The Project Gutenberg eBook, Spalding's Official Baseball Guide - 1913, Edited by John B. Foster

Title: Spalding's Official Baseball Guide - 1913

Editor: John B. Foster

Release Date: October 12, 2003 [eBook #10028]

Language: English

Chatacter set encoding: US-ASCII

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SPALDING'S OFFICIAL BASEBALL GUIDE - 1913***

Credit for this e-text:
The Library of Congress, Joshua Hutchinson, David King,
and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team

SPALDING'S OFFICIAL BASEBALL GUIDE

1913

A book of 600 pages, profusely illustrated with over 100 full page engravings, and having sixteen forceful cartoons by Homer C. Davenport, the famous American artist.

The above work should have a place in every public library in this country, as also in the libraries of public schools and private houses.

The author of "America's National Game" is conceded, always, everywhere, and by everybody, to have the best equipment of any living writer to treat the subject that forms the text of this remarkable volume, viz., the story of the origin, development and evolution of Base Ball, the National Game of our country.

Almost from the very inception of the game until the present time—as player, manager and magnate—Mr. Spalding has been closely identified with its interests. Not infrequently he has been called upon in times of emergency to prevent threatened disaster. But for him the National Game would have been syndicated and controlled by elements whose interests were purely selfish and personal.

The book is a veritable repository of information concerning players, clubs and personalities connected with the game in its early days, and is written in a most interesting style, interspersed with enlivening anecdotes and accounts of events that have not heretofore been published.

The response on the part of the press and the public to Mr. Spalding's efforts to perpetuate the early history of the National Game has been very encouraging and he is in receipt of hundreds of letters and notices, a few of which are here given.

ROBERT ADAMSON, New York, writing from the office of Mayor Gaynor, says:—"Seeing the Giants play is my principal recreation and I am interested in reading everything I can find about the game. I especially enjoy what you [Mr. Spalding] have written, because you stand as the highest living authority on the game."

BARNEY DREYFUSS, owner of the Pittsburg National League club:—"It does honor to author as well as the game. I have enjoyed reading it very much."

WALTER CAMP, well known foot ball expert and athlete, says:—"It is indeed a remarkable work and one that I have read with a great deal of interest."

JOHN B. DAY, formerly President of the New York Nationals:—"Your wonderful work will outlast all of us."

W. IRVING SNYDER, formerly of the house of Peck & Snyder:—"I have read the book from cover to cover with great interest."

ANDREW PECK, formerly of the celebrated firm of Peck & Snyder:—"All base ball fans should read and see how the game was conducted in early years."

MELVILLE E. STONE, New York, General Manager Associated Press:—"I find it full of valuable information and very interesting. I prize it very highly."

GEORGE BARNARD, Chicago:—"Words fail to express my appreciation of the book. It carries me back to the early days of base ball and makes me feel like a young man again."

CHARLES W. MURPHY, President Chicago National League club:—"The book is a very valuable work and will become a part of every base ball library in the country."

JOHN F. MORILL, Boston, Mass., old time base ball star.—"I did not think it possible for one to become so interested in a book on base ball. I do not find anything in it which I can criticise."

RALPH D. PAINE, popular magazine writer and a leading authority on college sport:—"I have been reading the book with a great deal of interest. 'It fills a long felt want,' and you are a national benefactor for writing it."

GEN. FRED FUNSTON, hero of the Philippine war:—"I read the book with a great deal of pleasure and was much interested in seeing the account of base ball among the Asiatic whalers, which I had written for Harper's Round Table so many years ago."

DEWOLF HOPPER, celebrated operatic artist and comedian:—"Apart from the splendid history of the evolution of the game, it perpetuates the memories of the many men who so gloriously sustained it. It should be read by every lover of the sport."

HUGH NICOL, Director of Athletics, Purdue University, Lafayette, Ind.:—"No one that has read this book has appreciated it more than I. Ever since I have been big enough, I have been in professional base ball, and you can imagine how interesting the book is to me."

MRS. BRITTON, owner of the St. Louis Nationals, through her treasurer, H.D. Seekamp, writes:—"Mrs. Britton has been very much interested in the volume and has read with pleasure a number of chapters, gaining valuable information as to the history of the game."

REV. CHARLES H. PARKHURST, D.D., New York:—"Although I am not very much of a 'sport,' I nevertheless believe in sports, and just at the present time in base ball particularly. Perhaps if all the Giants had an opportunity to read the volume before the recent game (with the Athletics) they might not have been so grievously outdone."

BRUCE CARTWRIGHT, son of Alexander J. Cartwright, founder of the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club, the first organization of ball players in existence, writing from his home at Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands, says:—"I have read the book with great interest and it is my opinion that no better history of base ball could have been written."

GEORGE W. FROST, San Diego, Calif.:—"You and 'Jim' White, George Wright, Barnes, McVey, O'Rourke, etc., were little gods to us back there in Boston in those days of '74 and '75, and I recall how indignant we were when you 'threw us down' for the Chicago contract. The book is splendid. I treasure it greatly."

A.J. REACH, Philadelphia, old time professional expert:—"It certainly is an interesting revelation of the national game from the time, years before it was so dignified, up to the present. Those who have played the game, or taken an interest in it in the past, those at present engaged in it, together with all who are to engage in it, have a rare treat in store."

DR. LUTHER H. GULICK, Russell Sage Foundation:—"Mr. Spalding has been the largest factor in guiding the development of the game and thus deserves to rank with other great men of the country who have contributed to its success. It would have added to the interest of the book if Mr. Spalding could have given us more of his own personal experiences, hopes and ambitions in connection with the game."

Pittsburg Press:—"Historical incidents abound and the book is an excellent authority on the famous sport."

Philadelphia Telegraph:—"In this book Mr. Spalding has written the most complete and authoritative story of base ball yet published."

New York Herald:—"If there is anyone in the country competent to write a book on base ball it is A.G. Spalding who has been interested in the game from its early beginnings."

I.E. Sanborn, Chicago Tribune:—"'America's National Game' has been added to the Tribune's sporting reference library as an invaluable contribution to the literature