The Irish in Baseball: An Early History

by David L. Fleitz

Overview

Professional baseball took root in America in the 1860s during the same years that the sons of the first wave of Irish famine refugees began to reach adulthood, and the Irish quickly demonstrated a special affinity for baseball. This is a survey of the enormous contribution of the Irish to the American pastime and the ways in which Irish immigrants and baseball came of age together. Chapters cover Irish immigrants in Boston; the Chicago White Stockings; the Shamrocks, Trojans and Giants; Charlie Comiskey; Patsy Tebeau and the Hibernian Spiders; Ned Hanlon and the Orioles; Hugh Duffy and Tommy McCarthy, the "Heavenly Twins"; umpires; John McGraw; "Wild Bill" Donovan, Patrick Joseph "Whiskey Face" Moran, and Connie Mack; the Red Sox and the Royal Rooters; and more.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780786434190
Publisher:	McFarland & Company, Incorporated Publishers
Publication date:	03/13/2009
Pages:	200
Product dimensions:	6.90(w) x 9.90(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

David L. Fleitz is a web developer and database analyst who lives in Troy, Michigan. A longtime SABR member, he has written nine other books on baseball history.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments     
Prologue     

1. Beginnings—The Irish in Boston     
2. The Irish White Stockings of Chicago     
3. Shamrocks, Trojans, and Giants     
4. Charlie Comiskey and the St. Louis Browns     
5. White Stockings, Colts, and Cubs     
6. Patsy Tebeau and the Hibernian Spiders     
7. Ned Hanlon and the Orioles     
8. The Heavenly Twins and the Boston Irish     
9. The Umpires     
10. Comiskey and the White Sox     
11. McGraw and the Giants     
12. Wild Bill, Whiskey Face, and the Tall Tactician     
13. Red Sox and Royal Rooters     

Epilogue     
Notes     
Bibliography     
Index     

Editorial Reviews

thorough...Fleitz loves the game and its history as only a devoted fan could. And it is those devoted fans—the keepers of prodigious amounts of statistics on their favorite players and voluminous detailed histories of their favorite teams—who will most enjoy this new history”—Nine.

From the Publisher