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Baseball in the Garden of Eden: The Secret History of the Early Game Paperback – March 20, 2012
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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.
- Print length384 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- Publication dateMarch 20, 2012
- Dimensions5.5 x 1 x 8.44 inches
- ISBN-100743294041
- ISBN-13978-0743294041
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Editorial Reviews
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--David Nemec, Author of "The Great Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-Century Baseball"
"Baseball's creation myth--Abner Doubleday in a Cooperstown pasture in 1839--has the merit of being enchanting but the defect of being false in every particular. Now comes another of John Thorn's many contributions to our understanding of baseball, proof that the game is even older and more interesting than most fans know."
--George F. Will, Author of "Men at Work: The Craft of Baseball"
"If you love history or baseball, you will enjoy Thorn's impeccably researched tome; if you love both, you will be mesmerized."
--Dave Sheinin, "The Washington Post
"
"John Thorn's "Baseball in the Garden of Eden" reveals a secret history of the early game that is more fantastical (and funny) than any concocted story."
--Jim Bouton, Author of "Ball Four"
"No one knows baseball history as well as John Thorn or writes about it more ably. And there is no one better suited to record--with affection, amusement and sometimes hilarity--the chicanery, misrepresentation and downright lies that have obfuscated the fascinating story of the origins and development of our national game."
--Robert W. Creamer, Author of "Babe: The Legend Comes to Life "and "Stengel: His Life and Times"
"No one, absolutely no one, knows more about the history of our national pastime than John Thorn, and this new book ought to settle once and for all many of the questions fans have about baseball's origins. Superb."
--Ken Burns
"No sport clings to its myths like baseball, which means it takes a baseball historian of the first rank like John Thorn to turn those myths upside down and inside out. "Baseball in the Garden of Eden "offers enlightenment for every fan. It is also a joy to read."
--Michael Shapiro, Author of "Bottom of the Ninth" and "The Last Good Season"
"The One True Game's old creation myths are nowhere near as interesting and as much fun as the truths that Thorn digs up about the conspiracies, vices, and raucous behavior of baseball's earliest innings."
--Robert Lipsyte, author of "An Accidental Sportswriter"
"What a garden of delight! John Thorn takes us through the tangled history of the game's origins with great good humor and flair. He accepts nothing on face value, but gives all sides their due. A pleasure for fans, but also for anyone with an interest in history and myth."
--Kevin Baker, Author of "Strivers Row"
"With elegance, wit and precision, John Thorn traces the lineage of baseball, a melting pot of cultures and diversions that became quintessentially American. "Baseball in the Garden of Eden" is a must read for anyone who claims to know the game."
--Jane Leavy, Author of "The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and The End of America's Childhood "and "Sandy Koufax: A Lefty's Legacy"
About the Author
Product details
- Publisher : Simon & Schuster; Reprint edition (March 20, 2012)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 384 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0743294041
- ISBN-13 : 978-0743294041
- Item Weight : 12.8 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.5 x 1 x 8.44 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #95,000 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #166 in Baseball (Books)
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If you are a baseball fan and interested in the sport's history, this book would be a fun read. It is written in a rather non-linear fashion which can frustrate one, but--nonetheless--it ends up working out pretty well. I enjoyed this book. Do you believe that Abner Doubleday had anything to do with the origin of baseball? Prepare to be disappointed! But--even stranger, how did Doubleday come to be so honored, as was his home town of Cooperstown, NY?
This book goes back well before Doubleday and other purported founders to show where the game evolved from. Cricket? Rounders? The Massachusetts game? The New York game? And so on. Certainly the precursors of American baseball were apparent before Abner Doubleday allegedly invented the game in the early 1840s.
Many of baseball's early stars and founding figures are discussed here: Harry Wright, Candy Cummings, Cap Anson, and A. G. Spalding--baseball player and later businessman. Indeed, the story of Spalding helps to explain Doubleday's honor. No spoilers here, but, he, his paramour and future wife, Elizabeth Churchill Mayer, and Abner Doubleday were all Theosophists--with Doubleday at one point serving as President of the society.
All sorts of historical byways are explored, in baseball and in the larger society.
A lot of fun. . . .
Oh, by the way, it was the Rockford (IL) Forest Citys and the Fort Wayne Kekionga!
John Thorn's "Baseball in the Garden of Eden" is and exquisite examination of the true origins of baseball, and he makes a compelling case for showing its provenance does lie with Abner Doubleday at Cooperstown. Thorn traces the arcs of "pre-baseball" activities. In the New World, features of play common to to the game we understand as baseball today are well documented into the mid 18th century, far in advance of the Doubleday meme. Thorn shows evidence of other bat games that go deep into pre-Christian history to bolster the case for other evolutionary paths.
Most of this book focuses on the growth of baseball in New England and New York. Thorn chronicles the history with reverence and delivers one gem after another, eventually presenting us with a tiara of the game we now recognize.Along the way, we are treated to insights into a world that was both simpler and more menacing (cholera and other disease outbreaks had their effects on New York players in the years before the Civil War).
I read this book in the week before MLB's opening day, and it was a welcome reminder that winter will not last forever. Whether you're a baseball fan, or perhaps interested in the seminal influences of one of America's greatest iconic sporting cultures, this book will entertain and inform.
First, the amount of time spent on the birth and development the Theosophical Society, a turn of the century "New Age" movement, felt much. The group was the force in perpetuating the Doubleday myth, but their history seemed to this reader overdone. Passages spent telling of a Russian Madame founder and her moving to India seemed out of place in a book that I purchased out of a desire to learn about early baseball.
Second I found it disheartening that my Kindle edition did not include the photo's of the early baseball pioneers that were included in the hardbound edition. I am certain that the kindle 3 screen would be able to do them justice based on the author images provided when putting the kindle in sleep mode. It would be nice to have seen the pictures surrounded by the rich history the author shared in the text.
Overall I would recommend purchasing the hardbound over kindle edition, as the collection of baseball artwork is one of the appealing attributes to nearly any baseball history book.
(4 stars hardcover / 3 stars kindle)
Top reviews from other countries
As a baseball fan but neither US native nor resident, this book was eye-opening: Thorn avoids the "heroes and villains" narrative, shows what baseball was wanted to mean for people and the country's national identity, and how such narrative was created. It's worth noting that the author's writing style is easy to digest and makes this journey along a convulse period really enjoyable.