{"product_id":"a-g-spalding-and-the-rise-of-baseball-the-promise-of-american-sport-9780195042207","title":"A. G. Spalding and the Rise of Baseball: The Promise of American Sport","description":"\u003cp\u003eA. G. Spalding was a key figure in the professionalization and commercialization of American sports. Co-founder of baseball's National League, owner of the Chicago White Stockings (later the Cubs), and founder of a sporting goods business that made him a millionaire, Spalding not only willed baseball to be our national pastime but also contributed to making sport a significant part of American life. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis biography captures the zest, flamboyance, and creativity of Albert Goodwell Spalding, a man of insatiable ego, a showman and entrepreneur, whose life illuminated the hopes and fears of 19th-century Americans. It is a vivid evocation of the vanished world of 19th-century baseball, recreating a time when it was transformed from a game played on unkempt fields to modern style.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Oxford University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50318260306194,"sku":"9780195042207","price":48.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_9212266f-a182-45ea-bd2e-3bdc56a10414.jpg?v=1727551853","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/a-g-spalding-and-the-rise-of-baseball-the-promise-of-american-sport-9780195042207","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}