I remember loving baseball as far back as I can. Growing up, both my brother and I were followers of the San Francisco Giants. I still have a picture of me on the back fence, wearing a Giant helmet and uniform with the number 44. I remember that day as well, playing ball in the backyard and dreaming of a day when I could play in the majors. Of course, I never did but I did play through high school. My first vivid memory of an actual game was that of George Brett in the 1978 playoffs when he hit three home runs off Catfish Hunter. Brett became my favorite player as I grew to love the game of baseball. It was since that time that I’ve had "baseball fever", and fever it is. Many people are afflicted with this disease and spend hours watching, talking and just loving the sport.I first started reading baseball history when I was a teenager. History in general has always interested me, but throw in baseball's deep history and I am engrossed. I remember reading about names I had only vaguelly heard before; Cobb, Wagner, Mathewson, Gehrig, Foxx. I wanted to learn more about them and this led to more names, these I had never heard of; Keeler, Rusie, Anson, etc. I read about them and was fascinated. Baseball in the 19th century, I thought? No way! But baseball was alive and well, far before before the turn of the 20th century. Baseball was played long before cowboys roamed the west, before the Civil War and even before the Gold Rush. Baseball has a long and storied past and that is really what interests me.Thus, this site will focus on baseball's past, starting with its origins and through the Golden Ages of the dead ball and live ball eras. That will be the focus; baseballs first 100 or so years. Baseball today is fine but to me it does not compare to what baseball was 40, 60 or even 100 years ago. Baseball was "America's Pastime!"
