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Wide Awakes Invincibles and Smokestackers
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Early Baseball in Tall Timber Country
Dave Larson
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This is a collection of wonderfully entertaining examples of the inspired and often humorous writings of the early sports reporters. The collection of early baseball stories and photos is a tribute to baseball, the wit of pioneer journalism, and the amusing constancy of human nature. The work is assembled by a researcher whose eye for detail and thoroughness of scholarship are exceeded only by his profound affection for the subject at hand.
REVIEW by Brian McKenna
At first glance Dave Larson’s Wide Awakes, Invincibles, & Smokestackers might be passed up as a mere kid’s book with its cartoon cover featuring a Paul Bunyan-type figure. The title is odd enough to evoke various degrees of interest, confusion or perhaps even apathy. In truth, the material is about the beginnings of the game in a remote outpost of the Pacific Northwest – the Puget Sound area in Washington State and into Canada. The title refers to various regional team nicknames, which if researched are odd and potentially silly no matter what part of the country one studies.
The work is a compilation of stories and game accounts from local sportswriters taken verbatim. A little narrative, prospective and insight is scattered throughout the work, including a few short biographies of significant figures. Twenty full-page cartoon depictions are scattered throughout the text. More interesting are the 50-plus black and white photographs, mainly group shots, quite a few which surely haven’t been seen outside the area for decades. A personal favorite was the Stanwood club of 1891, “Champions of Snohomish and Skagit Counties.” Wide Awakes, Invincibles, & Smokestackers is billed as “entertaining” and “humorous” with stories from a simpler time. And, it is.
Larson’s Wide Awakes, Invincibles, & Smokestackers takes us on a journey of not only early baseball history and the development of the game, but gives us a glimpse into the characters and personalities of the northwest. The scribes of the day hold little back. If they felt cheated, they ranted and raved and outright accused. Conversely, if the hometown team lost to a stronger nine, they sucked it up and readily admitted so. The ballplayers and teams of Puget Sound may not be familiar to us today but their quest to play the game and to enjoy it always will.
See Brian's full review by pressing the MEDIA button at the Home page.
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ISBN:
1-886513-45-7
174
Pages
xSize:
10.5 x 8
Binding:
Perfectbound
Publisher:
Kirk House publishers
Quantity in Basket:
None
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