Posted By:
Jason MishelowFollowing Barry's lead here are some scans from the 1st (correct me if I am wrong) children's book on Modern Baseball. Published in 1864 The American Boy's Book shows
how quickly the games was becoming a major part of American Life.
The section on baseball is one of the longest sections in the book and one of the four color plates is devoted to an early game. Already baseball was "the game" for
America youth or at least the publisher's thought so. This is probably the book that taught the game to the pro's of the 1870's and 80's
* Note by modern baseball I want to make a distinction between this book and the variuous chapbboks that published simpler early rules of the baseball/rounders type games.
edited size