Early Dreams

The classic 19th century base ball narrative features Earl Ducker Draves, a fictional yet all-too-real young player who recounts his remarkable 1884 base ball season and his whirlwind rookie campaign in Cincinnati. Early Dreams is crammed with insightful comments on base ball’s pioneers, box scores, and Draves’ surprising reactions to the drinking, gambling, and whoring activities that were central to early base ball. Early Dreams manages to cover nearly every nuance of the era, including evolving game strategy, financial squabbles, and racism–all against a backdrop of the rough-and-tumble milieu of the 19th century brand of ball. Nemec’s book draws favorable comparisons to Ring Lardner’s You Know Me Al. Cover illustration by Todd Mueller.