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Play Ball! The Rise of Baseball as America’s Pastime
- Narrated by: Bruce Markusen
- Length: 12 hrs and 15 mins
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Publisher's summary
Every time you watch baseball, you’re watching more than just a game - you’re participating in the latest chapter of a compelling story. What began as the earliest bat-and-ball games became the favorite American pastime of the first 19th-century baseball games. Knowing how baseball came to be what it is today will add levels of enjoyment, respect, and appreciation to any game you watch.
In collaboration with the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York, The Great Courses brings you 24 lectures that paint a portrait of baseball’s remarkable past. Taking you from the decades before the Civil War to the pivotal year of 1920, Play Ball! The Rise of Baseball as America’s Pastime offers a well-rounded, historically rich look at this most distinctive slice of Americana.
Written by noted baseball historian Peter Morris and presented by Bruce Markusen of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, these lectures guide you through decades of experimentation, change, controversy, and triumph. You’ll encounter early baseball giants, including Albert G. Spalding, Harry Wright, and Harry M. Stevens. You’ll learn the origins of everything from catcher’s masks to batting averages. You’ll consider the true stories of how women, African Americans, and others overcame adversity on and off the diamond. And all of this with the help of remarkable artifacts, images, and footage from the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum’s vast holdings.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
Featured Article: The Best Baseball Audiobooks of All Time
Ask any baseball fan and they'll tell you: some of their favorite sounds can only be heard at the ballpark—the smooth, satisfying pop of a catcher’s glove as a pitch hits its mark; the crack of a bat as it tears into a fastball, explosive and hopeful, drawing the crowd to their feet. Our list, a roundup of outstanding baseball audiobooks, offers a glimmer of that same ballpark magic with just a few of the greatest stories from our national pastime.
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Awesome
- By TOM WORKING on 03-17-14
By: Eliot Asinof
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Great Baseball Stories
- Ruminations and Nostalgic Reminiscences on Our National Pastime
- By: Andrew Blauner - editor, Lee Gutkind - editor, Yogi Berra - foreword
- Narrated by: Keythe Farley
- Length: 9 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Here is a wonderful collection of 20 revealing essays on the national pastime. Featuring contributions from Roger Angell, John Thorn, Frank Deford, George Plimpton, Stefan Fatsis, and others (plus a foreword by the legendary Yogi Berra), the stories are united by the authors’ fervent love of the game.
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I'd rather read the book
- By tjcrewsbooks on 06-15-13
By: Andrew Blauner - editor, and others
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Try Not to Suck
- The Exceptional, Extraordinary Baseball Life of Joe Maddon
- By: Bill Chastain, Jesse Rogers, Ben Zobrist - foreword
- Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
- Length: 6 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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With his irreverant personality, laid-back approach, and penchant for the unexpected, Joe Maddon is a singular presence among Major League Baseball managers. Whether he's bringing clowns and live bear cubs to spring training or leading the Chicago Cubs to their first World Series victory in 108 years, Maddon is always one to watch. In Try Not to Suck, ESPN's Jesse Rogers and MLB.com's Bill Chastain fully explore Maddon's life and career, delving behind the scenes and dissecting that mystique which makes Maddon so popular with players and analysts alike.
By: Bill Chastain, and others
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Ballpark
- Baseball in the American City
- By: Paul Goldberger
- Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
- Length: 11 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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From the earliest corrals of the mid-1800s (Union Grounds in Brooklyn was a "saloon in the open air"), to the much mourned parks of the early 1900s (Detroit's Tiger Stadium, Cincinnati's Palace of the Fans), to the stadiums we fill today, Paul Goldberger makes clear the inextricable bond between the American city and America's favorite pastime. In the changing locations and architecture of our ballparks, Goldberger reveals the manifestations of a changing society.
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Fantastic book!
- By S. O. on 12-27-19
By: Paul Goldberger
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The Year of the Pitcher
- Bob Gibson, Denny McLain, and the End of Baseball’s Golden Age
- By: Sridhar Pappu
- Narrated by: Leon Nixon
- Length: 12 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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The Year of the Pitcher is the story of the remarkable 1968 baseball season, which culminated in one of the greatest World Series contests ever, with the Detroit Tigers coming back from a 3-1 deficit to beat the Cardinals in Game Seven of the World Series. In 1968, two remarkable pitchers would dominate the game as well as the broadsheets. One was black, the other white. Bob Gibson, together with the St. Louis Cardinals, embodied an entire generation's hope for integration at a heated moment in American history. Denny McLain, his adversary, was a crass self-promoter.
