Summary
A fascinating look back on baseball’s humble beginnings and its transformation into the national pastime, told through the lives of two men who dominated the game.
The nineteenth century was a time of rapid growth and development for the game of “base ball,” and players George Wright and Albert Spalding were right in the thick of it. These two young men, the first superstars of the professional game, won the hearts of a country in search of a unifying spirit after a devastating civil war.
Selling Baseball: How Superstars George Wright and Albert Spalding Impacted Sports in America breathes fresh energy into baseball’s beginnings with this captivating tale of two vibrant personalities whose friendly rivalry was integral to the rise of the professional game. While they came from starkly different backgrounds—Albert was a young, gangly pitcher from the country’s rural heartland and George the consummate athlete from the New York City area—their captivating performances on the field, along with their promotion of the game and of sports equipment, fed the public’s insatiable appetite for leisure-time pursuits and helped grow professional baseball to unprecedented heights.
George Wright and Albert Spalding’s stories are masterfully woven together to paint a sweeping picture of the early days of professional baseball, the evolution of sports as a business, and the advancement of sports equipment and the sporting goods industry. Their rise as players and businessmen mirrored the rise of a nation that would lead the world in the coming century.
Tags
Bibliographic information
- Copyright year
- 2025
- ISBN-Print
- 978-1-5381-8926-9
- ISBN-Online
- 978-1-5381-8927-6
- Verlag
- Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham
- Language
- English
- pages
- 252
- Product type
- Monograph
Table of contents
Chapterpages
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Contents No access
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Introduction: Play Ball! No access
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Chapter 1: East Meets West No access pages 1 – 12
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Chapter 2: Base Ball after the War No access pages 13 – 30
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Chapter 3: Two Wrights Can’t Be Wrong No access pages 31 – 46
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Chapter 4: Invincible No access pages 47 – 62
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Chapter 5: Fall of the Titans No access pages 63 – 74
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Chapter 6: Brothers in Arms No access pages 75 – 92
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Chapter 7: Spalding Follows His Vision No access pages 93 – 8
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Chapter 8: Trouble with the Curve No access pages 109 – 124
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Chapter 9: Providence and Prejudice No access pages 125 – 142
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Chapter 10: Global Base Ball No access pages 143 – 162
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Chapter 11: Beyond Base Ball No access pages 163 – 176
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Chapter 12: Triumph and Transition No access pages 177 – 192
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Epilogue: Baseball’s Significance: A Tale of Two Presidents No access pages 193 – 204
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Acknowledgments No access pages 205 – 206
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Notes No access pages 207 – 232
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Bibliography No access pages 233 – 236
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Index No access pages 237 – 250
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About the Author No access pages 251 – 252
