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A Game of Inches: The Stories Behind the Innovations That Shaped Baseball
(two volumes) (2006, Ivan R. Dee)
As with my first book, the reason I wrote A Game of Inches: The Stories Behind the
Innovations That Shaped Baseball was because I couldn’t find the answers to a
lot of basic questions about baseball. Simple questions like: How did there come
to be four balls and three strikes per at bat? Why are there nine players on a
team? Did base runners always slide? When did teams start to use scouts (and
what did they do before they had scouts)? When did the strike zone originate? When did batters start trying to draw walks? So this book started out as a book
of whens, as I tried to pin down dates of origins of nearly a thousand different
baseball firsts. (Click here to
see the table of contents.) But what made it fascinating to write was that most of the
questions turned out of be whys -- why did a particular item become part of
baseball at a specific point, and (usually) why did others fight like crazy to stop it
from becoming part of the game. And, over and over again, I was delighted and
amazed to realize that one innovation made another necessary. It was a wonderful
book to write and I hope that all the fun I had researching it and writing it is
evident to readers. I have continued to research updates to it and in the
spring of 2010 an updated and revised one-volume paperback version was
published. See the front page of my
website for details.
 AWARDS
A Game Of Inches won two major national awards as the best baseball
book of 2006, Spitball Magazine’s
CASEY Award and
the Seymour Medal.
It was the only book to have received both honors until Larry Tye’s Satchel
did so in 2010.
HOW TO PURCHASE
All of my books can be purchased from the publisher (in this case,
Ivan R. Dee), or from on-line booksellers such as
amazon.com, or from your local bookseller. If they don’t have it in
stock, they’ll be glad to order it for you. A Game Of Inches is a
two-volume book; the white cover is the first volume and the green cover is the
second volume. The first volume covers the innovations that directly
affected play on the field (base-running, fielding, pitching, coaching,
umpiring, etc.), while the second volume is about the no less important
innovations that occurred behind the scenes (everything from trades and
contracts to integration). Due to its length, it is currently only available in hard
cover.
REVIEWS
Reviews of Volume One
“Truly amazing … I’ve no doubt that 2006 will witness the
publication of many fine baseball books. I’ve also no doubt that Peter Morris’s
A Game of Inches is the one that every serious baseball fan must have.” Rob
Neyer, ESPN.com baseball columnist
“Insomuch as I spent part of the idyllic summer of my 14th
year in the library of the Hall of Fame researching the history and origins of
coaches, Peter Morris’s first volume of A Game of Inches has put me right back
in that temple of amazed discovery … an astonishingly well-researched history of
the evolutions of almost every facet of the game … I must have learned at least
100 things I didn’t know about baseball history – and at my age, that’s a lot. I
think I’m going to have to start taking a copy with me to games – that’s how
useful it is.” Keith Olbermann
“Morris’s method works superbly ... Morris’s book is a
solid piece of near exhaustive research into the arcane but crucial aspects of
the history of baseball. It is an important addition to the serious study
of what remains America’s most influential game.” John P. Rossi, LaSalle
University, The Historian
“Morris’s Game of Inches is an attempt to document
innovations in baseball rules and tactics. … Morris’s gloriously elaborate table
of contents enables the reader to find dozens of gems like the extra glove and
the kimono ball. … I haven’t begun even to suggest the richness of A Game of
Inches. There are 500 pages of stories where these few came from. The book
deserves a wide readership and a widely-distributed paperback edition.” Tim
Morris [no relation], Lection
“It’s an everything you ever wanted to know reference
source for anyone who truly loves baseball.” Albany Times Union
“An encyclopedic effort....interesting observations.” John
Monaghan, Providence Journal
“Wonderful baseball anecdotes...a comprehensive volume of
who-did-what-first adding a necessary human dimension to baseball facts and
figures.” Philadelphia City Paper
“Absolutely fantastic.... There is no end to the historical
detail, the delightful anecdotes, and the clear explanations.” Dr. John D.
Eigenauer, Super70s.com Baseball
“Offering fascinating information on every page, this is a
unique resource for baseball historians and serious fans.” Choice
“Morris combines learning, precision, and devotion to
produce this charming book, densely packed yet entirely accessible, tracing the
evolution, through innovation, of almost every conceivable facet of baseball. He
covers ‘The Things We Take for Granted,’ such as the history of catchers
signaling to pitchers, as well as changes in batting and pitching styles,
management, and even the kinds of timeouts we endure from batters and
commercials. This is heaven for fans of the game and a required addition to all
baseball collections.” Library Journal
“Almost as though possessed of an organic life of its own,
in ways large and small, baseball has from its earliest days been changing and
modifying itself. In this splendidly entertaining book Peter Morris shows that
it was by no accident that baseball has become ‘the perfect game.’” Baseball
historian Donald Honig
“the long off-season is just over the hill. During that
five-month lull, baseball becomes a game of statistics and anecdotes. So take my
advice -- if you buy Peter Morris’s book (and you should) -- make sure you buy
up all other copies in the neighborhood. That way, you'll own the off-season.
