Baseball Fever: Early Baseball in Michigan (The University of Michigan Press) by Peter Morris was chosen to receive SABR’s ninth annual Seymour medal, awarded to the book judged the best work of baseball history or biography published in the preceding year.

According to the Seymour medal judging committee, Morris’ Baseball Fever rewards readers on at least three distinct levels. On its most basic level it offers an original and authoritative examination of the evolution of baseball in Michigan from the mid-1850s to 1876, carefully tracing the rise and fall of individual teams, and identifying important players and promoters of the local game. In addition to a detailed account of the state’s baseball pioneers, students of Michigan baseball will discover numerous period photographs. It is precisely because Michigan in the middle decades of the nineteenth century was rural and lightly populated and, thus, "never at the front of baseball’s development" (p. 4) that Morris views its history as vital. He argues convincingly that by observing citizens in this largely bucolic and isolated region becoming passionate about the game of baseball, we can better understand a critical but largely neglected aspect of baseball’s history.

On a second level Morris thoughtfully employs developments in Michigan to compare and contrast patterns on a national scale. He identifies a number of crossroads in the growth of Michigan baseball, and charts their parallels in national trends as the game groped its way from casual, amateur contests to intense, skilled, and professional status.

Morris’ work is filled with insights, fresh perspectives, and thoughtful connections. His account provides striking proof that only when baseball was embraced by the country’s heartland did it become the national pastime. Because of his attention to patterns beyond Michigan, Morris provides readers a fascinating third level of rewards: a catalog of facts that challenge conventional wisdom about, among other things, integration on the field, the first use of gloves, the first all-professional team, and the impact of the Civil War.

Having drawn deeply on a wide variety of primary materials and scoured local newspapers, Morris builds his account of Michigan baseball from informal recreation to serious sport essentially on original research.

By keeping in mind that the national picture is often found in the small details of local maturation, Morris has produced a worthy volume and one squarely in the Seymour tradition.

The Seymour Medal judging committee included Gail S. Rowe, Morris Eckhouse, and Paul Adomites.