W. Irving Snyder, formerly of the house of Peck & Snyder:—"I have read the book from cover to cover with great interest."
Andrew Peck, formerly of the celebrated firm of Peck & Snyder:—"All base ball fans should read and see how the game was conducted in early years."
Melville E. Stone, New York, General Manager Associated Press:—"I find it full of valuable information and very interesting. I prize it very highly."
George Barnard, Chicago:—"Words fail to express my appreciation of the book. It carries me back to the early days of base ball and makes me feel like a young man again."
Charles W. Murphy, President Chicago National League club:—"The book is a very valuable work and will become a part of every base ball library in the country."
John F. Morrill, Boston, Mass., old time base ball star:—"I did not think it possible for one to become so interested in a book on base ball. I do not find anything in it which I can criticise."
Ralph D. Paine, popular magazine writer and a leading authority on college sport:—"I have been reading the book with a great deal of interest. 'It fills a long felt want,' and you are a national benefactor for writing it."
Gen. Fred Funston, hero of the Philippine war:—"I read the book with a great deal of pleasure and was much interested in seeing the account of base ball among the Asiatic whalers, which I had written for Harper's Round Table so many years ago."
DeWolf Hopper, celebrated operatic artist and comedian:—"Apart from the splendid history of the evolution of the game, it perpetuates the memories of the many men who so gloriously sustained it. It should be read by every lover of the sport."
Hugh Nicol, Director of Athletics, Purdue University, Lafayette, Ind.:—"No one that has read this book has appreciated it more than I. Ever since I have been big enough, I have been in professional base ball, and you can imagine how interesting the book is to me."
Mrs. Britton, owner of the St. Louis Nationals, through her treasurer, H. D. Seekamp, writes:—"Mrs. Britton has been very much interested in the volume and has read with pleasure a number of chapters, gaining valuable information as to the history of the game."
Rev. Charles H. Parkhurst, D.D., New York:—"Although I am not very much of a 'sport,' I nevertheless believe in sports, and just at the present time in base ball particularly. Perhaps if all the Giants had an opportunity to read the volume before the recent game (with the Athletics) they might not have been so grievously outdone."
Bruce Cartwright, son of Alexander J. Cartwright, founder of the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club, the first organization of ball players in existence, writing from his home at Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands, says:—"I have read the book with great interest and it is my opinion that, no better history of base ball could have been written."
George W. Frost, San Diego, Calif.:—"You and 'Jim' White, George Wright, Barnes, McVey, O'Rourke, etc., were little gods to us back here in Boston in those days of '74 and '75, and I recall how indignant we were when you 'threw us down' for the Chicago contract. The book is splendid. I treasure it greatly."
A. J. Reach, Philadelphia, old time professional expert:—"It certainly is an interesting revelation of the national game from the time, years before it was so dignified, up to the present. Those who have played the game, or taken an interest in it in the past, those at present engaged in it, together with all who are to engage in it, have a rare treat in store."
Dr. Luther H. Gulick, Russell Sage Foundation:—"Mr. Spalding has been the largest factor in guiding the development of the game and thus deserves to rank with other great men of the country who have contributed to its success. It would have added to the interest of the book if Mr. Spalding could have given us more of his own personal experiences, hopes and ambitions in connection with the game."
