Baseball: An Illustrated History Paperback - 1996

First line

One summer afternoon in 1839, at Cooperstown, on the shore of Otsego Lake in upstate New York, the boys of the Otsego Academy were playing a game of town ball against Green's Select School.

Media reviews

"A rich concoction of narrative, essays, and photos [that] dazzles the eye ... In so many ways you are reminded that rooting for baseball is like breathing."

-- Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, The New York Times

"Stirring and reflective ... A beautiful book that stands on its own in any league."

-- David E. Jones, Chicago Tribune

"Glorious nuggets are set amid the clear, warm narrative and hundreds of classic images ... Highest marks for browseability, but the true reward comes from the longer essays by folks still smitten by the game."

-- Jerry Shriver, USA Today

"A big book, generous in size as well as scope ... There are splendid pictures [and] there are words, rollicking reams of them. And the stories, Lord, the stories!"

-- Dick Roraback, Los Angeles Times

"To capture the history of baseball, especially in hundreds of photographs that are the wonder and glory of this book, is to plumb a memorial register so deep that no fan open to the emotional power of the game can fail to react."

-- Michael Seidel, New York Newsday