Download or read book Base Ball on the Western Reserve written by James M. Egan, Jr. and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2008-05-21 with total page 339 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cleveland and the surrounding area was home to one of the earliest and most active baseball scenes outside of the eastern seaboard. This extraordinarily detailed history combines author commentary with first-hand accounts to document baseball's rapid development and popularization in the region during the decades following the Civil War. Ordered chronologically and then geographically by town, chapters follow the game's rise from the earliest reports on ball in 1841, to the era of loosely organized, town-to-town rivalries and semipro clubs, and finally through the early era of the professional, and eventually major league, sport.