19th century baseball books?

[bigfanNY]

Spaulding's our National game. He wrote it in 1911 and has lots of great information on early pro baseball.

[bgar3]

Agree with a Jonathan on Spalding National Game, but also add the other 2 major histories from the same time period, Spink, National Game, Richter, History Base Ball. Finally, for very early stuff I suggest Peverelly, American Pastimes. I think all of these have been reprinted recently, but there is nothing like the originals.

[btcarfagno]

The Great Baseball Revolt: The Rise and Fall of the Players League of 1890. Author Robert B Ross. Great book regarding the time period of the players in the Old Judge set.

And going back further, Baseball In The Garden Of Eden by John Thorn.

[oldjudge]

“Catcher” by Peter Morris is one of my favorite books; it details the evolution of the position. A great period written book is “The History of the Boston Base Ball Club” by George Touhey (reprints are available).

[bbnut]

It's been a long time since I read it, but I was really impressed with these:

Sol White's History of Colored Base Ball from 1907 tells about black baseball from the 1880s to 1907. I remember enjoying it very much. Sol White was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2006.

Baseball: The Early Years by Harold Seymour. A little dry, but packed with some good content. Part of a 3 or 4 volume baseball history set.