Title: Spalding's Official Baseball Guide - 1913

Editor: John B. Foster

Language: English

Character set encoding: US-ASCII

SPALDING'S OFFICIAL BASEBALL GUIDE

1913

A book of 600 pages, profusely illustrated with over 100 full page engravings, and having sixteen forceful cartoons by Homer C. Davenport, the famous American artist.

The above work should have a place in every public library in this country, as also in the libraries of public schools and private houses.

The author of "America's National Game" is conceded, always, everywhere, and by everybody, to have the best equipment of any living writer to treat the subject that forms the text of this remarkable volume, viz., the story of the origin, development and evolution of Base Ball, the National Game of our country.

Almost from the very inception of the game until the present time—as player, manager and magnate—Mr. Spalding has been closely identified with its interests. Not infrequently he has been called upon in times of emergency to prevent threatened disaster. But for him the National Game would have been syndicated and controlled by elements whose interests were purely selfish and personal.

The book is a veritable repository of information concerning players, clubs and personalities connected with the game in its early days, and is written in a most interesting style, interspersed with enlivening anecdotes and accounts of events that have not heretofore been published.

The response on the part of the press and the public to Mr. Spalding's efforts to perpetuate the early history of the National Game has been very encouraging and he is in receipt of hundreds of letters and notices, a few of which are here given.

ROBERT ADAMSON, New York, writing from the office of Mayor Gaynor, says:—"Seeing the Giants play is my principal recreation and I am interested in reading everything I can find about the game. I especially enjoy what you [Mr. Spalding] have written, because you stand as the highest living authority on the game."

BARNEY DREYFUSS, owner of the Pittsburg National League club:—"It does honor to author as well as the game. I have enjoyed reading it very much."

WALTER CAMP, well known foot ball expert and athlete, says:—"It is indeed a remarkable work and one that I have read with a great deal of interest."

JOHN B. DAY, formerly President of the New York Nationals:—"Your wonderful work will outlast all of us."

W. IRVING SNYDER, formerly of the house of Peck & Snyder:—"I have read the book from cover to cover with great interest."

ANDREW PECK, formerly of the celebrated firm of Peck & Snyder:—"All base ball fans should read and see how the game was conducted in early years."

MELVILLE E. STONE, New York, General Manager Associated Press:—"I find it full of valuable information and very interesting. I prize it very highly."

GEORGE BARNARD, Chicago:—"Words fail to express my appreciation of the book. It carries me back to the early days of base ball and makes me feel like a young man again."

CHARLES W. MURPHY, President Chicago National League club:—"The book is a very valuable work and will become a part of every base ball library in the country."

JOHN F. MORILL, Boston, Mass., old time base ball star.—"I did not think it possible for one to become so interested in a book on base ball. I do not find anything in it which I can criticise."

RALPH D. PAINE, popular magazine writer and a leading authority on college sport:—"I have been reading the book with a great deal of interest. 'It fills a long felt want,' and you are a national benefactor for writing it."

GEN. FRED FUNSTON, hero of the Philippine war:—"I read the book with a great deal of pleasure and was much interested in seeing the account of base ball among the Asiatic whalers, which I had written for Harper's Round Table so many years ago."

DEWOLF HOPPER, celebrated operatic artist and comedian:—"Apart from the splendid history of the evolution of the game, it perpetuates the memories of the many men who so gloriously sustained it. It should be read by every lover of the sport."

HUGH NICOL, Director of Athletics, Purdue University, Lafayette, Ind.:—"No one that has read this book has appreciated it more than I. Ever since I have been big enough, I have been in professional base ball, and you can imagine how interesting the book is to me."

MRS. BRITTON, owner of the St. Louis Nationals, through her treasurer, H.D. Seekamp, writes:—"Mrs. Britton has been very much interested in the volume and has read with pleasure a number of chapters, gaining valuable information as to the history of the game."

REV. CHARLES H. PARKHURST, D.D., New York:—"Although I am not very much of a 'sport,' I nevertheless believe in sports, and just at the present time in base ball particularly. Perhaps if all the Giants had an opportunity to read the volume before the recent game (with the Athletics) they might not have been so grievously outdone."

BRUCE CARTWRIGHT, son of Alexander J. Cartwright, founder of the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club, the first organization of ball players in existence, writing from his home at Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands, says:—"I have read the book with great interest and it is my opinion that no better history of base ball could have been written."

GEORGE W. FROST, San Diego, Calif.:—"You and 'Jim' White, George Wright, Barnes, McVey, O'Rourke, etc., were little gods to us back there in Boston in those days of '74 and '75, and I recall how indignant we were when you 'threw us down' for the Chicago contract. The book is splendid. I treasure it greatly."

