A game of brawl
Subtitle: the Orioles, the Beaneaters, and the battle for the 1897 pennant
By: Bill Felber ; foreword by Senator Edward M. Kennedy.
Contributors: Kennedy, Edward Moore, 1932-
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
Published: 2007
Place of publication: Lincoln
Language: eng
Number of pages: 295
ISBN-13: 9780803211360
Subjects: Baltimore Orioles (American Association : Baseball team) -- History; Boston Red Sox (Baseball team) -- History; Baseball -- Maryland -- Baltimore -- History; Baseball -- Massachusetts -- Boston -- History; Baseball -- United States -- History -- 19th century
Description: "It was probably the most cutthroat pennant race in baseball history. And it was a struggle to define how baseball would be played. This book recreates the rowdy, season-long 1897 battle between the Baltimore Orioles and the Boston Beaneaters. The Orioles had acquired a reputation as the dirtiest team in baseball. Future Hall of Famers John McGraw, Wee Willie Keeler, and "Foxy" Ned Hanlon were proven winners - but their nasty tactics met with widespread disapproval among fans. So it was that their pennant race with the comparatively saintly Beaneaters took on a decidedly moralistic air."

"Bill Felber brings to life the most intensely watched team sporting event in the country's history to that time. His book captures the drama of the final week, as the race came down to a three-game series. And finally, it conveys the madness of the third and decisive game, when thirty thousand fans literally knocked down the gates and walls of a facility designed to hold ten thousand to watch the Beaneaters grind out a win and bring down baseball's first and most notorious evil empire."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references.
Table of contents: title: Baseball's original evil empire; title: The Royal Rooters; title: Spring thunderbolts; title: Parade of champions; title: Suspected criminals; title: Streaks of June; title: Sunday misdemeanors; title: The rise and fall of Louis Sockalexis; title: Day jobs for garroters; title: Don't they keep warm?; title: Fall in Baltimore.