A. G. Spalding and the Rise of Baseball The Promise of American Sport [Paperback]

A. G. Spalding was a key figure in the professionalization and commercialization of American sports. Co-founder of baseball's National League, owner of the Chicago White Stockings (later Cubs), and founder of a sporting goods business that made him a millionaire, Spalding not only willed baseball to be our national pastime but also contributed to making sport a significant part of American life.
This biography captures the zest, flamboyance, and creativity of Albert Goodwell Spalding, a man of insatiable ego, a showman and entrepreneur, whose life illuminated the hopes and fears of 19th-century Americans. It is also a vivid evocation of the vanished world of 19th-century baseball, recreating a time when it was transformed from a game played on unkempt fields to modern style.

As a study of Spalding's role in the emergence of professional sports, Levine's book is a valuable addition to a fast-growing area of scholarship. --American Historical Review

A.G. Spaldingjoins an impressive body of historical writing...which focuses on baseball in pre-World War I America. --Journal of American Culture

Levine's scholarly biography of Albert Goodwill Spalding fills a large gap in baseball historiography....Well-written and thoughtful....It will long endure as the standard work on Spalding. --Journal of American History

Levine...has aptly given Spalding the central place he deserves in the history of American culture....A.G. Spalding would have liked this book. --Illinois Historical Journal

A.G. Spalding would have liked this book. --Illinois Historical Journal

Levine ably ties Spalding's life into the rise of baseball and, more importantly, late nineteenth-century culture. --William Simons, State University of New York, Oneonta