Level playing fields : how the groundskeeping Murphy brothers shaped baseball
Most baseball fans want to hear about stellar players and spectacular plays, statistics and storied franchises. Level Playing Fields sheds light on an usually unnoticed facet of the game, introducing fans and historians alike to the real fundamentals of baseball: dirt and grass. In this lively history, Peter Morris demonstrates that many of the game's rules and customs actually arose a concessions to the daunting practical difficulties of creating a baseball diamond
Print Book, English, ©2007
University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, ©2007
History
xxi, 184 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm
9780803211100, 0803211104
70884952
Introduction: the dirt beneath the fingernails
Invisible men
The pursuit of pleasures under difficulties
Inside baseball
Who'll stop the rain?
A diamond situated in a river bottom
Tom Murphy's crime
Return to exposition park
No suitable ground on the island
John Murphy of the polo grounds
Marlin Springs
The later years
The Murphys' legacy
Epilogue
Afterword: cold cases
Notes
Selected bibliography
Index