| Book Review | Indiana Magazine of History, 100.3

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| Book Review | Indiana Magazine of History, 100.3 | The History Cooperative

Reviews

Baseball Fever Early Baseball in Michigan

By Peter Morris

(Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2003. Pp. x, 300. Illustrations, notes, appendices, select bibliography, indices. Cloth-bound, $55.00; paperbound, $24.95.)

What was there about baseball (given the number of urban eastern fads to fizzle in the Midwest), asks Peter Morris in his new study of baseball in Michigan, that allowed it to catch on west of the Appalachians, and how did it happen? Morris is interested in discerning how baseball evolved during a critical period in its history—the two decades preceding the founding of the National League in February 1876—by deeply examining one distinct area (in this case, the state of Michigan). Michigan is a good choice in many respects. The state was home to enough towns with sufficient populations, a large city (Detroit) that did not overpower the others, and enough fairs and other events to generate plenty of tournaments and spectators. This work demonstrates that baseball was becoming a "national sport" well before the advent of the first all-professional team in 1869.

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