Description
Book Synopsis Cricket in America achieved its greatest acclaim, most extensive organization and highest level of competition in Philadelphia in the mid-19th century. The city took upon itself the burden of representing the entire U.S. during the sport''s emerging international popularity.
It was a story of amazing successes, abysmal failures and engaging personalities--like John B. King, revered to this day as one of the all-time greatest players--and eventual decline and demise. This meticulously researched history examines the origin and rise of a sport''s legacy that, even in its demise, would endure as a lost vision of America''s sporting destiny.
Table of Contents
- Table of Contents
- Prologue
- A Note on Technical Cricket Terms
- One. New York/Philadelphia Cricket and the Ball-Playing Spring of the 1840s
- Two. The Rise of Philadelphia Cricket and the Uncertainty of a Sporting Identity
- Three. Post–Civil War Cricket and Baseball and the Divergence of a Sporting Culture
- Four. Guardian of a Sporting Alternative
- Five. Young America, the Hargreaves Family, and the Assertion of Nativism
- Six. Intern to Internationalism
- Seven. Clubs, Players, and the Flowering of Late 19th-Century Philadelphia Cricket
- Eight. Ambivalence of Destiny
- Nine. "A Civilization of Its Own": The World of Late 19th-Century Philadelphia Cricket
- Ten. Visions of Viability: The England Tour of 1903
- Eleven. Twilight of Internationalism and the Drift from Nativism
- Twelve. Decline, Denial, and Dreams: The Passing of Philadelphia Cricket
- Epilogue
- Appendix: Casual Olympian
- Chapter Notes
- Bibliographic Essay
- Index
