This comprehensive reference work covers the early years of major league baseball from the first game—May 4, 1871, a 2-0 victory for the Fort Wayne Kekiongas over the visiting Cleveland Forest City team—through the 1900 season. Baseball historian David Nemec presents complete team rosters and detailed player, manager, and umpire information, with a wealth of statistics to warm a fan’s heart.

 

Sidebars cover a variety of topics, from oddities—the team that had the best record but finished second—to analyses of why Cleveland didn’t win any pennants in the 1890s. Additional benefits include dozens of rare illustrations and narrative accounts of each year’s pennant race. Nemec also carefully charts the rule changes from year to year as the game developed by fits and starts to formulate the modern rules. The result is an essential work of reference and at the same time a treasury of baseball history.

 

This new edition adds much material unearthed since the first edition, fills gaps, and corrects errors, while presenting a number of new stories and fascinating details. David Nemec began the lifetime labor that helped produced this work in 1954 and admits it may never end, as there always will be some obscure player whose birth date has not yet been found. Until perfection is achieved, this work offers state-of-the-art accuracy and detail beyond that supplied by even modern baseball encyclopedias. As Casey Stengel, who was born during this era, was wont to say, “you could look it up.”  Now you can.

 

David Nemec lives in Oakland, California, and is the author of Early Dreams, a baseball novel; The Beer and Whisky League: The Illustrated History of the American Association; The Great American Baseball Team Book, and The Absolutely Most Challenging Baseball Quiz Book, Ever.

 

 

“The most complete compilation of information on 19th century baseball ever imagined.” --Baseball Book Survey, baseballbooks.net

 

"Those who think they know baseball must think again. This comprehensive baseball encyclopedia is unique in being devoted exclusively to the history of baseball in the 19th century. A one-volume work, it contains virtually all the statistics on individual players, managers, teams, stadiums, and even umpires for the years 1871-1900. Nemec (an independent scholar) also covers the evolution of the game as it progressed from a group of individual ballplayers who played'without restrictions,' to the formation of the National League in 1876, which not only focused on the concept of teams versus individual players, but also instituted reforms and standardized rules that became the "modern game" known today. Although the scope of this book may appear narrow due to its subject coverage, libraries that have core baseball collections and interested patrons should consider acquiring this edition; it represents a cornerstone on which modern baseball was built. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-level undergraduates through faculty/researchers; general readers."
—CHOICE