Baseball (21st Century Skills Innovation Library: Innovation in Sports)

This title in the Innovation in Sports series traces the many leaps forward in the history of baseball. Where most sports histories focus on the feats of certain teams or players, this series instead profiles the instrumental people and chronicles innovations that changed the game from its chaotic origins into the standardized sport that fans know today. The book discusses the early rules and playing field specifications spelled out by Alexander Cartwright in the mid-nineteenth century, follows its growth in popularity due in large part to Henry Chadwick—who created the box score, and thus helped birth baseball’s obsession with statistics—and ends with a profile on Branch Rickey, a towering figure influential for dreaming up the minor league system in the 1920s, and then bringing Jackie Robinson into the majors in 1947. Throughout, nice-sized color photographs and sidebars that provide additional food for thought accompany the concise and easy-to-follow text. A short glossary and bibliography complete this welcome introduction to the advances of a game that has evolved into a national pasttime. Grades 4-7. --Ian Chipman