Before They Were Cardinals; Major League Baseball in Nineteenth-Century St. Louis

2002: University of Missouri Press, Columbia, MO. First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. Jennifer Cropp (Jacket Design). xiv, [2], 279, [2] pages. Illustrations. Notes. Bibliography. Index. DJ has slight wear and soiling. This is one of the Sports and American Culture series. This spirited series explores sports in relation to the main currents of American culture. The series, which will include biographies, autobiographies, and team histories, as well as explorations of exciting eras, events, and moments, will address the issues of race, gender, ethnicity, class, immigration, urban life, and the revolutionary role of the media in the contemporary presentation of sports. The author was at the time this was published an Adjunct Professor of History at the University of Arkansas-Monticello. Jon David Cash examines the infancy of major-league baseball in St. Louis during the last quarter of the nineteenth century. His in-depth analysis begins with an exploration of the factors that motivated civic leaders to form the city's first major-league ball club, leading to the formation of the St. Louis Brown Stockings in 1875. He then explains why, three years later, despite its initial success, St. Louis baseball quickly vanished from the big-league map. St. Louis baseball was revived with the arrival of German immigrant saloon owner Chris Von der Ahe. Cash explains how Von der Ahe purchased a controlling interest in the Brown Stockings. His riveting account follows the team after Von der Ahe's purchase, from the formation of the American Association, to its merger in 1891 with the National League. This work provides vivid portraits of the ball players involved in the baseball war between the National League and the American Association. Cash concludes this lively historical narrative with an appendix that traces the issue of race in baseball during this period. This timely treatment of a fascinating period in St. Louis baseball history will appeal to both baseball aficionados and those who want to understand the history of baseball itself.