Baseball's First Inning

William J. Ryczek is a finance professional from Wallingford, Connecticut, who writes about early baseball, football, the Yankees, and the Mets.

• Table of ContentsAcknowledgments     Preface      Prologue: Reliving the Past      1. No Rounders!      2. If Not Doubleday, What About Cartwright? If Not Cartwright, What About Adams? Or Wheaton?      3. What About Rounders? What About Old Cat?      4. The Jolly Old Knickerbockers, 1845–1856            5. The Base Ball Club      6. The Transition Years, 1857–1859      7. Mad Dogs and Englishmen: Other Antebellum Sports      8. Why Not Cricket?      9. The Southern Front: Sporting Life in Antebellum New Orleans      10. Baseball in Philadelphia      11. The Massachusetts Game      12. Year of the Excelsiors, 1860      13. Abner Doubleday Invents the Civil War, 1861      14. The Sporting and Not So Sporting Press      15. The Manly Fly Game vs. the Boyish Bound Rule and the Fair Pitch vs. the Jerk      16. The Eckfords Take the Championship, 1862–1863      17. The Evils of Championship Play, 1864      18. The Road to Professionalism      Appendix A: Letter from Frank Pidgeon of Eckfords re: Professionalism      Appendix B: Rules and Regulations of Base Ball as Adopted by the Convention of Base Ball Clubs Held February 25, 1857      Appendix C: Location of Grounds      Appendix D: Extended Box Score, Brooklyn–Philadelphia, 1862      Appendix E: Records of Top Teams, 1857–1864      Appendix F: Knickerbocker Rules, September 23, 1845      Appendix G: Knickerbocker Matches with Other Clubs      Chapter Notes      Bibliography      Index

“superbly researched”—Library Journal; “a baseball thrill the near-equal of seeing your son line a double past the third baseman...a ‘must have’”—John Shiffert; author of Base Ball in Philadelphia.