Rating: 
Summary: A fascinating look at the ur-history of baseball
Review: "Where They Ain't" manages at once to be a fascinating book about baseball, an acute historical account of a fascinating era, and a remarkably apt parable for our own times. A must read for baseball fans, but also a serious and thought-provoking volume for any serious reader.
Rating:
Summary: The Fascinating World of Baseball--1890's Style
Review: Although I have always enjoyed baseball history, I have never had much interest in baseball before the first World Series in 1903. I thought that since early baseball was so unlike the "modern" game it was as dry as dust. This book has corrected that erroneous opinion. Mr. Solomon shows the continuity of the game since the early days, yet refers to significant changes in the rules that led to the way the game has, essentially, been played over the past 100 years. The author also does an excellent job of placing the events of his story within the context of the social and economic conditions of the day. However, the most obvious parallel is that the business aspects of major league baseball have changed very little over the years. The more things change, the more they remain the same! This is an excellent book and I highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: The Fascinating World of Baseball--1890's Style
Review: Although I have always enjoyed baseball history, I have never had much interest in baseball before the first World Series in 1903. I thought that since early baseball was so unlike the "modern" game it was as dry as dust. This book has corrected that erroneous opinion. Mr. Solomon shows the continuity of the game since the early days, yet refers to significant changes in the rules that led to the way the game has, essentially, been played over the past 100 years. The author also does an excellent job of placing the events of his story within the context of the social and economic conditions of the day. However, the most obvious parallel is that the business aspects of major league baseball have changed very little over the years. The more things change, the more they remain the same! This is an excellent book and I highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: American Social History
Review: Baseball hasn't changed much over the past 100 years. Players and owners still wrangle with one another with the latter claiming the former are overpayed. This is more than the story of the Orioles of the 1890's. It is also about the beginning of the success of the Dodgers and Giants and the beginning of the New York Yankees when the Baltimore franchise was moved to New York in 1903 to become the Highlanders. Rich colorful characters such as Willie Keeler, John McGraw, Joe Kelley, Hughie Jennings, and others populate this book when you played with injuries because you were encouraged to "take it like an old Oriole." Baseball historian Fred Lieb wrote a book entitled "The Baltimore Orioles" many years back about this subject, and it is with a great deal of thanks that I express to both him and Burt Solomon, the author of "Where They Ain't" for bringing American social history alive for us to enjoy. There is more to American history than wars, treaties, and presidents. Run, don't walk, to your nearest bookstore and buy this book. You can thank me later. This book is an easy five stars.
Rating: 
Summary: Fun Even for Those With Little Interest in Baseball
Review: Burt Solomon's Where They Ain't is the history of the original Baltimore Orioles, a pivotal team in the history of baseball that moved the sport from the nineteenth and into the twentienth century. Although, however, baseball may have changed during this period, one thing never changed and that is the importance of money and business in the sport. This was one of the most fascinating aspects of the sports history. In addition, the book gives marvelous personal sketches of many of the players, a social history of Balitmore and New York at the turn of the century, and, along the way, I even managed to pick up a bit knowledge of baseball. More interesting than I expected and highly recommended for the sports fan.
Rating:
Summary: Bud Selig's Playbook
Review: I used to avoid books about 19th century baseball, fearing that I'd find the game too unfamiliar to the one I grew up with. The rules were often different, the style of play was different, and you couldn't watch it on ESPN Classic."Where They Ain't", however, is one of the better baseball books I've read. Ostensibly about the old Baltimore Orioles of the National League in the 1890s, this book is really a micro-history of early baseball, tracing the game forward -- both on and off the field -- through the advent of Babe Ruth. Burt Solomon paints a very convincing picture of those Orioles as the team that had the singlemost impact on the way the game is played today. He chronicles the playing and early mangerial days of John McGraw, Ned Hanlon, Wilbert Robinson and Willie Keeler, and shows how they introduced the aggressive style of play -- the hit-and-run, the double-steal, the drag bunt, the Baltimore chop -- that still wins pennants today. But more than profiling that now-defunct team, Solomon paints a vivid picture of the economics of the game at large. Playing in ornate wood stadiums, a team would be lucky to draw 5,000 fans (or "cranks", in the parlace of the time) to the grandstands and "bleacheries". The owners fiddled mercilessly with cost-cutting ideas such as contraction, team syndicates, and collusion. Indeed, that these ideas all failed so miserably (forging the birth of the rival American League, a revolution which swallowed its own children so rapidly that within three years you couldn't tell one league from the other) that your eyebrows will leap off your head when you see that today's owners are still using them! Certainly fans of the Minnesota Twins, Montreal Expos, and Baltimore Orioles (we've come full circle) will wince in agony as the old Oriole team was destroyed by league management three times in four years -- by ill-advised co-ownership with the Brooklyn Dodgers; by contraction out of the NL; and then by relocation to New York. Solomon writes in a rich prose style, and footnotes his research extensively. It must have been fun poring through old newspaper accounts for the colorful game descriptions he ultimately finds. He subtly introduces us to historical changes, such as the three-strike out and the foot-long pitcher's rubber, with a broad "that will never catch on!" wink to the reader. My chief complaints would be that "Where They Ain't" is a slow read -- and one so entrenched in Baltimore geography that it's unfathomable that a map wasn't printed inside the book. I lived in Baltimore for parts of six years and even I frequently got lost in Solomon's directions.
