Live all you can
Subtitle: Alexander Joy Cartwright and the invention of modern baseball
By: Jay Martin.
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Published: 2009
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 155
ISBN-13: 9780231147941; 9780231519694
Subjects: Cartwright, Alexander Joy, -- 1820-1892; Baseball -- United States -- Biography; Baseball -- United States -- History
Genres: Biography.
Description: Laying waste to the notion that Abner Doubleday established the modern game of baseball, the author makes a bold case for A.J. Cartwright (1820-1892), an entrepreneur, philanthropist, and avid ballplayer whose keen perception and restless spirit codified the rules of the sport and engineered its rapid spread throughout the country. Consulting Cartwright's personal correspondence and papers, its shown how he synthesized a number of elements from popular ballgames into the program, bylaws, and positions we find on the field today. After formalizing his blueprint, Cartwright worked tirelessly to promote baseball nationwide, appealing to both upper- and lower-class spectators and ballplayers and weaving a trail of influence across nineteenth-century America. Addressing the controversy that has rolled for years around the claims for Doubleday and Cartwright, the author revisits the original arguments behind each camp and throws into sharp relief the competing ambitions of these figures. -- from Book Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: The birth of the father; title: The dream; title: Cartwright, dreaming again; title: Across the plains; title: Visions and revisions; title: Paradise bound; title: Paradise found; title: The last gasp of the great sailing ships; title: Missionary baseball; title: Starting all over again : it's gonna be rough-but we're gonna make it; title: The new fire chief; title: Freemasonry comes to Hawaii; title: A gift from the sea-and a loss; title: Back to baseball; title: Dewitt and his brothers; title: Cartwright & Co., Ltd; title: Alexander Joy Cartwright Jr., American; title: The social whirl; title: Advisor to the queen; title: Deaths and new life; title: King sugar; title: Baseball on the plantations; title: Spalding's world tour-first stop, Hawaii; title: The final dissolving.