The Irish in Baseball: An Early History

Professional baseball took root in America in the 1860s during the same years that the sons of the first wave of Irish famine refugees began to reach adulthood, and the Irish quickly demonstrated a special affinity for baseball. This is a survey of the enormous contribution of the Irish to the American pastime and the ways in which Irish immigrants and baseball came of age together. Chapters cover Irish immigrants in Boston; the Chicago White Stockings; the Shamrocks, Trojans and Giants; Charlie Comiskey; Patsy Tebeau and the Hibernian Spiders; Ned Hanlon and the Orioles; Hugh Duffy and Tommy McCarthy, the ＂Heavenly Twins＂; umpires; John McGraw; ＂Wild Bill＂ Donovan, Patrick Joseph ＂Whiskey Face＂ Moran, and Connie Mack; the Red Sox and the Royal Rooters; and more.

David L. Fleitz is a web developer and database analyst who lives in Troy, Michigan. A longtime SABR member, he has written eight other books on baseball history.