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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
Dedication |
vii |
Foreword |
ix |
Acknowledgments |
xii |
Chapter I.—Why Base Ball Has Become our National Game—Distinctively American as to its Nativity, Evolution, Development, Spirit and Achievements. |
3 |
Chapter II.—Antiquity of the Game of Ball—Archæology, Mythology, Tradition and History Note Games of Ball from the Beginning of Recorded Time—The Man who Devised Base Ball. |
17 |
Chapter III.—Steps in the Evolution of Base Ball from its Primitive Stages—How it Developed, Naturally, from a Boy with a Ball, to its Present Form, with Eighteen Players, Ball, Bats and Bases. |
29 |
Chapter IV. 1845-55.—First Base Ball Club—The Old Knickerbockers—Their Eminent Respectability and Fine Social Qualities—The Man Who Organized the First Base Ball Club. |
47 |
Chapter V. 1855-60.—First Association of Base Ball Clubs—Some Early Matches—Introduction of the Gambling Evil with its Resultant Demoralization—The National Association
of Base Ball Players. |
65 |
Chapter VI. 1860.—The First Base Ball Tour—Visit of the Brooklyn Excelsiors to Central and Western New York—Remarkable Chain of Victories—The First Base Ball Row. |
77 |
Chapter VII. 1860-65.—The First Serious Backset to the Game—Widespread Demoralization Following the Outbreak of the Civil War—Base Ball Played in Camps of Both Contending Armies. |
91 |
Chapter VIII. 1865.—First Tour of an Eastern Base Ball Club to the West—Remarkable Succession of Victories Won by the Nationals, of Washington, D. C.—Humiliating Defeat by the Forest Citys. |
101 |
xiii
