Baseball

A History of America's Favorite Game

By: George Vecsey

Narrated by: Alan Nebelthau

Best-selling author George Vecsey is an esteemed and award-winning sports journalist for the New York Times. In Baseball, he recounts the history of America's national pastime. Baseball has been around in various forms for thousands of years, but only within the last 200 years has it become an American institution. Growing from a sport played in open fields and big-city streets, baseball has seen its share of innovators and detractors, heroes and villains. Vecsey details them all, from the scandalous Black Sox of 1919 and modern steroid abusers to icons like Babe Ruth, Jackie Robinson, and the countless underdogs that came out of nowhere to capture the imaginations of fans everywhere.

Vecsey's Baseball is a concise history filled with details and stories that will appeal to rookie and veteran fans alike. Narrator Alan Nebelthau's warm voice punctuates all of the wit and charm of Vecsey's prose.

Critic reviews

"Vivid, affectionate, and clear-eyed, Vecsey's account makes for an engaging sports history." (Publishers Weekly)

A bit of a grab bag

I found it to be less a history and more of a meandering book with random bits of information. Not bad, just not what I expected.

WELL worth the listen!

Fabulous retelling of baseball's creation and history. For me, this is the first time I am hearing most all of these stories dating back to the mid 1800s...and I'm a sports junkie. I thought this purchase was a risk...not so at all. I'm shocked at the number of stories with which I was previously unfamiliar. This is a great time-travel trip into the teams, players and businessmen that helped put baseball on the map and up through more modern day lore. Some things have not changed about baseball....you be the judge. One thing to note...the reader is not stellar, but the content more than makes up for his lack of flair.

I've seen some unfavorable reviews of this books pointing towards the lack of baseball strategy covered. READ THE DESCRIPTION. That is not what this purported to accomplish.

Baseball’s history and it origins

This book was a quick read. If you want to hear about the history of baseball through baseball today this is a book for you. There is a lot of repeat stories throughout but over it was a good read filled with baseball history

A good starter book for baseball history enthusiasts

Great if you want a quick overview of baseball history. It’s not groundbreaking by any means. There are other books that dive a little deeper into baseball’s origins and customs (like umpires eating sandwiches and sitting down on a lawn chair on the field). This is certainly enjoyable though.

Interesting

Very good and entertaining review of the history of baseball