Introduction

 

A DAY BY DAY HISTORY OF THE MOST IMPORTANT EVENTS IN THE GAME OF BASEBALL FROM 1791 TO 2018

The Chronology was conceived simply and innocently in the late 1980s as a daily diary of our National Pastime—a day-by-day account of the major events, accomplishments, record breakers, oddities, pennant races, player and team shifts that could be read in context. I was encouraged by Rick Wolff, the estimable editor at Macmillan, and the then publisher Bill Rosen. I thought the project would take a bit over a year; it took four years and needed the help of some fifty people to drag it across home plate. Their names are in the acknowledgements. The book was published in 1991 and was over 700 pages in a large format trim size. The index alone was some forty pages. If this current iteration appeared in print form it would be more than 4,000 pages. A door stopper. It works much better online.

Jim Charlton