“The One Hundred Most Important Players in Baseball History is essential reading for anyone who wishes to truly understand the relationship between America and its National Pastime.” -Craig Calcaterra
“This is the essence of baseball.” -Greg Proops
“Superstars and lesser accomplished players are looked at in new light, enhancing our appreciation for baseball’s history from the perspective of the narratives that mean the most to us and explain the modern game’s evolution, good and bad.” -Adrian Burgos, Jr.
“Lincoln Mitchell’s fresh approach to enumerating the best of the best sets his book apart from a crowded field, and includes some eye-openers - women! little people! spies!” -Perry Barber
“A fascinating and engaging read.” -Frank Guridy
“Here is the intersectionality of baseball recognized and indispensably codified.” -Steven Goldman
“Lincoln Mitchell shares the stories of baseball’s past while also using his deep knowledge of American history and the political world and to bring this compelling book together.” -Paul Semendinger
Baseball is fascinating as both a unique American, and increasingly global, sport, but also because of the ways in which it helps us understand broader histories, politics, and culture. By briefly exploring the lives and careers of the players in this book, I have tried to contribute to that that understanding. Some of the players I wrote about in this book were baseball legends who were also important figures in American history. Others are less well known but through their lives and careers we can better understand baseball, and America’s, complex racial politics and ongoing struggles between capital and labor. Similarly, some of these players are central to the ongoing story of the globalization of baseball.
Because baseball spans across decades and even centuries, I have also included players whose careers in baseball take us from one era to another and who connect baseball across those eras. Baseball is also not a monolith. While today we think of Major League Baseball (MLB) as the best baseball league which draws top talent from all over the world, that was not always the case. For years, the American and National Leagues had exclusionary policies that made it impossible for some of the best players to be part of those leagues, so I have important players from the Negro Leagues, Japan and women’s baseball. This allowed for a more holistic approach to baseball players and baseball history.
Decidign which 100 players to include was a lot of fun, but it was not easy to make the final cuts. I do not expect everybody to agree with my final choices. However, if I have helped provide more insight into the special American institution that is baseball, then I have achieved my primary goal for The One Hundred Most Important Players in Baseball History-and if it leads to a few good baseball arguments and discussions that is great too.
Reviews
“By the luck of the alphabet, the first two entries in this affectionately assembled compendium of the 100 most influential players in baseball history are Henry Aaron and Dick Allen, whose impact on the game extends far beyond mere stats and acronyms. Lincoln Mitchell’s fresh approach to enumerating the best of the best sets his book apart from a crowded field, and includes some eye-openers - women! little people! spies! – that will spark heated debate while inspiring a deeper appreciation of many of the players about whom we thought we knew a lot, butfind out in these pages that we still have much to learn.”
-Perry Barber, umpire, Jeopardy! champion, inaugural winner of The Dorothy, SABR’s Women In Baseball Lifetime Achievement Award
“Lincoln Mitchell takes on a journey through baseball’s past and present by shifting our focus from thinking about the greatest of all time to the most important players in the modern game. Entries offer distinct insights into players and events of the modern game. Superstars and lesser accomplished players are looked at in new light, enhancing our appreciation for baseball’s history from the perspective of the narratives that mean the most to us and explain the modern game’s evolution, good and bad…A thought-provoking read for baseball enthusiasts.”
-Adrian Burgos, Jr. Professor of History, University of Illinois and author of Playing America's Game: Baseball, Latinos, and the Color Line
“No sport has had a greater impact on American social and political culture than baseball and no one has a greater graspof that impact than Lincoln Mitchell. The One Hundred Most Important Players in Baseball History is essential reading for anyone who wishes to truly understand the relationship between America and its National Pastime and for anyone whose love of baseball extends beyond the mere appreciation of numbers in a box score.”
-Craig Calcaterra, Cup of Coffee Baseball Newsletter and author of Rethinking Fandom: How to Beat the Sports-Industrial Complex at Its Own Game.
“Lincoln Mitchell has done us a great service by taking the discussion of ‘greatest players in history’ away from statistics and reframing it around social impact, thereby giving us a list not of the batters with the most homers or the pitchers with the most wins, but of the men and women who made the most significant contributions to the American story that is both reflected in and embodied by our national game. In short, here is the intersectionality of baseball recognized and indispensably codified.”
-Steven Goldman, host of the Infinite Inning podcast and author of Baseball’s Brief Lives.
“Lincoln Mitchell has done it again! In his latest book, the prolific political analyst and baseball historian revises the ‘best ever player’ genre of sportswriting by providing novel insights on the impact of baseball on American society. A fascinating and engaging read.”
-Frank A. Guridy, Dr. Kenneth and Kareitha Forde Professor of African American and African Diaspora Studies , Columbia University and author of The Sports Revolution: How Texas Changed the Culture of American Athletics
“Mitchell’s…assessments of the player are informed and perceptive…This is the essence of baseball.”
-Greg Proops, Comedian and Social Critic
“Lincoln Mitchell delivers an outstanding comprehensive overview of the history of baseball in a unique way in this wonderful book. Mitchell discusses the great players, the great moments, and baseball’s great history while also making astute observations on the many struggles the game has faced since its inception. This book pulls no punches. Lincoln Mitchell shares the stories of baseball’s past while also using his deep knowledge of American history and the political world and to bring this compelling book together. Baseball fans will want to read, discuss, and debate the conclusions in this original and compelling book. The player biographies are concise, but extremely thought-provoking. This is bound to become a baseball classic.”
-Paul Semendinger, author of Roy White: From Compton to the Bronx, The Least Among Them, and Scattering the Ashes.
Buy the Book
You can buy the book at most online booksellers including Barnes and Noble and Bookshop.org or, if you prefer an ebook, the book is available at Kobo.
Most local independent bookstores will order the book for you if you ask nicely.
I don’t love giving Amazon my business, but the ratings there help, so if you are comfortable shopping there, here is the link.
Media
Presentation at the Ken Keltner chapter of the Society for American Baseball Research, December 7, 2023
Presentation at the Dusty Baker and Lefty O’Doul chapters of the Society for American Baseball Research, November 14, 2023
Presentation at the New York Giants Preservation Society, November 10, 2023
Interview on the New Books Network Podcast, September 18, 2023
“Lincoln Mitchell On Books and Writing,” September 16, 2023
Interview on the podcast "Baseball by the Book," September 6, 2023
Events
Check back here for book events and other opportunities to discuss, and buy, the book.