Book Review: 'Baseball: An Illustrated History'

© 2010 Alfred A. Knopf

On September 21, 2010, New York-based Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of publishing giant Penguin Random House,  released Baseball: An Illustrated History, the updated edition of a 1994 book co-written by historian Geoffrey C. Ward and documentarian Ken Burns as a literary companion to Burns' nine-part documentary series Baseball. The new edition was published to coincide with the fall broadcast of  Baseball: The Tenth Inning: A Film by Ken Burns & Lynn Novick, the first of several planned sequels to Burns' second entry in the American Trilogy, which began with 1990's  The Civil War and concluded with 2001's Jazz. As a result, the 2010 edition includes a new chapter by author Kevin Baker (America: The History of Us,  Sometimes You See It Coming, the City of Fire trilogy).

Baseball: An Illustrated History follows the format of other companion volumes written either by Ward alone (The West: An Illustrated History) or with his long-time creative partner Ken Burns; the chapters correspond with the episodes (or "innings") of the Emmy-winning documentary that, for most baseball fans in 1994, provided the only baseball on television due to that fall's crippling strike by Major League Baseball players.

Table of Contents

• Preface to the 2010 Edition: NEGATIVE CAPABILITY
• Preface: WHERE MEMORY GATHERS
• Introduction: HARD LINES by Roger Aspell
• 1st Inning OUR GAME: Beginnings to 1900
• Why Baseball by John Thorn
• 2nd Inning: SOMETHING LIKE A WAR: 1900-1910
• Stats by Bill James
• 3rd Inning: THE FAITH OF FIFTY MILLION PEOPLE: 1910-1920
• The Minors by David Lamb
• 4th Inning: THAT BIG SON OF A BITCH - 1920-1930
• The Church of Baseball by Thomas Boswell
• 5th Inning SHADOW BALL: 1930-1940
• Why Would You Feel Sorry For Me? - An Interview with Buck O'Neill
• Thirties Baseball by Robert W. Creamer
• 6th Inning THE NATIONAL PASTIME: 1940-1950
• Fan by Doris Kearns Goodwin
• 7th Inning THE CAPITAL OF BASEBALL: 1950-1960
• Fifties Baseball by George F. Will
• 8th Inning A WHOLE NEW GAME: 1960-1970
• Baseball and African American Life by Gerald Early
• 9th Inning HOME: The Modern Era
• 10th Inning THE AGE OF MIRACLES AND WONDERS: Twenty-first Century Baseball by Kevin Baker

The companion volume to Ken Burns’s magnificent PBS television series—updated and expanded to coincide with the broadcast of a new, two-part Tenth Inning, directed with Lynn Novick.

The authors of the acclaimed and best-selling The Civil War, Jazz, and The War turn to another uniquely American phenomenon: baseball. In words and pictures, they provide a stunningly rich evocation of our beloved national pastime, a game woven inextricably into the fabric of our lives and our national memory. 

Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns’s moving and fascinating history of the game goes beyond stolen bases, double plays, and home runs to demonstrate how baseball has been influenced by, and has in turn influenced, American life: politics, race, labor, big business, advertising, social custom, literature, art, and morality. The book covers every milestone of the game: from the rules drawn up in 1845 by Alexander Cartwright to the American League’s introduction of the designated hitter in 1973; from the founding of the Brotherhood of Professional Base Ball Players in 1885 to the eight-month players’ strike of 1994; from the 1924 Negro World Series (Kansas City Monarchs vs. Philadelphia Hilldales) to Jack Roosevelt Robinson’s major-league debut in 1947; from the first curve ball in 1867 (pitched by Candy Cummings of the Brooklyn Excelsiors) to Nolan Ryan’s seventh and last no-hitter in 1991. This new edition brings the authors’ monumental work into the twenty-first century: steroids, home-run records, the rise of Latino players, the long-awaited Red Sox World Series victory, and so much more. 

Nine essays by notable baseball enthusiasts, exploring their individual preoccupations with the game, complement this sweeping narrative. And a wealth of pictures document baseball’s evolution since the mid-nineteenth century and bring to life its most memorable figures. Monumental, affecting, informative, entertaining, and sumptuously illustrated—Baseball is a book that speaks to all Americans.

With a narrative by Geoffrey C. Ward, a preface to the new edition by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, a new chapter by Kevin Baker, and an introduction by Roger Angell

Essays by Thomas Boswell • Robert W. Creamer • Gerald Early • Doris Kearns Goodwin • Bill James • David Lamb • Daniel Okrent • John Thorn • George F. Will

And featuring an interview with Buck O’Neill - From the Penguin/Random House website

My Take

If you've read any of the reviews in my ongoing series on the individual episodes of Baseball; A Film by Ken Burns, you know that even though I'm not a hardcore baseball fan, I am aware of its important role in the American culture and how it shaped the national character. 

I know it sounds like a huge cliché, but baseball is so hardwired into the American socio-cultural experience that even people who don't watch baseball on TV or attend games at any level (whether its a Little League game close to home or a Major League match in a large metro area's stadium) use baseball-speak in everyday conversation. Wild, crazy ideas seem to "come out of left field."  Estimates or approximations are often referred to as "ballpark figures." Even dating borrows many slang terms from our national past time: to be rejected is to "strike out." To describe how fast couples go on a date, we refer to certain activities as getting to first, second, or third base; getting laid is, of course, describes as hitting "a home run."

As I say in my review of Inning 4: A National Heirloom (1920-1930):

I'm not much of a sports fan. When I do watch sports on TV - something I don't do often - it's more than likely going to be a football game or a soccer match, especially during the World Cup. I have watched far more NFL games and World Cup matches than I've watched - or attended - baseball games. 

And yet, Baseball: A Film by Ken Burns has proved once again how Ken Burns' talents as a filmmaker and his passion for American history can grab the attention of someone who is not enamored with the game of baseball - and not lose it. 

The same, of course, can be said for the companion book by Burns and Geoffrey C. Ward. I usually avoid getting books about sports; the only other literary works I have in my modest library that are remotely connected to the topic are Thomas Harris' Black Sunday, a novel about a Palestinian terror group's plans to stage a devastating attack on the Super Bowl in New Orleans, and Tom Clancy's similarly themed novel The Sum of All Fears. And even then the sport in question is American-style football, baseball's nearest rival for the title of America's pastime. 

Burns, Ward, and their collaborators - 10 well-regarded authors who love the game - team up to give readers a beautifully written book that evokes the spirit of both the Emmy-winning PBS series and the game itself.  There are 10 chapters in all, each one of which is supplemented by a relevant essay. There's also an interview with Buck O'Neill, who played with the Negro League's Kansas City Monarchs in the 1930s and '40s. The prose is vivid, lyrical, and endowed with an elegant simplicity that is both lively and a joy to read. And as the book's title indicates, Baseball: An Illustrated History is chock full of photos, engravings, and paintings that follow the history of the sport from the mid-19th Century to the first decade of the 21st. 

Clearly, Burns, Ward, and Kevin Baker have hit this one out of the ballpark.