In its infancy, major league baseball was anyone’s game, open to a dizzying array of rogues and scamps, athletic giants and captains of industry, hustlers, managers, and umpires who transformed club-based teams into the first professional federations with formalized rules—and commercial considerations. This two-volume work—with its profiles of every key contributor to the major league game from May 4, 1871, through December 31, 1900—is truly “inside baseball.”   Volume 1 profiles all the key position players and pitchers of the nineteenth century, giving detailed information about each player’s role in the game, his debut and finale, high points and low, most important achievements, relationship to ground-breaking diamond occurrences, in addition to fascinating personal information.     More than a collection of mere facts and statistics, Major League Baseball Profiles provides a unique history of the evolution of major league baseball, from the date of the first major league game in 1871 through the 1900 season, which marked not only the close of a century but also the unofficial end of what many believe to be the formative period of the game. Nemec, a member of the Society for American Baseball Research and the author of several quiz books about the sport, backs all of his work with amazing research and obvious passion for the game. This is a richly detailed two-volume set (available separately) that presents biographical sketches of hundreds of people who contributed to the early decades of major-league baseball. The first volume, The Ballplayers Who Built the Game, is a treasure trove of the more obscure figures from early in the sport. Chapters are divided according to the positions of the players. Basic statistical records and colorful nicknames are included for each player. Information regarding the lives of players, both on and off the diamond, helps to make the sketches particularly appealing. For example, pitcher Harry McCormick briefly earned stardom in the National League by being an early adapter of the curveball and displaying terrific control. Following his playing days, McCormick was employed as a barge tender on the Erie Canal before an early death due to cholera. Trivia is entertaining, but the heart of this work is wonderful biographical prose. Major League Baseball Profiles provides a fascinating and unique view of the scores of individuals who played a role in laying the foundation for the modern game. It is an indispensible resource for anyone wishing to gain a better understanding of the formative years of big-league baseball. --Jim Frutchey “David Nemec belongs in the Hall of Fame of early baseball research. Here, he uses a wealth of fascinating details to breathe life back into many little-known nineteenth-century ballplayers whose exploits and, at times, sheer grit are well worth remembering and celebrating.”—Edward Achorn, author of Fifty-Nine in ’84: Old Hoss Radbourn, Barehanded Baseball, and the Greatest Season a Pitcher Ever Had Published On: 2011-02-22 “Whether you are a newcomer to the wonderful world of nineteenth-century baseball or consider yourself to be an expert, you will learn much in this wonderful collection of biographical sketches. While other books have focused on the great pennant races or teams of the era, no book so vividly presents the colorful stories of so many players as these two volumes do. You will be entertained, and you will be smarter, once you spend some time with these books.”—Mark Armour, chairman of SABR’s Baseball Biography Project and author of Joe Cronin: A Life in Baseball Published On: 2011-02-22 "Nemec's books are wonderful . . . . I can see this book becoming as invaluable a resource to me as The Baseball Encyclopedia —something that will entertain and inform me for the rest of my life."—Pete Croatto, Biblio Buffet " Major League Baseball Profiles provides a fascinating and unique view of the scores of individuals who played a role in laying the foundation for the modern game. It is an indispensible resource for anyone wishing to gain a better understanding of the formative years of big-league baseball."—Jim Frutchey, Booklist Published On: 2012-01-01 "Nemec and his team of writers/researchers have created a two-volume extravaganza of nineteenth century baseball biography that will be the definitive work for the foreseeable future and beyond."— Big Bad Baseball Published On: 2012-04-25 David Nemec is the author of twenty-three baseball books, including The Great Encyclopedia of 19th-Century Major League Baseball , winner of the Sporting News SABR Baseball Research Award. Used Book in Good Condition