Level Playing Fields

"Maverick baseball historian Morris here gets down to fundamentals that most histories overlook: the dirt and the grass. We learn how significant aspects of the game's evolution can be traced far back to practical decisions made by Irish immigrants Tom and Jack Murphy. These men knew the likes of Connie Mack, Honus Wagner, and Ty Cobb, and their own contributions (which included pitching mounds and spring training camps) were just as influential. Morris's research and insights rescue these pioneer men from obscurity."—Library Journal

“Peter Morris’s short but masterly Level Playing Fields: How the Groundskeeping Murphy Brothers Shaped Baseball looks at the development of professional baseball and, indeed, at Americans’ changing image of their society, from a much-neglected angle, that of the material conditions of play. The careers of Tom and John Murphy were pivotal. . . . This book is packed with insight and telling detail on both baseball and the American temper.”—Katherine A. Powers, Boston Globe

“[A]n absolutely engrossing story. . . . You have to hand it to Morris for making such a prosaic subject come alive into such a fascinating story, but that's exactly what he accomplishes here.”—Dan Danbom, Time Out For Entertainment

“If you’re the kind of guy who watches the Fenway Park grounds crew for lawn mowing tips, here’s your summer reading. Most baseball fans are aware that grounds crews have long impacted the game by tailoring the fields to suit the home team, but this book goes beyond that, into the origins of the baseball diamond and the art of groundskeeping.”—Boston Baseball

“Robert Morris’s fascinating, compact text examines an underappreciated aspect of our national pastime: the playing field. . . . One may not always agree with the author’s assumptions about land use, but his arguments will have you thinking outside the diamond.”—New England Quarterly

“Peter Morris has done a wonderful thing here—baseball history is more than hits, pitches, managers, franchises, and championships. It is supremely a game played on a pristine field, an intricate complex of dirt, grass, and lines, a design of fair and foul zones. . . . Here is a heroic saga of engineering improvisation, a fierce understanding of the earth (the Murphy brothers were Irish potato farmers), and supremely an almost intuitive knack for how baseball more than any other sport save golf represents a cooperation between players and nature.”—Aethlon