But Didn't We Have Fun?: An Informal History of Baseball's Pioneer Era, 1843-1870

by Peter Morris

Book Overview

The story of baseball in America begins not with the fabled Abner Doubleday but with a generation of mid-nineteenth-century Americans who moved from the countryside to the cities and brought a cherished but delightfully informal game with them. But Didn't We Have Fun? will make you rethink everything you thought you knew about baseball's origins. Peter Morris, author of the prizewinning A Game of Inches, takes a fresh look at the early...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1566638496
• ISBN13: 9781566638494
• Release Date: March 2010
• Publisher: Ivan R. Dee Publisher
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.7" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

Americans moved from countryside to cities and brought baseball with them

BUT DIDN'T WE HAVE FUN? AN INFORMAL HISTORY OF BASEBALL'S PIONEER ERA, 1843-1870 tells of a generation of mid-19th-century Americans who moved from countryside to cities and brought baseball with them. Author Peter Morris is a researcher and chronicler of baseball history: he uses primary documents to recreate a lost world and the underlying influences on the rise of baseball as a sport.

Peter Morris debunks the myth about the origins of our national pastime in his delightful new book.

It was a tale that had been handed down from father to son for generations. It went something like this: "Abner Doubleday invented the game of baseball back in 1839 in the tiny village of Cooperstown in upstate New York." Now my dad certainly had no reason to doubt this version of events. And although I had heard rumblings for decades that the the evolution of baseball encompassed a far more complex series of events there was precious little written on the subject. Author Peter Morris noticed the same thing and decided to do something about it. "But Didn't We Have Fun: An Informal History of Baseball's Pioneeer Era 1843-1870" presents a far more plausible scenario of how it all began. This is a book that proves to be at once highly entertaining and extremely informative. What you will discover in "But Didn't We Have Fun?" is that the game of baseball actually evolved from any number of "ball and stick" games that were popular with youngsters around the country during the 1840's and 1850's. Something called "town ball" was all the rage in a number of eastern cities while "wicket" was the game of choice in Connecticut. Other games being played at the time were "cat ball", "sock ball" and something called the "Massachusetts game". The size of the balls and sticks varied and the rules were certainly different in almost every commmunity. What would eventually come to be known as baseball got a huge boost in the 1840's and 1850's when grown men latched onto the game and formed social clubs whose primary reason for being was playing the game. In this meticulously researched book Peter Morris brings his readers back to those halcyon days when baseball was played simply for enjoyment. You will learn about the legendary Knickerbockers ball club from New York City who took the trouble to write down the first crude set of rules in 1845. I suspect that most folks have never even heard of the Elysian Fields in Hoboken, NJ. The is an extremely important place because Morris argues that it was here that baseball was really born. In addition, you will discover how many of the other most important teams of the era were formed. I was quite surprised to learn that many of these early teams were made up of individuals from particular trades such as railroad workers, bankers, haberdashers etc. who relished the keen competition. As time went on it seems that just about every community had at least one ball team. These clubs were a source of civic pride and the rivalries proved to be quite fierce in many instances. Morris also spends ample time discussing some of the era's most colorful and talented players and sheds light on how what had been largely considered a child's game morphed into a professional sport. Very interesting stuff! "But Didn't We Have Fun: An Informal History of Baseball's Pioneer Era 1843-1870" is an exceptionally well written book. Anyone even remotely interested in the history of baseball will glean a ton of fascinating informati

Baseball Book

I am unable to write a review from personal experience, but I gave the book as a gift to my 54-year-old son who is a great fan of baseball from his childhood. He reports that he found the book "fascinating" because it told of an era of baseball which is not familiar to current fans. After that glowing report, I ordered a second copy to give to a friend. Ruth Doak

Tons on new information

Simply put, I have over 70 baseball books and Peter Morris's one of the best! You want to know how baseball started? Why Americans played the game? Why and how baseball changed? How it became a pro game? This is the book. Go get it.

A modern history of early baseball

The study of early baseball has made great strides the past couple of decades. Our knowledge is both broader and deeper than before. There has been a steady trickle of work by academic historians, a flow of work by amateurs (some of it excellent) and a community of researchers gathered under the aspices of the Society for American Baseball Research and its 19th century committee. By the nature of things it takes a while for such knowledge to work its way from specialists to books for the general reader. There have books published quite recently that could have been written forty years ago. There are numerous possible examples illustrating this point. Perhaps the best is the anachronistic expectation that early baseball players and organizations were motivated pretty much like modern baseball players and organizations. We often see sniggering condescension at the early Knickerbockers for wasting their time on banquets when they should have been practicing. The implicit assumption is that their motivation was to win games, but they kept getting distracted; or if this wasn't their motivation, it should have been. This is a hopeless way to approach history, and utterly commonplace. If we are to understand the Knickerbockers we need to understand their motivations, not impose our modern expectations on them. It is a great pleasure to see in Peter Morris's new book. He makes available recent work, combined with his knack for ferretting out an impressive collection of old accounts. He puts the familiar events into context, and allows us to approach the early players on their own terms. This is a modern history of early baseball. This isn't to say that there are no points to disagree on. There certainly are interpretations that can be disputed. This isn't the final word on the subject, but that isn't the point. This is part of an ongoing conversation, now made available to anyone interested. As always, Morris's writing is admirably readable. Early baseball geeks will keep a bookmark to refer to the endnotes nearly every page, but there is no need for the less obsessive to notice them.