Vintage Base Ball Association

An incomplete list of books on “vintage’ base ball, ranked in order of importance (a subjective list):

1.  But Didn’t We Have Fun?: An Informal History of Baseball’s Pioneer Era, 1843-1870 by Peter Morris

2.  Baseball Fever: Early Baseball in Michigan by Peter Morris

3.  A Game of Inches: The Stories Behind the Innovations That Shaped Baseball by Peter Morris

4.  Base Ball Pioneers, 1850-1870: The Clubs and Players Who Spread the Sport Nationwide by Peter Morris (Editor), William J. Ryczek (Editor), Jan Finkel (Editor)

5.  Base Ball Founders: The Clubs, Players and Cities of the Northeast That Established the Game by Peter Morris (Editor), William J. Ryczek (Editor), Jan Finkel (Editor)

6.  Playing for Keeps: A History of Early Baseball by Warren Jay Goldstein

7.  Vintage Base Ball: Recapturing the National Pastime by James R. Tootle

8. Ballists, Dead Beats, and Muffins: Inside Early Baseball in Illinois by Robert D. Sampson

*Peter Morris’s book on Early Baseball in Michigan and Sampson’s book on
Illinois are the only detailed, state-wide histories of the early game.

There are other books available but these, in my opinion, will provide the best
researched works on the pre-Civil War and immediate post-Civil War eras. Tootle’s
book is about the development of “modern” vintage base ball.  I will be happy to
answer other questions.

Bob Sampson, VBBA Historian