old school suggestions?

Anyone have any suggestions on books about 1800's baseball? Looking for something concerning biographical info on old players like Anson and Kelly,etc.

Or something really in-depth on the Gas House Gang.

[SmedIndy]

Well, the Biographical Encyclopedia of Baseball will have that and more.

They do have a 19th Century Baseball Encyclopdia by Nemec out there. I also liked the Beer and Whiskey League a lot.

Hit 'Em Where They Ain't covered that era, too.

James' Historical Abstracts are a good starting point.

There's a biography on Chris von der Ahe that I recommend.

I also have a book, that's out of print, about the woeful 1899 Cleveland Spiders.

Thanks Smed.

I'll check out Nemec.

Maybe I should have been a little more specific...I am more interested in their life on the filed, and game stories, in particular, than the regular this-is-when-he-was-born kinda stuff. ( Something along the lines of "Boys of Summer".) I don't know if that would change your picks or not, but I will check out the titles you gave.

If you can think of it, can you pm me the title of the von der Ahe book?

Thanks again.

[SmedIndy]

I don't know how many of those Boys Of Summer books you will find. Most of the 19th century stuff has a lot of stories, but these guys didn't have much of a media base back then.

The Biographical Encyclopedia is highly recommended.

[Craig S.]

I think the Chris Von der Ahe book is just titled "Chris Von der Ahe and the St. Louis Browns."

Smed is right about the lack of anecdotal information contained in a lot of the books on early baseball. I would highly recommend "Slide, Kelly, Slide," which is a bio of Mike Kelly, but also contains many of the era's characters, including Cap Anson. It's a few years old now, but still a great book.

A couple of other 1800's-baseball titles that I'd recommend are "Early baseball and the rise of the National League" by Tom Melville (a little dry but not lengthy - 150 pages) and Warren Goldstein's "Playing for Keeps", which actually starts with baseball in the 1850s.