AMONG THE EARLIEST HISTORIES OF PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL: "ALL THE GREAT HAPPENINGS OF THE GAME SINCE IT WAS FIRST PLAYED"—WARMLY INSCRIBED BY ALFRED SPINK

SPINK, Alfred H. The National Game. A History of Baseball, America's Leading Out-Door Sport. St. Louis: The National Game Publishing Company, (1910). Octavo, original burgundy cloth gilt. $4800.

First edition of one of the earliest comprehensive histories of professional baseball, written by a man "familiar with all its curves and tangents," inscribed by the author on the front flyleaf: "To R. J. Stirk, with the very kindest and best wishes of the author, A.H. Spink. Chicago, Feb. 15, 1921."

This classic work includes dozens of photos, many full-page, biographical profiles, statistics and box scores from the earliest days of professional baseball through the 1909 season. Alfred H. Spink began as a journalist, went on to work as secretary and press agent for the St. Louis Browns, and founded The Sporting News in 1886. The sportswriters' wing of the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown is named for him. Smith 693. Grobani 6-10.

Interior clean, ink spatter to cloth along spine. A very good copy, scarce and desirable inscribed.