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Misleading Title
- By Paul on 01-25-19
By: Sridhar Pappu
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The Greatest Baseball Stories Ever Told
- Thirty Unforgettable Tales from the Diamond
- By: Jeff Silverman
- Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain, Hillary Huber
- Length: 14 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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At a 1931 barnstorming exhibition game in Tennessee, a 17-year-old pitcher for the Chattanooga Lookouts struck out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig back to back. Her name was Jackie Mitchell - "organized baseball's first girl pitcher." In July 1970, a stripper rushed onto the field at Riverfront Stadium to kiss Johnny Bench, temporarily disrupting a game attended by President Nixon and his family. These are just some of the great, quirky, and comic moments in the annals of baseball recorded in The Greatest Baseball Stories Ever Told.
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Not what I was expecting... at all
- By keith on 04-16-17
By: Jeff Silverman
What listeners say about Play Ball! The Rise of Baseball as America’s Pastime
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- S. O.
- 01-21-20
Absolutely Fantastic!!!! I really enjoyed it
This was an incredible experience. Every lecture was solid from it's performance, historical facts and length. I highly recommend enjoying this incredible package.
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- De Doctor
- 11-09-19
Enjoyable history of Baseball
This is an enjoyable history of the game mostly focusing on the early history of Baseball up to the start of the Ruth era.
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- Shane King
- 04-15-22
You really have to like baseball to enjoy these.
This was a very good and in depth analysis of the very early days of baseball. However, if you are just a casual fan looking for some fun old baseball stories this probably isn't the book for you. It is broken up in very manageable sections to listen to casually
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- Brian
- 06-28-21
Baseball HIstory at its finest
Critically acclaimed baseball author Bruce Markusen, with his lecture series “Play Ball! The Rise of Baseball as America’s Pastime,” has woven the history of baseball into a very entertaining and informative story that the hardcore to casual baseball fan, to lover of history will thoroughly enjoy. Mr. Markusen blends historical fact with an occasional addition of humorous anecdotes to create a fast paced “don’t want to put it down,” listen. Full disclosure, I spent many hours sharing coffee and swapping baseball stories over the counter while working in Cooperstown several years ago with Bruce. You would have to search long and hard to find a more knowledgeable baseball enthusiast.
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2 people found this helpful
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- ebed76
- 01-29-23
Great
This audiobook is more of a lecture. It was wonderful & informative, even for a baseball junkie like me.
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- Michael T Rael
- 07-11-21
Unexpectedly great!
I was expecting to listen to tales of early baseball but was instead treated to lessons on how baseball came about. Things I’ve taken for granted as a lifelong baseball fan we’re shown to me how they came about. If you truly want to know how the game we watch today came to be, listen to this selection. I encourage everyone who calls them self a true baseball fan to learn how our game came to be. The speaker is knowledgeable and easy to listen to.
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- Clint Gannon
- 06-14-23
Fantastic Intro to the history of America’s pastime
Would highly recommend this Great Courses title for anyone interested in baseball from beginner to life long fan.
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- Dale Davis
- 02-03-21
Beyond just players, games, and stats
If you think sports history exists in a vacuum, unaffected by the outside world, this might not be your lecture series. Bruce goes beyond the game of baseball itself and introduces elements of industrial, social and political history to full illustrate the early days of baseball. Cannot recommend highly enough to anyone with a semi deep interest in the game or post civil war American culture.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Andi Blumenau
- 11-21-20
Fascinating
This was a great, great look at the evolution of baseball against the backdrop of changing American culture. A fascinating look at both history and the sport. Bruce Markusen is a natural storyteller.
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- B. Blanchard
- 10-19-21
Early baseball is more interesting then expected
Not a big baseball history buff, but wow! The first 70 years were nuts, with rival leagues, and rule changes, and owner shenanigans. Want to know about black leagues? There's a lecture for that. Early attempts by women to play baseball? There's a lecture for that. Gambling? Politics? Traditions? Lectures for all of those.
This is a fascinating look at "America's Game" that even a casual fan can appreciate.
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