The Lively Ball: Baseball in the Roaring Twenties

While baseball was a popular game before the 1920's, during that era it became a true national icon. No person did more for a single sport than Babe Ruth, and it was in this decade that he did what is still an amazing feat. He transformed the sport from a one-base-at-a-time form of offense into a power game. Before his power changed the game, the league leader in home runs generally was in the 10-15 range. After that, it was often in the fifties. However, there were many other major changes in baseball in the twenties. 1919 was a year of great scandal, when several members of the American league champion Chicago White Sox conspired to throw the World Series. Major league baseball was able to repair the damage, but only by engaging in draconian measures against players who were innocent of any physical wrongdoing. This book is an excellent chronicle of these events, packed with pictures and statistics; it is a thorough description of a decade when baseball underwent dramatic changes, both on and off the field. It is a must-read for all fans of the history of baseball.

"The Lively Ball" volume in the World of Baseball series covers how Babe Ruth transformed the sport in the 1920's. James A. Cox's book sets the stage for the Bambino by looking at the Black Sox Scandal and the establishment of Kenesaw Mountain Landis as the "Competent Despot" installed as Commissioner. After chapters devoted to Babe Ruth and the fan's enthrallment with "Thunder at the Plate," Cox looks at manager John McGraw and Walter "Big Train" Johnson as well as the emergence of radio broadcasts and the minor league farm system. The final pair of chapters look at the most colorful team of the decade, the St. Louis Cardinals, and the most dominant, the New York Yankees. "The Lively Ball" features profiles on the great players such as Rogers Hornsby and Dazzy Vance, as well as sportswriters like Damon Runyon, ballparks like League Park and Yankee Stadium, with statistics for the 1920's tacked on at the end of the book. As with the rest of this imitation Time-Life series, the book is filled with illustrations, not just photographs but cartoons, magazine covers, and statistical charts. Obviously inspired by the interest in the sport following Ken Burns' classic "Baseball" documentary, the World of Baseball series is certainly in that same spirit of love for the game.