Kansas Baseball, 1858-1941

"A thoroughly engrossing monograph on the history baseball in the state of Kansas from the mid-nineteenth century to the eve of World War II. Kansas Baseball makes a significant contribution to scholarly research on the national pastime specifically and US society in general. Eberle has uncovered a forgotten world of the history of baseball in the United States."—Annals of Iowa

"This is not just a study of baseball from a single-state focus. the author’s insights extend to towns and cities in every state through his lens that intersects baseball and community development."—NINE

"Eberle presents an unusually effective history that will reward professional historians, amateurs of the craft, and fans of the sport. Central to this work are the interactions of Kansans with the sport of baseball and the impact the game had on Kansas communities."—Kansas History

“Kansas Baseball History, 1858–1941 is a winner. It loads the bases inning after inning, chapter after chapter, with lively player profiles and stories about baseball games, record-setting performances, and town rivalries throughout the state. Taking a full cut and making solid contact time and again, Mark Eberle scores with detailed accounts of women’s play, segregated and integrated teams, Indian baseball, minor league vicissitudes, and surviving ballparks.”—Joseph L. Price, Genevieve S. Connick Professor of Religious Studies and Co-Director, Institute for Baseball Studies, Whittier College

“Mark Eberle’s Kansas Baseball, 1858–1941 is a valuable study of the under-appreciated role of baseball as a mirror of the social, cultural, and economic influences in the state as it navigated its formative years. His examination of teams of immigrants, women, African-Americans, Native-Americans, and Mexican-Americans is a treat and reveals much about Kansas society and character during the period prior to World War II. The author’s impressive use of local and regional newspapers, county and city archives, and recent websites has produced a model study that will not be duplicated. It will be a wonderful book to take on a road trip across Kansas to explore its past.”— John Dreifort, editor of Baseball History from Outside the Lines: A Reader