Baseball in the Garden of Eden by John Thorn

Baseball in the Garden of Eden by John Thorn

Now available in paperback, the "fresh and fascinating" (The Plain Dealer, Cleveland), "splendid and brilliant" (Philadelphia Daily News) history of the early game by the Official Historian of Major League Baseball.

Who really invented baseball? Forget Abner Doubleday at Cooperstown and Alexander Cartwright. Meet Daniel Lucius Adams, William Rufus Wheaton, and other fascinating figures buried beneath the falsehoods that have accrued around baseball's origins. This is the true story of how organized baseball started, how gambling shaped the game from its earliest days, and how it became our national pastime and our national mirror.

Baseball in the Garden of Eden draws on original research to tell how the game evolved from other bat-and-ball games and gradually supplanted them, how the New York game came to dominate other variants, and how gambling and secret professionalism promoted and plagued the game. From a religious society's plot to anoint Abner Doubleday as baseball's progenitor to a set of scoundrels and scandals far more pervasive than the Black Sox Fix of 1919, this entertaining book is full of surprises. Even the most expert baseball fan will learn something new with almost every page.

Commissioner Allan H. Friedman named John Thorn the Official Baseball Historian for Major League Baseball. Selig (Bud) in 2011. Base Ball: A Journal of the Early Game, which Thorn established and maintains, is a semiannual scientific publication. He co-wrote Complete Baseball, a well-known baseball book, as well as a number of other baseball books, including The Secret Game of Baseball. He is frequently seen on ESPN, History Channel, and MLB Network.

For Ken Burns' series Baseball, he served as the principal adviser and on-screen historian. He advises the Pro Football Hall of Fame and the Museum of the City of New York on publication.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780743294041
ISBN 10	0743294041
Title	Baseball in the Garden of Eden
Author	John Thorn
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Simon & Schuster
Year published	2012-03-20
Number of pages	384
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.