Playing for Keeps: A History of Early Baseball

First off I just want to say that this is a well-researched and well-written book. It is entertaining to me and I think it would be to anyone... who is ALREADY a big fan of baseball and very interested in baseball history. I say this because this book does get a little dry in some places, it reads more like a thesis than a book intended for mass consumption. If this is what you're looking for, than great! I highly recommend it. If you are looking for a quick and easy read, I'd recommend sometime different, like perhaps "The Glory of Their Times", by Lawrence Ritter, considered by everyone to be one of the best baseball history books of all time.Also, it's important to note that this book covers mostly baseball in the 1860s and prior, when it was only beginning to take on the form that we know now. So once again, if this is the period you are interested in, than this book is what you are looking for, if not, I would look elsewhere.From the perspective of someone who really enjoys baseball history, it's really great. For a light read, not so great.

Goldstein offers an unique historical perspective on the early days of professional baseball - focusing on the economic and sociological development of the national pastime. It is simply fascinating to see the evolution of baseball from the nineteenth century, being influenced by the social fabric of the time. Goldstein's vigorously researched "Playing for Keeps" is not simply interested in debunking the Doubleday creation myth, but focuses on early rule changes, improvements, ethics, analysis, and the development of statistics. Goldstein also discusses the growing interest and popularity of the game, expansion, the dreaded reserve clause, gambling, and the scrutiny of the sport by the press.

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As a baseball researcher/author I am very pleased with this work by Mr. Goldstein. Thank you.

First of all, I should probably mention what this book ISN'T about: While it is indeed a history of baseball's earliest years, it's not the typical history of the game based on a timeline of teams, players and games. Early greats like Dickey Pearce and Joe Start do pop up, as do the Knickerbockers and Red Stockings, but it's by and large less about the who's whos of the sport and even how the game evolved on the field than how it fit the sociological norms of the middle 19th Century. You WILL learn about baseball, just not in the usual context you get from authors like Charles Alexander (whose "Our Game" is the best one-volume baseball history I've ever read). In some ways, Goldstein uses the sport and its development as a way to describe what urban American society was like at the time, which is quite interesting. But be aware that it's not a "typical" baseball history.What it IS, as mentioned, is a description of baseball development from the mid-1850's (when there were enough teams in the New York area to create meaningful competition AND camaraderie) to 1875, the last year before the National League was formed and took the power in the game out of the hands of the players and into those of William Hulbert and other team "owners" (a new concept in sports at the time) who saw it as a business, not a pastime. Goldstein traces the game's development from a means for white collar men to socialize via a game centered more on exercise and skill than competition into a professional sport with competition at its core. There was a real tug of war for baseball's heart and soul between the amateurs and pros in the 1860's, when exposure among Civil War soldiers who brought it home made it a "national" sport. Goldstein also delves into the hows and whys certain rules were added to the game once the New York version became the accepted version while other rules were dropped, much of it with as much to do with societal attitudes that had nothing to do with sports."Playing for Keeps" is extremely well-documented, with a 21-page appendix of sources and footnotes at the end. Goldstein draws entirely from contemporary newspaper accounts (with a heapin' helpin' from Henry Chadwick, the game's most influential writer for decades). I give this one four stars because it's an academic work that can be pretty dry at times...this is not a light, breezy read like "Our Game" or Jules Tygiel's "Game Time" (another excellent history). Still, it's perhaps the best book available if you want to ready about WHY baseball developed in its infancy the way it did.

I have read a lot of books about the history of baseball in the late 19th century, and many of them mentioned club play in the 1850's and 1860's, but it was always kind of in passing. What Goldstein did here is truly focus on how baseball was really a sport that promoted fraternity and relationships between clubs and within clubs during that period. I thought he did a wonderful job of describing how much of an impact baseball had on daily life in small towns in the infancy of the game.I also was enthralled by how the early game mirrored the modern game in terms of player salaries and how people within the sport relied on how the influence that female spectators could have on the game.If you are a fan of the earliest years of professional baseball, then this book is a MUST read.