George Vecsey

New York Times sports columnist George Vecsey’s Baseball: A History of America’s Favorite Game (Modern Library, 2008) is a concise and idiosyncratic history of the game of professional baseball. His brief survey avoids the nine-ending cliché of many introductory baseball history books in favor of a more topical analysis of professional baseball’s pasttime. Vecsey gives us a breezy twenty-chapter background narrative of the game and a crisp vision of America’s go-getting spirit.

Vescey surveys the pre-Civil War roots of the game (pondering its ancient origins) to its development under determined immigrants (such as Henry Chadwick who transplanted cricket and rounders into American culture). His study leads all the way to to the revitalization of the game during the 1998 Major League Homerun chase between first baseman Mark McGwire of the St. Louis Cardinals and right fielder Sammy Sosa of the Chicago Cubs. The chase resulted in both players breaking Roger Maris’s long-standing and highly sought-after record of 61 home runs and the renewed faith of fans in Major League Baseball. Along the way Vecsey manages to not only trace the struggle for racial integration in baseball and how the color barrier was finally broken by the legendary Jackie Robinson but manages to devote an entire chapter to the globalization of the game (focusing particularly on Japan and Latin America).

Vecsey’s examination of our American past time does not stray away from the dark periods of the game, however. The pages that examined a host of baseball scandals and other dark moments highlighted the paradoxical nature of a game that is too often associated with puritanical American ideals. We often fail to realize that our baseball gods may possess an Achilles' heel. For instance, Babe Ruth was a beloved herculean athlete with a big heart yet he lived a rather flamboyant and unhealthy lifestyle. Vescey does not shy from retelling these tragic and dark moments and how our heroes failed themselves and ultimately their fans. And he does so with a journalist’s eye for candid detail. The pages that revisited the host of baseball scandals and other dark moments, such as recreational drugs, labor disputes, gambling, segregation, the 1919 White Sox scandal, and the former wagering hit king Pete Rose of the Cincinnati Reds (the honor of hit king now goes to Ichiro Suzuki of the Miami Marlins) were perhaps the most riveting. And yes, heartbreakingly, Vescey investigates our recent disenchantment with McGuire, Bonds, and the steroid-era. As a young fan who lived through the steroid-era, I can personally tell you how hard it was to hear that one of my heroes (McGurie) was taking performance-enhancing drugs. Perhaps we idealize our heroes too much? Or maybe they are too much like us?

Throughout Baseball: A History of America’s Favorite Game, Vescey stresses the continuities of the game emphasizing the importance of the game as a living history. Vescey’s survey might be breezy but it has plenty of action and colorful commentary. Vivid and engaging, with the occasional old-fashioned opinion thrown in for good measure (which may be indicative of age), Baseball: A History of America’s Favorite Game is a short, yet far-reaching introductory to the magic of America’s past time.

Reread: April 2021. This is a great book to help get me in the mood for Spring and baseball season.… (meer)