Rating:
Summary: Bud Selig's Playbook
Review: I used to avoid books about 19th century baseball, fearing that I'd find the game too unfamiliar to the one I grew up with. The rules were often different, the style of play was different, and you couldn't watch it on ESPN Classic. "Where They Ain't", however, is one of the better baseball books I've read. Ostensibly about the old Baltimore Orioles of the National League in the 1890s, this book is really a micro-history of early baseball, tracing the game forward -- both on and off the field -- through the advent of Babe Ruth. Burt Solomon paints a very convincing picture of those Orioles as the team that had the singlemost impact on the way the game is played today. He chronicles the playing and early mangerial days of John McGraw, Ned Hanlon, Wilbert Robinson and Willie Keeler, and shows how they introduced the aggressive style of play -- the hit-and-run, the double-steal, the drag bunt, the Baltimore chop -- that still wins pennants today. But more than profiling that now-defunct team, Solomon paints a vivid picture of the economics of the game at large. Playing in ornate wood stadiums, a team would be lucky to draw 5,000 fans (or "cranks", in the parlace of the time) to the grandstands and "bleacheries". The owners fiddled mercilessly with cost-cutting ideas such as contraction, team syndicates, and collusion. Indeed, that these ideas all failed so miserably (forging the birth of the rival American League, a revolution which swallowed its own children so rapidly that within three years you couldn't tell one league from the other) that your eyebrows will leap off your head when you see that today's owners are still using them! Certainly fans of the Minnesota Twins, Montreal Expos, and Baltimore Orioles (we've come full circle) will wince in agony as the old Oriole team was destroyed by league management three times in four years -- by ill-advised co-ownership with the Brooklyn Dodgers; by contraction out of the NL; and then by relocation to New York. Solomon writes in a rich prose style, and footnotes his research extensively. It must have been fun poring through old newspaper accounts for the colorful game descriptions he ultimately finds. He subtly introduces us to historical changes, such as the three-strike out and the foot-long pitcher's rubber, with a broad "that will never catch on!" wink to the reader. My chief complaints would be that "Where They Ain't" is a slow read -- and one so entrenched in Baltimore geography that it's unfathomable that a map wasn't printed inside the book. I lived in Baltimore for parts of six years and even I frequently got lost in Solomon's directions.
Rating:
Summary: It's always been a business
Review: It's tempting to think that baseball has become a business only in the last 25 years or so. This wonderful book shows that even 100 years ago baseball was all business (frequently in a cutthroat way). Imagine if Steinbrenner or Turner owned several teams and switched the best players back and forth. Sounds crazy, right? That's exactly what "Syndicate Baseball" of the late 1800's was. The Baltimore Orioles and Brooklyn Superbas were owned by the same beer baron. Many of the Orioles best players (including 3 of the big 4) featured in Where They Ain't were transferred to Brooklyn. The same fate befell the Cleveland Spiders when all of their quality players were shipped to St. Louis in 1899. This book is populated by historical baseballers (Keeler, Kelley, Hanlon, McGraw) and scoundrels (the National League owners, especially Andrew Freedman). For the baseball fan who yearns for "the good old days" this is a must read.
Rating:
Summary: Super
Review: This is a super book. Being a huge Orioles fan I was easily caught up in the delightful narrative that Solomon provides while also giving his reader detailed statistics and insight. This book will take you away from the modern frustrations of baseball while simultaneously showing you that while the times and names change, baseball really hasn't changed in 125 years or so. I also delighted in learning that the current NY Yankees(BOO!) were once the Baltimore Orioles.
Rating:
Summary: One of the Best Baseball Books I've Read
Review: This look at the rise and fall of the original Orioles, and of the changes in baseball that shepharded in the "modern" era is both fascinating and very well-written. Solomon brings the long dead stars of the 1890s to vivid life, while reflecting on the dual nature of baseball as both game and business, and while looking at American life in the same era. This work shows that in some ways little has changed - contraction is a very old idea, as is franchise relocation - and that in some ways the game has benefitted from the end of the reserve clause and the occasional need to reinvent itself. The reader gets the chance to meet some fascinating characters, such as the young John McGraw, before his days as a manager; Charlie Ebbets, the name behind Ebbets field; and Ned Hanlon, perhaps the father of strategic baseball. Moreover, this book captures the essence of the great pennants races of the past, when winning the regular season title was everything. And it's truly bizarre to learn how much was stolen from Baltimore to build all three of NYC's major league teams. I highly recommend this to baseball fans of all stripes, as well history buffs.
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