While much has been written about the legendary players and managers of the Deadball Era (1901-1919), far less attention has been paid to baseball club owners like Charles Ebbets who put together the teams and built the era's legendary ball parks. In 1898, after a 15 year apprenticeship, Ebbets became president of the Brooklyn Dodgers, taking over a chronic second division team in poor financial condition. Over the next 25 years, he built four pennant winning clubs while making the franchise one of the most profitable in baseball. Even more impressively, Charles Ebbets gave Brooklyn two state of the art ball parks, something Hall of Famers, Branch Rickey and Walter O'Malley couldn't to do even once. Ebbets was also an effective steward of the national pastime, working tirelessly for innovations that would help all teams, not just his own. In spite of all his success, however, Ebbets' weaknesses also sowed the seeds for the destruction of what he had so painstakingly built. This first full length biography of Charles Ebbets provides an in depth look his life and baseball career while filling a gap in the history of the Deadball Era and the Brooklyn Dodgers.

The Ebbets Field volume is the second in McFarland's series on historic ballparks. The book combines articles about the park and the memories of those who went there in any capacity. Essay topics include long time Dodger owner Charles Ebbets, Brooklyn at the opening and closing of the park, the first and last Dodger games at Ebbets Field, black baseball at Ebbets Field, non-baseball events at Ebbets Field and statistical analyses of the park. The memories section includes the reminiscences of Dodger and visiting players as well as fans of all types and ages.

This treasure-trove of information details the 33rd New Jersey regiment's formation in the midst of the draft riots of 1863 and its three campaigns under General Sherman in 1864 and 1865. Based on original source material, much of it previously unexplored, the book vividly describes the experiences of the soldiers in a regiment that lost 25 percent of its recruits to desertion even before leaving New Jersey, and then effectively walked from Chattanooga to Washington, D.C., by way of Atlanta and Savannah. Five campaign maps and almost 70 photographs are supplemented by an appendix containing the rosters of all ten companies that made up the 33rd New Jersey. Notes, a bibliography, and an index complete the work.

Baseball at its best is a combination of chess match and gladiatorial combat, waged over a long season but turning on split-second decisions and physical instincts. The 1916 season encompassed the drama that made the sport the national pastime: tight pennant races, multiple contenders, record-breaking performances, and controversy, both on and off the field. Nine of the 14 teams battled for first place, four pitchers started and won both games of a doubleheader, Babe Ruth pitched on Opening Day, and players from the Federal League became the sport's first free agents. This book features full rosters, player biographies, statistics, photographs and an appendix of the sportswriters who chronicled the season.