It is opening day for the sport of baseball and baseball is the New York game. According to our guest, he says so because this is where the diamond was first laid out, where the bunt and the curveball were invented, and where the homerun was hit. It is where the game’s first stars were born. From the first innings played in vacant lots and tavern yards in the 1820s to cany innovations that created the very first sports league. To the superb Hispanic and Black players who invented their own version of the game when white baseball sought to exclude them. And all admits New York’s own incredible evolution from a raw town to a new world city.
Kevin Baker the historian and novelist writes about this in his new book “The New York Game: Baseball and the Rise of a New City.” We welcome Kevin Baker to the RT.
