Selling Baseball

Baseball historian Jeffrey Orens delivers a compelling narrative that documents the importance of George Wright and Albert Spalding to the growth of baseball as players and entrepreneurs during the late nineteenth century ... Baseball fans will love this book.

Journal of Sport History

In Selling Baseball, Jeffrey Orens provides his readers with a new perspective of the sport and the sports equipment industry through the long-overlooked relationship between Albert Goodwill Spalding and George Wright. The more than fifty-year friendship of these two on-the-field stars, Baseball Hall of Fame inductees, and sports equipment pioneers, transcended competition and launched baseball and other athletics to the status that we take for granted today. Thought provoking, instructive, and enjoyable—a must read.

Peter Mancuso, co-chair, Nineteenth Century Research Committee, Society for American Baseball Research

Selling Baseball tells how the then-new game of baseball grew into the “National Pastime”—a big business complete with fanatic fans and professional teams—via the joint stories of two of baseball’s most impactful pioneers, Hall of Famers George Wright and Albert Spalding. Whether on the ball field or in management, the duo helped shape the game as we know it today. Jeffrey Orens’ Selling Baseball gives readers a grand tour of 19th century baseball, as well as of 19th century America.

Bruce Allardice, baseball historian and author

Orens brings a fresh perspective and lively writing to the early years of professional baseball.

Richard Hershberger, baseball historian and author of Strike Four: The Evolution of Baseball

Orens' book invites us on a journey through American and baseball history from the 19th into the early 20th centuries. Through the eyes of two early baseball icons, Al Spalding and George Wright, we witness the evolution of the game, from the fun of underhanded pitching to its formation as a national economic enterprise. Along the way, we crisscross America with the famous Cincinnati Red Stockings; follow the game overseas; watch the rules, equipment, and economics of the game transform; and appreciate how American sports became big business. A must read for anyone fascinated by the interplay of sports and American society.

Bob LeMoine, author of When the Babe Went Back to Boston: Babe Ruth, Judge Fuchs and the Hapless Braves of 1935

This book is a good primer on the early development of the business of professional baseball in the last one-third of the 19th century.

Bevis Baseball Research