A.J. REACH, Philadelphia, old time professional expert:—"It certainly is an interesting revelation of the national game from the time, years before it was so dignified, up to the present. Those who have played the game, or taken an interest in it in the past, those at present engaged in it, together with all who are to engage in it, have a rare treat in store."

DR. LUTHER H. GULICK, Russell Sage Foundation:—"Mr. Spalding has been the largest factor in guiding the development of the game and thus deserves to rank with other great men of the country who have contributed to its success. It would have added to the interest of the book if Mr. Spalding could have given us more of his own personal experiences, hopes and ambitions in connection with the game."

Pittsburg Press:—"Historical incidents abound and the book is an excellent authority on the famous sport."

Philadelphia Telegraph:—"In this book Mr. Spalding has written the most complete and authoritative story of base ball yet published."

New York Herald:—"If there is anyone in the country competent to write a book on base ball it is A.G. Spalding who has been interested in the game from its early beginnings."

I.E. Sanborn, Chicago Tribune:—"'America's National Game' has been added to the Tribune's sporting reference library as an invaluable contribution to the literature of the national pastime."

O.C. Reichard, Chicago Daily News:—"It is cleverly written and presents information and dates of great value to the newspaper man of to-day!"

George C. Rice, Chicago Journal:—"I have read the book through, and take pleasure in stating that it is a complete history of the game from the beginning until the present time."

Sherman R. Duffy, Sporting Editor Chicago Journal:—"It is a most interesting work and one for which there was need. It is the most valuable addition to base ball literature that has yet been put out."

Joseph H. Vila, New York Sun:—"I have read it carefully and with much interest. It is the best piece of base ball literature I have ever seen, and I congratulate you on the work."

Tim Murnane, Sporting Editor Boston Globe:—"You have given to the world a book of inestimable value, a classic in American history; a book that should be highly prized in every home library in the country."

Francis C. Richter, Editor Sporting Life, Philadelphia:—"From a purely literary standpoint, your work is to me amazing. Frankly, I would not change a line, for the reason that the story is told in a way to grip the reader and hold his interest continually."

Los Angeles Times (editorial):—"Spalding's book has been out six months and ninety thousand copies have been sold. We understand there will be other editions. America has taken base ball seriously for at last two generations, and it is time enough that the fad was given an adequate text book."

Caspar Whitney, Editor Outdoor America, and one of the leading authorities in the world on sport:—"You have made an invaluable contribution to the literature of the game, and one none else could have made. Moreover, you've done some very interesting writing, which is a distinct novelty in such books—too often dull and uninteresting."

New York World:—"Albert G. Spalding, who really grew up with the sport, has written 'America's National Game,' which he describes as not a history, but the simple story of the game as he has come to know it. His book, therefore, is full of living interest. It is a volume generously illustrated and abounds in personal memories of base ball in the making."

New York Sun:—"There is a mass of interesting information regarding base ball, as might be expected, in Mr. Spalding's 'America's National Game.' It is safe to say that before Spalding there was no base ball. The book is no record of games and players, but it is historical in a broader sense, and the author is able to give his personal decisive testimony about many disputed points."

Evening Telegram, New York:—"In clear, concise, entertaining, narrative style, Albert G. Spalding has contributed in many respects the most interesting work pertaining to base ball, the national game, which has been written.

"There is so much in it of interest that the temptation not to put it down until it is completed is strong within the mind of every person who begins to read it. As a historical record it is one of those volumes which will go further to straighten some disputed points than all of the arguments which could be advanced in good natured disputes which might last for months."

Providence (R. I.) Tribune:—"The pictures of old time teams players and magnates of a bygone era will interest every lover of the game, and no doubt start many discussions and recollections among the old timers."

New York Evening Mail:—"Were it possible to assemble the grand army of base ball fans in convention, their first act probably would be to pass a vote of thanks to Mr. A.G. Spalding for his work 'America's National Game'."

Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch:—"Never before has been put in print so much of authentic record of this distinctly national game, and it will be long, if ever, until so thoroughly interesting and useful a volume is published to cover the same field."

New Orleans Picayune:—"The pictures of old time teams, players and magnates of a bygone era will interest every lover of the game. Homer Davenport, America's great cartoonist, has contributed drawings in his inimitable style of various phases of the game."

Indianapolis Star:—"From cover to cover, the 542 pages are filled with material for 'fanning bees,' which the average 'fan' never before encountered. It is an interesting volume for anyone who follows the national pastime and a valuable addition to any library."

Buffalo News:—"No book on base ball has ever been written that is superior to this one by A.G. Spalding. The book is admirably written, yet without any frills. Many of the more notable incidents recounted in this book are having wide publication by themselves."

