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From Library Journal
Baseball is indeed a mirror of American life, and Ward and Burns show how well America's story is told through baseball. Their book is the companion to a nine-part PBS television documentary scheduled to begin on September 18. In format and approach it resembles the authors' previous best seller, The Civil War (LJ 9/1/90). Each chapter, or "inning," proceeds chronologically with a dominant theme and dramatis personae. The profusion of striking illustrations add an extra dimension to each chapter. Another nice feature is the interlaced essays by such fine writers as Roger Angell, Robert Creamer, and Thomas Boswell on the hold that baseball has on ordinary people. The narrative gains force and momentum in sections examining the injustice of segregation and the forgotten heroes of the Negro leagues. Because the book is based on a documentary filmscript, the narrative sometimes seems a bit episodic, jumping from scene to scene and story to story. Overall, however, this rich and suggestive history is one of the finest books produced on baseball. Highly recommended.
--Paul Kaplan, Lake Villa Dist. Lib., Ill.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From AudioFile
As you'd expect in a history of baseball, all the legends are here. So is the story of the game's growth from the Elysian Fields of New Jersey to the multi-million dollar entertainment it is today. But Ward and Burns do more than chronicle the exploits of heroes. They examine "America's pastime" in the context of our history, showing a relationship between the game and events, trends, and customs that shaped our country. The one disappointment in this production is its reader. Burns has a high voice, which doesn't modulate enough to reflect context. This lack of variety makes everything sound crucial. P.B.J. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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First Sentence:
One summer afternoon in 1839, at Cooperstown, on the shore of Otsego Lake in upstate New York, the boys of the Otsego Academy were playing a game of town ball against Green's Select School. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
white teammates, black baseball, reserve clause Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, Babe Ruth, Red Sox, Jackie Robinson, Kansas City, Branch Rickey, White Sox, Ted Williams, Walter Johnson, Casey Stengel, Pete Rose, Ban Johnson, Connie Mack, Ebbets Field, Polo Grounds, Mickey Mantle, Yankee Stadium, United States, African American, Christy Mathewson, Lou Gehrig, Satchel Paige, Los Angeles, Red Stockings, Louis Browns N