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		Base Desires Exploring the Great American Pastime's inaugural championship By Magdalena Hernandez "The First World Series and the Baseball Fanatics of 1903" by Roger I. Abrams (Northeastern University Press; Boston; 2003; 208 pages; $26.95) Northeastern boasts an unusual tie to the first World Series. In the eight-match square-off between teams from Boston and Pittsburgh, Boston’s home games were played at the American League’s old Huntington Avenue Grounds, on land now part of campus. But that’s not the only reason to be intrigued by a historic event that “cemented in the public’s mind that baseball was the national game,” as Roger I. Abrams delineates in his First World Series and the Baseball Fanatics of 1903. This look back, published to mark the centennial of the first series, reveals much about turn-of-the-century Boston (and, to a lesser extent, Pittsburgh), not to mention America’s burgeoning passion for a pastoral game. A professor and former dean at the School of Law, Abrams has written earlier volumes on baseball, The Money Pitch: Baseball Free Agency and Salary Arbitration (2000) and Legal Bases: Baseball and the Law (1998). In his new book, his broad and deep knowledge of the game provides the foundation for a comprehensive social and cultural history, complemented by straightforward prose. Professional baseball began in the late 1860s, and numerous postseason tournaments had been organized before the turn of the century. None, however, managed to truly capture the public’s imagination. Then, in 1903, the owner of the National League’s Pittsburgh Pirates, Barney Dreyfuss, challenged the American League’s Boston team (known by various nicknames, most often as the “Americans”) to a best-of-nine postseason series. Dreyfuss’s motivation? Each team had emerged victorious in its respective league, and a contest between these giants would be a sure moneymaker. Trash-talking journalists, as Abrams recounts, did their part to fan the embers: “The local Pittsburgh newspapers were proud to draw the distinction between their blue-collar, hard-working town and the ‘City of Culture,’ as they referred to Boston.” The games didn’t disappoint; there was plenty of drama. The outlook was dim for Boston after the first four matches; the Pirates had been victorious in three of them. Yet the tide turned during contests four through seven, which Pittsburgh hosted. By the seventh game, Boston led the series 4-3. Game eight returned the players to the Hub, for a pitchers’ duel. Capping the pinnacle of his career, Boston hurler Bill Dineen threw a four-hit, eight-strikeout shutout. After an hour and thirty-five minutes, Boston had won the game—and the series. The folks in the stands witnessed several brilliant performances during the series. Remarkably, Dineen and Pirate pitcher Deacon Phillippe each won three games. Phillippe pitched five complete World Series games, a record that remains unbroken. Abrams highlights other series luminaries as well: pitcher Cy Young, who’d had an extraordinary season even before the championship games began; legendary third baseman and manager Jimmy Collins; and Fred Clarke, Pirates captain, topnotch hitter and base runner. The chapter on Honus Wagner is a fine introduction to the Pittsburgh shortstop, whom many consider the sport’s greatest player. Yet another baseball first: The tournament losers earned more than the champs. Boston players each received $1,182—not exactly Moneyball, but still equal to more than half a season’s salary—while the losing Pirates took home $1,316. (The Pittsburgh team could thank owner Dreyfuss, who added his share to the players’ pot.) Boston might not have won the championship without its Royal Rooters. This jazzed-up pack of fans practiced extreme enthusiasm, roaring songs, hiring marching bands, and traveling to the Pirates’ home park in the name of supporting their heroes. Did they make a difference? Pirates fans thought so. By game six, “the antics of Boston’s Royal Rooters had energized the Pittsburgh faithful to equal their noise and enthusiasm,” writes Abrams. Years later, Wagner would admit the rooting had interfered with his performance in the series. But some fans weren’t just out to cheer for the home team. The author reports that many “sports” among the fans backed their favorite team with cold cash. A total of $50,000 rode on the outcome of the first game of the series, despite the American League president’s having prohibited gambling in his parks just two months earlier. From rooters to high rollers, the book paints a nuanced picture of the Boston and Pittsburgh fan base. The history of baseball is inextricably intertwined with the rise of the modern city, and the narrative links the game to the changing face of the United States. Abrams suggests the pastime virtually Americanized new immigrants. Then, as now, a lucky few found their fortune by playing the sport; young boys from urban neighborhoods enjoyed wholesome exercise through the game; and adults “came out to the ballpark to root for the men who represented the cities the immigrants had adopted as their own,” the author writes. Indeed, the sport helped realize the melting-pot ideal the United States often struggled to embody. “Those fans who attended on the occasion of the first game came from all of Boston’s communities,” Abrams notes. “They were day laborers, Yankee craftsmen, Irish factory workers, and Brahmins—first-, second-, and third-generation immigrants—but their lives were so different from one another that baseball was the only event they would share in common.” If the search for the American Dream forced these disparate populations to coexist, then the American Pastime served as the glue. “Few of the ballplayers and none of the immigrants were natives of that urban space. This game of baseball was foreign to all the new arrivals, yet they quickly adopted America’s game as their own,” writes Abrams. The book, no one-sided hometown hymn, gives Pittsburgh fair play. Abrams limns the distinct outline of the Smoky City: “Pittsburgh was a working-class town driven by business interests and profits. The elite would hunt and fish, but they would not establish museums or opera companies as the Brahmins had in Boston. The entertainment that was available was aimed at a working-class audience.” Again, baseball had found its niche. Abrams expertly guides readers through the dramatic arcs of a thrilling series, while carefully putting the games into context as a sports and cultural milestone. The First World Series more than covers the bases, both as a retrospective of a national event and as social history. Magdalena Hernandez, MBA’02, is a senior editor. Dem Little Bums: The Nashua Dodgers by Steve Daly; Plaidswede Publishing; 2002 Before long-established color barriers fell away, America’s pastime wasn’t open to all American citizens. Here, Steve Daly, AS’88, assistant sports editor for the Nashua (N.H.) Telegraph, recounts a little-known story about how that changed: the Nashua Dodgers’ role in baseball’s racial integration. Covering the minor league team from 1946 through 1949, the narrative follows players Roy Campanella and Don Newcombe as they cross baseball’s color line in the United States, just as future teammate Jackie Robinson was changing the face of baseball as a Montreal farm- team player. With its well-researched, fast-paced prose, Dem Little Bums is sure to intrigue baseball and history buffs alike. Baseball’s First Indian, Louis Sockalexis: Penobscot Legend, Cleveland Indian by Ed Rice; Tide-mark Press; 2003 Ed Rice, LA’71, has led a crusade to recognize major leaguer Louis Sockalexis as professional baseball’s first Native American player. Editor of the Winchester (Mass.) Town Crier, Rice spent eighteen years researching the “Deerfoot of the Diamond” to compile this record of the legend’s life. Born in 1871 on Maine’s Penobscot Indian reservation, Sockalexis showed dazzling promise as a college athlete. Rice chronicles the outfielder’s ascent to the majors, his alcohol-fueled fall back into the minors, and his later life on the reservation, where he served as a baseball coach and umpire. This is a worthy biography of the player whose talents inspired the name the Cleveland nine carry to this day.