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“A fascinating portrait of an era when baseball fever first gripped the U.S. and the World Series became an American obsession . . . Highly recommended.” —Choice
Recapturing the drama and color of this historic sporting event, Roger I. Abrams shows how the first world series (Boston Americans vs. Pittsburgh Pirates) provided a unique lens to view American life and culture at the dawn of the twentieth century.
It is a fascinating story brimming with colorful, larger-than-life characters: legendary players Honus Wagner, Cy Young, Jimmy Collins, Fred Clarke, Big Bill Dineen, and Deacon Phillippe on the field; and Mike “Nuf Ced” McGreevey, “Honey Fitz” Fitzgerald, and the boisterous Boston Royal Rooters, cheering, chanting, and singing in the grandstands. This is also the story of how the post-season play gave disparate classes in society—Brahmins, industrialists, Irish politicians, Jewish immigrants—the rare opportunity to join in common support of their local teams and heroes.
“Supplements crisp on-the-field accounts with a portrait of the fans . . . [Abrams’s] anecdotes . . . help make the book good reading.”—Wall Street Journal
“Puts the play-by-play into the social context of the times.”—Boston Globe
“[Abrams] brings out the attitudes of the time, such as Yankee senator Henry Cabot Lodge’s anti-immigrant racism, and looks at the rise of the Irish in Boston.”—Boston Herald
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ROGER I. ABRAMS is Richardson Professor of Law at Northeastern University. A leader in the field of sports law, he is the author of The Money Pitch: Baseball Free Agency and Salary Arbitration and Legal Bases: Baseball and the Law. He lives in the Boston area.
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