Fans of baseball history will love these stories about how players behaved in the early years of the game. Some stories are funny, others are serious, but all shed light on baseball in its formative years.
This is book 1 of 4 in the series on 1880s baseball from Rob Bauer. He is a member of SABR's 19th Century Baseball Research Committee.
No one likes to see cheaters win in sports. But the 1880s were a golden age of cheating in baseball. Meet the most well-known cheaters, learn their tactics, and the counters to those tactics.
In the 1880s, drinking by baseball players was out of control. Every team had players who drank too much. Men came to the ballpark drunk or even drank during games. The Philadelphia Athletics brought a keg of beer to one doubleheader with St. Louis. How did the problem get so bad?
What about methods of physical training? Players had no scientific training plans, but most tried to stay in shape all the same. Regarding the question of treating injured players, what worked best? Was it rest, water, electricity, magnetism, patent medicines, or a branding iron?
