise of American Sport
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Oxford University Press Inc
Published:26th Mar '87
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
A. G. Spalding was a key figure in the professionalization and commercialization of American sports. Co-founder of baseball's National League, owner of the Chicago White Stockings (later Cubs), and founder of a sporting goods business that made him a millionaire, Spalding not only willed baseball to be our national pastime but also contributed to making sport a significant part of American life. This biography captures the zest, flamboyance, and creativity of Albert Goodwell Spalding, a man of insatiable ego, a showman and entrepreneur, whose life illuminated the hopes and fears of 19th-century Americans. It is also a vivid evocation of the vanished world of 19th-century baseball, recreating a time when it was transformed from a game played on unkempt fields to modern style.
"As a study of Spalding's role in the emergence of professional sports, Levine's book is a valuable addition to a fast-growing area of scholarship."--American Historical Review "A.G. Spalding joins an impressive body of historical writing...which focuses on baseball in pre-World War I America."--Journal of American Culture "Levine's scholarly biography of Albert Goodwill Spalding fills a large gap in baseball historiography....Well-written and thoughtful....It will long endure as the standard work on Spalding."--Journal of American History "Levine...has aptly given Spalding the central place he deserves in the history of American culture....A.G. Spalding would have liked this book."--Illinois Historical Journal "A.G. Spalding would have liked this book."--Illinois Historical Journal "Levine ably ties Spalding's life into the rise of baseball and, more importantly, late nineteenth-century culture."--William Simons, State University of New York, Oneonta
ISBN: 9780195042207
Dimensions: 203mm x 136mm x 12mm
Weight: 191g
199 pages