A. G. Spalding and the Rise of Baseball: The Promise of American Sport.

New York, NY Oxford University Press, 1986. Paperback First Edition Thus [1986], Second Printing. Very Near Fine in Wraps: shows only the slightest spine lean; the price has been carefully removed at the lower rear panel: the pages have tanned a bit, due to aging. The binding remains perfectly secure; the text is clean. Clean, bright, tightly bound: Very close to 'As New'. NOT a Remainder, Book-Club, or Ex-Library. 8vo.199 pages. First Edition Thus [1986], Second Printing. Trade Paperback. A. G. Spalding was a key figure in the professionalization and commercialization of American sports. Co-founder of baseball's National League, owner of the Chicago White Stockings (later Cubs), and founder of a sporting goods business that made him a millionaire, Spalding not only willed baseball to be our national pastime but also contributed to making sport a significant part of American life. This biography captures the zest, flamboyance, and creativity of Albert Goodwell Spalding, a man of insatiable ego, a showman and entrepreneur, whose life illuminated the hopes and fears of 19th-century Americans. It is also a vivid evocation of the vanished world of 19th-century baseball, recreating a time when it was transformed from a game played on unkempt fields to modern style.