A Game of Inches: The Stories Behind the Innovations That Shaped Baseball: The Game Behind the Scenes

By Peter Morris

Book Overview

The Game Behind the Scenes continues and concludes Peter Morris's superb encyclopedia of the national pastime. The initial volume, The Game on the Field, was called by Library Journal "charming, densely packed, yet entirely accessible.... This is heaven for fans of the game and a required addition to all baseball collections." Endlessly fascinating, impeccably researched, and engagingly written, this treasure trove will surprise, delight, and educate even the most knowledgeable fan by dispelling cherished myths and revealing the source of many of baseball's features that we now take for granted. Together, both volumes of A Game of Inches contain nearly a thousand entries that illuminate the origins of items ranging from catchers' masks to hook slides to intentional walks to cork-center baseballs to the reserve clause of baseball's Basic Agreement. The volume on The Game Behind the Scenes concentrates on ballparks, fans, marketing, statistics, the building of teams, and other related aspects of the game--but this is much more than just a reference guide. Award-winning author Peter Morris explains the context that led each new item to emerge when it did, and chronicles the often surprising responses to these innovations. Of few books can it genuinely be said that once you start reading, it's hard to put it down, but A Game of Inches is one of them. It belongs in the pantheon of great baseball books, and will give any reader a deeper appreciation of why baseball matters so much to Americans.

Praise for Peter Morris's Volume One: The Game on the Field

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1566637058
• ISBN13: 9781566637053
• Release Date: August 2006
• Publisher: Ivan R. Dee Publisher
• Length: 416 Pages
• Weight: 1.71 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.5" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

Game of inches goes the wholw Nine Yards!

This is a must for any base ball fan interested in the evolution of the game. Mr. Morris covers the bases with subjects like the introduction of pine tar to the elimination of left handed 2nd basemen. He does it with a narrative style you don't find in many historical books. It is the vintage ballists companion.

For Baseball Fans

Any fan of baseball on any level will enjoy this well researched volume on the development of baseball as it is played today.

Game of Inches: Part I

A genuinely outstanding book, probably the most important baseball history book published this year. Morris has found something new and important in his research on virtually every page, and writes very well. It is amazing how many of the basic strategies and tactics of baseball can be documented as having been used in 1860, and certainly by the 1890s.

Baseball's legacy is the result of many influences, inventions and innovations

A GAME OF INCHES: THE STORIES BEHIND THE INNOVATIONS THAT SHAPED BASEBALL isn't your usual coverage of major players or major memorable games: it's the first of two projected volumes to provide an encyclopedia reference covering the origins of the sport's major items, from catchers' masks to cork-center baseballs. Included in each listing are discussions of what led each new item to emerge when and how it did - much in the manner of a Burke review of history's causes and influences - and a chronicle of the responses to these changes and innovations. Baseball's legacy is the result of many influences, inventions and innovations: here's the place to read about them all. Diane C. Donovan California Bookwatch

more than the title suggests

On its face this book appears to be yet another entry in the genre of collections of random tidbits about baseball. These usually are disconnected factoids, often of questionable accuracy and often with some attempt at a unifying theme. In form this is just such a collection, in this case with the theme of "firsts". Peter Morris has in fact done something much more interesting and substantial. The book is founded on solid research, going back to as close to the events as possible. Do we know of a first because it was reported in the newspapers the next day, or do we only have someone's recollections decades later? Morris is meticulous about letting the reader know. This could serve not only as a baseball history, but as a textbook on methods and limitations of historical research. Morris avoids the problem of random factoids: of history as a series of disconnected events. A lesser author might determine who was the first pinch hitter, give a name and a date, and leave it at that. Morris puts pinch hitting in the context of the evolution of substitution rules, expanding rosters, and adapting ideology. We get a mini-essay on the development of this aspect of the game. Similarly, the invention of the catcher's mask is put in the context of loosened restrictions on the pitcher's delivery, which allowed faster pitching and effective curve balls. These made the older method of an unprotected catcher standing well back from the batter less tenable, and protective equipment was invented in response. As catcher's equipment got better the catcher was able to move closer to the batter, which in turn affected aspects such as base stealing. This is by far the best book I have seen for how the game was actually played and how it evolved, reported in a clear-eye, factual manner. There is no sepia-tinged old-timey quaintness here. The writing is consistently engaging, not dry academic prose. This is a work of serious history, but written for anyone interested in the history of baseball.