Michigan

This book takes you on a visual tour of baseball in the Motor City from the beginning of the Tigers franchise to the historic final game played at Tiger Stadium.

Michigan and Trumbull was the address for professional baseball in Detroit for 104 seasons. From 1896 when Bennett Park opened, until the last game at Tiger Stadium in 1999, Michigan and Trumbull was the most famous street corner in Michigan. In this book, you will find Tiger legends Cobb, Gehringer, Greenberg, Kaline, Lolich, Trammell, and others, many captured in never before published photographs.

Ever since the city was granted its first major league team, the Wolverines in 1881, Detroit baseball fans have packed the parks to loyally cheer for their favorite hurlers on the mound. In 1887, Charlie Getzein, nicknamed "Pretzels," led the Detroit ball club to its first National League pennant with 29 wins. The rubber-armed "Wild" Bill Donovan led the Detroit Tigers to the city's first American League pennant in 1907, notching up an astounding .862 winning percentage despite a legendary lack of control. More great pitchers were to follow in the coming decades, and, written from the perspective of an old-time fan, Detroit Aces: The First 75 Years is a fun read for any Motor City baseball enthusiast.

Peverelly's Book of American Pastimes, which covered several sports from badminton to horseracing, is best known for its dominant chapter on base ball, "The National Game." It is the first historical-reference book ever published about the sport, and includes the rosters of the most prominent early clubs with results of games played from their beginnings through 1866. The original 200-page chapter, a seminal work of baseball historiography, is reproduced here in full, supplemented by contemporary images and captions by nineteenth-century baseball historians John Freyer and Mark Rucker.

Baseball at the University of Michigan has had a long and rich tradition. Base ball, to use the contemporary vernacular, began as a club sport during the 1860s. By the dawn of the 20th century, the sport had evolved into the most popular spring leisure event in which students participated. Crowds of greater than 500 were not unusual, at a time when enrollment at the university was approximately 2500 students. Each class and college fielded a team. Prominent names in UM baseball history include the legendary Walker brothers, the first African Americans to play major league baseball, and Branch Rickey, who developed the powerful Dodger teams of the 1940s and integrated baseball with the signing of Jackie Robinson. George Sisler, among the greatest in the National Baseball Hall of Fame, began his career as a Michigan pitcher. And of course there was Ray Fisher, who coached Michigan for 38 years. The end of the century was marked by scandal, but it also brought major league stars such as Hal Morris, Jim Abbot and Barry Larkin, as well as David Parrish and Jake Fox, potential stars of the future.

In the shadow of UM football and basketball, baseball is sometimes considered the "other" sport. But in terms of excitement and accessibility to the students, it is still "Number One."

Ever since the city was granted its fi rst major-league team, the Wolverines in 1881, Detroit baseball fans have packed the parks to loyally cheer for their favorite sluggers at the plate. Big Dan Brouthers helped the Detroit ball club win its first National League pennant with 12 home runs, 101 RBIs, and a league-leading 153 runs scored in 1887. Twenty years later, a rookie named Ty Cobb, at the start of a hall-of-fame career, led the league in batting and the Tigers to three successive American League pennants. Hank Greenberg, Rudy York, and Al Kaline joined the ranks of Motor City sluggers in the coming decades who thrilled fans with the long ball in pennant race after exciting pennant race. Written from the perspective of an old-time fan, Detroit Sluggers: The First 75 Years is a fun read for any Motor City baseball enthusiast.