{"product_id":"baseball-a-history-of-americas-favorite-game-modern-library-chronicles-9780679643388","title":"Baseball: A History of America's Favorite Game (Modern Library Chronicles)","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBaseball: A History of America's Favorite Game (Modern Library Chronicles)\u003c\/strong\u003e by Vecsey, George. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9780679643388.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Football is force and fanatics, basketball is beauty and bounce. Baseball is everything: action, grace, the seasons of our lives. George Vecsey’s book proves it, without wasting a word.”\n–Lee Eisenberg, author of The Number\n\nIn Baseball, one of the great bards of America’s Grand Old Game gives a rousing account of the sport, from its pre-Republic roots to the present day. George Vecsey casts a fresh eye on the game, illuminates its foibles and triumphs, and performs a marvelous feat: making a classic story seem refreshingly new.\nBaseball is a narrative of America’s can-do spirit, in which stalwart immigrants such as Henry Chadwick could transplant cricket and rounders into the fertile American culture and in which die-hard unionist baseballers such as Charles Comiskey and Connie Mack could eventually become the tightfisted avatars of the game’s big-money establishment. It’s a celebration of such underdogs as a rag-armed catcher turned owner named Branch Rickey and a sure-handed fielder named Curt Flood, both of whom flourished as true great men of history. But most of all, Baseball is a testament to the unbreakable bond between our nation’s pastime and the fans, who’ve remained loyal through the fifty-year-long interdict on black athletes, the Black Sox scandal, franchise relocation, and the use of performance-enhancing drugs by some major stars.\n\nReverent, playful, and filled with Vecsey’s charm, Baseball begs to be read in the span of a rain-delayed doubleheader, and so enjoyable that, like a favorite team’s championship run, one hopes it never ends.\n\n“Vecsey possesses a journalist’s eye for detail and a historian’s feel for the sweep of action. His research is scrupulous and his writing crisp. This book is an instant classic—— a highly readable guide to America’s great enduring pastime.” — The Louisville Courier Journal\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Modern Library","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44985195724853,"sku":"ByrdShop_0679643389","price":27.61,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780679643388_e6940623-ea08-4ae9-b013-2d0e95ed85a8.jpg?v=1778671977","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/baseball-a-history-of-americas-favorite-game-modern-library-chronicles-9780679643388","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}