The American Association Almanac: A Baseball History Journal, 1902-1952 (review)

Life-long baseball fan Rex Hamann has published The American Association Almanac for the past eight years. With few exceptions, he researches and writes all the articles that appear in this journal. The articles encompass all aspects of the history and culture of the American Association from its origins in 1902 to its first franchise shift in 1952. Now that Marshall Wright's statistical chronicle of the American Association has been published and the minor-league database established, Hamann may expand the scope of his journal to include the later years of the Association (email correspondence, 1-2 November 2009).

Hamann's current issue (volume 8, number 1) is subtitled, Louisville's Eclipse Park, 1902-1922 part one, and its one article is devoted to this subject. The article is both more and less than the subtitle suggests. Basing his study primarily on Louisville's two daily newspapers, Hamann discusses the activities of former major leaguer George Tebeau to locate his American Association franchise in the city in 1902, and Tebeau's search for a suitable site for a ballpark. Tebeau allowed the city's baseball fans to help pick the location of the ballpark in a poll. They could vote for one of three possible sites by stating their preference on a postcard sent to Tebeau's hotel room. In a week, more than 2,500 people cast their ballots and an additional 600 signed petitions favoring a particular location. Tebeau promised that wherever he built the park, it would be modern in every respect. It would have a special no-smoking section and a family section where men would not be allowed unless accompanied by a woman. He also announced that there would be two "ladies days" per week, with the best seats in the park reserved for women.

Tebeau eventually selected a site at the intersection of Seventh Street and Kentucky Street for his ballpark. It was an ideal location, close to downtown, near densely populated neighborhoods, easily accessible via several trolley lines, and in the vicinity of the Louisville Slugger bat factory. Work on the new ballpark began in late February 1902 and encountered numerous obstacles. Tebeau fell ill and was confined to his hotel room for several weeks, the weather refused to cooperate, and a group of residents in the neighborhood of the site filed a lawsuit to stop the ballpark's construction. They claimed that baseball was a public nuisance, would attract undesirables, increase noise, and make their homes unlivable. In spite of these challenges, Tebeau and his workers finished the ballpark in time for the opening of the season. Tebeau's Louisville Colonels played their first game at Eclipse Park on April 23, 1902.

Hamann illustrates this article lavishly. In addition to a portrait of Tebeau, he includes photos, cartoons, headlines, and drawings from Louisville's two daily newspapers. He reprints the box scores of the first two games played at Eclipse Park. He provides a map showing the location of the ballpark in relation to downtown Louisville and other points in the city. A diagram of the ballpark's odd pentagonal configuration also shows the location of the playing field, clubhouse, scoreboard, main entrance, bleachers, and grandstand seats. Unfortunately, Hamann does not give the park's dimensions until fifteen pages later.

Hamann's work is seriously flawed. His story begins and ends in 1902; he discusses nothing beyond the first year of the team's or the park's existence, and even his treatment of that year is incomplete and uneven. He describes the lawsuit filed to prevent the construction of the ballpark and summarizes the closing arguments in the case, but he never mentions its outcome or resolution. He makes passing reference to Louisville's blue laws, which prevented Sunday games, but he provides no further discussion of this important topic in baseball history. Instead of elaborating on these themes, Hamann fills his pages with trivia. He describes...