When Johnny Came Sliding Home

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      1 Taunting on the Old Ball Ground: August 23, 1860      2 Keep Your Eye on the Ball: Origins of Baseball      3 When Johnny Came Marching Home      4 The Ladies They Will All Turn Out      5 Playing the Points      6 The Only Game in Town      7 Now We’re Off      8 Wansley and McKeever      9 A Country Club      10 A Riot in Philadelphia      11 Separate and Unequal      12 Farewell, New York      13 Every Man a King      14 When We Went Westward Ho      15 The Unions Forever      16 The Father of the Game and His Prodigal Sons      17 They All Went Westward Ho      18 The Gold Ball      19 Open Professionalism      20 The Red Stockings      21 The Glorious Season      22 The Gold Ball, Part Two      23 The Eighteen Thousand Dollar Nine      24 Though Beaten, Not Disgraced      25 Another Championship Squabble      26 Disgraced      27 Grand Central Hotel      Appendix A: Team Rosters      Appendix B: Methods of Compensation, 1870      Appendix C: Records of Philadelphia Athletics and Brooklyn Atlantics      Appendix D: Results from Noteworthy Tours      Notes      Bibliography      Index

“interesting...extremely rich”—Choice; “superb”—Sports Collectors Digest; “a must read for everyone who hopes to understand the transformation of top-rank baseball from amateur obsession to professional sport, and a must own for everyone researching the game’s early history and development. With over a thousand citations to contemporary sources Ryczek’s new book is far and away the most deeply researched account of the game’s immediate post–Civil War years...not only a crucial text for students of early baseball, but one of the best books of baseball history written to date”—Nineteenth Century Notes; “important...thorough and well-researched...extensive bibliography”—HaroldSeymour.com.