Brooklyn Times:—"The book is practically a compendium of the salient incidents in the evolution of professional base ball. Mr. Spalding is pre-eminently fitted to perform this service, his connection with the game having been contemporaneous with its development, as player, club owner and league director."

Washington (D. C.) Star:—"This work appeals with peculiar force to the public. Mr. Spalding's name is almost synonymous with base ball. He has worked to the end of producing a volume which tells the story of the game vividly and accurately. Taken altogether, this is a most valuable and entertaining work."

New York American:—"One of the best selling books of the season has been 'America's National Game,' by A.G. Spalding. The first edition of five thousand copies has been sold out (in two months) and a second edition of five thousand is now on the press. As a Christmas gift from father to son, it is most appropriate."

Cincinnati Enquirer:—"As a veteran of the diamond, well qualified to do so, Mr. Spalding has committed to print a professional's version of the distinctly American game. This well known base ball celebrity has a store of familiar anecdotes embracing the entire period of the game as now played and the reader will find it most interesting."

Teacher and Home, New York:—"Every live father of a live boy will want to buy this book. It is said of some of the 'best sellers' that they hold one to the end. This book holds the reader with its anecdote, its history, its pictures; but it will have no end; for no home—no American home—will be complete hereafter without it."

Buffalo Times:—"A.G. Spalding, with whose name every American boy is familiar, has been prevailed upon to commit to print events which were instrumental in guiding the destinies of the National League during the trying period of its early days. To write upon base ball in a historical manner, and yet not fall into the habit of quoting interminable statistics, is a feat that few could accomplish."

Cincinnati Times-Star:—"'America's National Game,' A.G. Spalding's great book upon the diamond sport, is now upon the market and receiving well merited attention. It tells the story as Mr. Spalding saw it, and no man has been in position to see more. When 'Al' Spalding, the sinewy pitcher of nearly forty years ago, came into the arena, the game was young, and through all the changing seasons that have seen it mature into full bloom, its closest watcher and strongest friend has been the same 'Al' Spalding."

Cincinnati Time-Star:—"The book is at once a history, a cyclopaedia and a most entertaining volume."

New York American:—"'America's National Game' tells for the first time the history of the national game of base ball."

Portland Oregonian:—"The book is of rare interest and has such personal value in the story line that one hardly knows where to begin in making quotations from it—all the stories told are so admirable."

JOHN T. NICHOLSON, Principal Public School 186, New York:—"It's a great book."

REV. W.A. SUNDAY, Evangelist:—"No one in America is better qualified to talk of base ball, from its inception to its present greatness, than A.G. Spalding."

WM. L. VEECK and ED. W. SMITH, of the Chicago American:—"We have found much enjoyment in reading the book, and it is very valuable in our work."

W.H. CONANT, Gossamer Rubber Co., Boston, Mass.:—"I have read the book with great pleasure and it produced a vivid reminiscence of the striking events in base ball, so full of interest to all lovers of the game."

JOSEPH B. MACCABE, Editor East Boston (Mass.) Argus-Advocate, and ex-President Amateur Athletic Union:—"I want to express my gratitude, as a humble follower of manly sport, for the compilation of this historic work."

JOHN A. LOWELL, President John A. Lowell Bank Note Company, Boston, Mass.:—"I have read the book with great interest and it certainly is a valuable compilation of facts relating to the history of base ball, the great national game of America. I prize it very highly."

WM. F. GARCELON, Harvard Athletic Association, Cambridge, Mass.:—"I think 'America's National Game' is not only intensely interesting but most valuable, as giving the history of the game. Better still, my nine year old boy is looking forward to the time when he can get it away from me."

GUSTAV T. KIRBY, President of the Amateur Athletic Union:—"Not only as a historical sketch of this great national game, but also as a technical dissertation on base ball as it was and is, this book will not only be of interest but of benefit to all of us Americans who are interested in sport—and what American is not interested in sport?—and being interested in sport, chiefly in base ball."

EVERETT C. BROWN, Chicago, ex-president of the Amateur Athletic Union of the United States:—"It is very seldom that any history of any sport or anything pertaining to athletics approaches the interest with which one reads a popular work of fiction, but I can truthfully say that I have read the story of the great national game with as much interest as I have read any recent work of fiction."

THOMAS F. GRAHAM, Judge Superior Court, San Francisco:—"'America's National Game' contains matter on the origin and development of base ball—the greatest game ever devised by man—that will be of the utmost interest to the base ball loving people, not only of this, but of every English speaking country; and I am sure it will perpetuate the name of A.G. Spalding to the end of time."