Baseball in Baltimore: The First Hundred Years

Long before Brooks Robinson, Cal Ripkin Jr., and the wonder of Camden Yards, there was baseball in Baltimore. In fact, the game and the town twine together to form a rich history that goes back to the 1850s, the first 100 of which are chronicled here. Between the founding of the Excelsiors and the metamorphosis of the St. Louis Browns into the modern-era Baltimore Orioles, the city has hosted franchises in eight professional leagues. Babe Ruth got his start here, and so did Roy Campanella. The great Wilbert Robinson, John McGraw, and Wee Willie Keeler all flourished in Oriole uniforms before the turn of the century. A Baltimore pitcher once won 46 games in a season; a hitter once clocked 63 home runs. A Baltimore franchise won three Negro League titles, and the city even paid a team of 4Fs to represent them in the minors during World War II. Drawing from old newspaper accounts and other primary sources, Bready paints an entertaining and colorful picture--photographically rich and skillfully penned--of a town and its teams, solid in baseball tradition and overflowing with the game's lore. --Jeff Silverman