{"product_id":"baseball-before-we-knew-it-a-search-for-the-roots-of-the-game-paperback-softback-9781496242693","title":"Baseball Before We Knew It; A Search for the Roots of the Game (Paperback \/ softback) 9781496242693","description":"\u003cfont face=\"Georgia\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"6\"\u003eBaseball Before We Knew It\u003c\/font\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003cfont size=\"5\"\u003eA Search for the Roots of the Game\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"4\"\u003eDavid Block (Author), Tim Wiles (Foreword by), John Thorn (Foreword by)\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e9781496242693\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003ePaperback \/ softback, published 1 April 2025\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e408 pages, 33 illustrations, 7 appendixes, index\u003cbr\u003e22.9 x 15.2 x 2.9 cm, 0.612 kg\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\"Given North American baseball fans' nearly inexhaustible appetite for the arcana of their favourite sport, astonishingly few scholars have ever undertaken the detailed historical and anthropological research to find out where the game actually began. . . . Now, through painstaking bibliographic and archival research, on display in his extensive appendices, Block has established . . . the true forerunner of American baseball. . . . By pushing beyond baseball's reputed origins in an English children's game, David Block has discovered the game's true origins in an even older English game.\"-Warren Goldstein, \u003ci\u003eTimes Literary Supplement\u003c\/i\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e \u003cdiv\u003e\"The suggestion that America's Game might have originated somewhere besides America so 'inflamed passions and patriotism,' writes David Block, that the idea still burns us. . . . Block has produced a deliciously researched feast that lays this controversy to rest. . . . Block has assembled such a rich pile of evidence for the game's European origins that one might wonder why there ever was a controversy. . . . Block's book is a perfect delight. He has unearthed magnificent medieval manuscripts . . . That show that baseball is just the latest in a very long line of stick-and-ball games.\"-Charles Hirshberg, \u003ci\u003eSports Illustrated\u003c\/i\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e \u003cdiv\u003e“\u003ci\u003ePastime Lost\u003c\/i\u003e is required reading for anyone interested in learning more about the early origins of baseball.”-Jason Cannon, \u003ci\u003eNINE: A Journal of Baseball History and Culture\u003c\/i\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e \u003cdiv\u003e\"Baseball, Block convincingly argues, was not a product of rounders, and its essential form had already been established by the late 18th century. Where, then, did baseball come from? In search of an answer, Block, a retired systems analyst and an antiquarian book collector, has attacked baseball's literary record with methodical zeal. The result is a joyfully discursive romp through the history of ball sports and a compelling new theory of the game's origins.\"—\u003ci\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e \u003cdiv\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eBaseball before We Knew It\u003c\/i\u003e is a rare piece of historical research that transforms the historical landscape. It is also elegantly written and lightened with a subtle humor. No one who makes any claim to being a baseball historian or a student of the game can go forward without Block's stunning work.\"—\u003ci\u003eSports Literature Association\u003c\/i\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e \u003cdiv\u003e\"Beneficial, Bountiful and Believable for baseball curators, and in the wheelhouse for a publisher like University of Nebraska Press, whose goal is making baseball stay alive with modern readable material that's been thoroughly researched, appendix-ed and indexed.\"-fartheroffthewall.com\u003c\/div\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eWinner of the Seymour Medal from the Society for American Baseball Research\u003cbr\u003e Winner of the North American Society for Sport History Book Award\u003cbr\u003e A \u003ci\u003eChoice\u003c\/i\u003e Outstanding Academic Title\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e When \u003ci\u003eBaseball before We Knew It\u003c\/i\u003e was first published in 2005, it shattered many long-held assumptions about the pastime’s origins. No, baseball was not original to America. No, baseball did not come from the English game rounders. Yes, of course, the Doubleday story was in fact a myth, but for the first time its secret backstory had been revealed. Beyond all its myth busting, \u003ci\u003eBaseball before We Knew It\u003c\/i\u003e traveled back in time to uncover the true roots of the sport, exploring the many antecedent ball games from Britain and elsewhere that contributed bits of themselves to baseball’s evolution.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Now, in this twentieth anniversary edition of his classic work, David Block fills in more of baseball’s origin story by summarizing the discoveries and advancements he and his fellow historians have accomplished over the past two decades. Other new contributions also appear for the first time in this 2025 edition, including a new foreword by John Thorn, the official historian of Major League Baseball; an expanded annotated bibliography of books relating to baseball’s origins from before the Civil War; and two new essays from the author. \u003ci\u003eBaseball before We Knew It\u003c\/i\u003e is a comprehensive, reliable, and readable account of baseball’s history before it became America’s national pastime.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e List of Illustrations\u003cbr\u003e Foreword to the New Edition by John Thorn\u003cbr\u003e Foreword by Tim Wiles\u003cbr\u003e Preface to the New Edition\u003cbr\u003e Preface\u003cbr\u003e Acknowledgments for the New Edition\u003cbr\u003e Acknowledgments \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e Base, as in Baseball\u003cbr\u003e A Pocket(book)ful of Miracles\u003cbr\u003e 1. Uncertainty as to the Paternity\u003cbr\u003e 2. Rounders, Schmounders\u003cbr\u003e 3. Abner and Albert, the Missing Link by Philip Block\u003cbr\u003e Playing Ball at Camp Doubleday\u003cbr\u003e 4. Was Abner Graves Telling the Truth?\u003cbr\u003e 5. Rules of Baseball: The Prequel\u003cbr\u003e 6. How Slick Were the Knicks?\u003cbr\u003e 7. In the Beginning\u003cbr\u003e 8. Stools, Clubs, Stobs, and Jugs\u003cbr\u003e 9. Traps and Cats\u003cbr\u003e 10. It’s Starting to Look Familiar\u003cbr\u003e 11. Baseball before We Knew It \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e Early Baseball Bibliography: Roots of the Game in Pre–Civil War Literature\u003cbr\u003e Appendix 1: Constitutions and By-Laws\u003cbr\u003e Appendix 2: Some Comments on Sporting Journals of the 1850s\u003cbr\u003e Appendix 3: “A Place Leavel Enough to Play Ball”: Baseball and Baseball-type Games in the Colonial Era, Revolutionary War, and Early American Republic by Thomas L. Altherr\u003cbr\u003e Appendix 4: The Letters of Abner Graves\u003cbr\u003e Appendix 5: Dr. Adam E. Ford’s Letter to \u003ci\u003eSporting Life\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Appendix 6: Battingball Games by Per Maigaard\u003cbr\u003e Appendix 7: Ten Surviving Descriptions of Baseball-like Games Written and Published before 1845\u003cbr\u003e Notes\u003cbr\u003e Principal Sources Consulted\u003cbr\u003e Index \u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003c\/font\u003e","brand":"University of Nebraska Press","offers":[{"title":"Brand New","offer_id":52670765236504,"sku":"9781496242693","price":21.79,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/freshlyprintedbooks.co.uk\/products\/baseball-before-we-knew-it-a-search-for-the-roots-of-the-game-paperback-softback-9781496242693","provider":"Freshly Printed Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}