For A Game of Inches is really an encyclopedia -- don't groan, now -- a
reference source that will tell you the truth about hundreds of accepted facts
concerning America’s pastime.” Steve Goddard’s History Wire
“Fascinating and authoritative ... Morris’s remarkable volume may have set [the] standard for
this season and several to follow.” John Marshall, Seattle Post-Intelligencer
“fascinating … I’d recommend it to anyone interested in
tracing the origins and evolution of baseball … the depth of research is
impressive.” Ross Atkin, Christian Science Monitor
“Favorite Book of 2006 … thoroughly engaging and remarkable
… draws on prodigious research to explain why things are the way they are in the
game (For example, how did the knuckleball get developed? Why does the home team
bat last?). The sequel, which covers off-the-field aspects, came out sooner than
I expected, and I got it for Christmas. I know I’m gonna love this one, too, but
I’m actually trying to delay gratification and save the pleasure as long as I
can. That’s how good the first book was.” Culture Shark website
Reviews of Volume Two
“Morris, author of the informative The Game on the Field,
has now written the no-less-interesting second and concluding volume of his
encyclopedia of baseball … His diverse sources, at times erudite and often
obscure, range from a Winnipeg, Manitoba, paper of a century ago to the
Michigan State News without overlooking feminist revisionist histories of
sport in America. The one unifying thread is the development of baseball as both
a sport and an industry. These are valuable reference books to settle arguments
and further one's knowledge of the ins and outs of the game; they ought to be
found on the shelves of general libraries everywhere.” Library Journal
“A treasure trove of detail....Owners of the other books
must have this, but it stands alone well on its own as a serious baseball fan’s
guide to behind-the-scenes business concerns.” Midwest Book Review
“Essential ... Like its predecessor ... this book offers
meticulously researched material in encyclopedic format.” Choice
“At first I thought this would run a very poor second to
the first volume which, after all, had all the juicy ‘on the field’ stuff. But
there is no shortage of fascinating sections in the second volume: ‘building a
team,’ ‘money,’ ‘inclusion,’ and so on. ‘Inclusion’ highlights major firsts
such as matches between African American clubs (documented as far back as 1859),
the first integrated clubs, African American leagues, managers, and so on.
Morris notes instances of black players passing as white in order to play in
Organized Baseball during the time of the ‘color line,’ and even one instance of
a white player who pitched in the Negro leagues. There’s also a section on
women in baseball, as well as mentions of Native Americans, Japanese, and deaf
major leaguers.” Daniel Gabriel, Elysian Fields Quarterly
“It would be difficult to find a better baseball book this
year than Peter Morris’ first volume of A Game of Inches, volume I: The Game on
the Field. But the second volume of Morris’ work, A Game of Inches, volume II:
The Game Behind the Scenes, comes close. ... Both volumes are monuments of
baseball scholarship and research, representing years of work, meticulous fact
finding, and admirable cooperation with baseball’s scholarly community. I wrote
in my review of Morris’ first volume that I could have concluded the review with
two words: ‘absolutely terrific.’ The second volume deserves equal praise …
Somehow, Morris ties together fireworks shows, scorecards, brooms, fantasy
camps, Astroturf, replays, and pension funds into a broad collection of facts
that reads remarkably like a narrative. The best aspect of this book, in fact,
is the immaculate prose. It is not easy to tell the story of free agency in
three pages, but Morris does it. … Morris repeatedly provides the reader with a
broad range of knowledge in a short space. I have simply never read a more
well-written baseball book.” Dr. John D. Eigenauer, Super70s.com Baseball
Reviews of both volumes as a whole
“The scope of these books evoke the spirit of the
Seymour’s books...comprehensive, well researched, exhaustive.” Seymour Medal
Judging Committee
“Clear some fresh space on your bookshelves. One of the
all-time essential reference works for baseball has...arrived ... if you’re not
yet
convinced you have to have this two-set volume, go to your local bookstore and
start flipping through a copy. Don’t worry; at closing time the proprietor will
remind you that it’s time to leave.” Daniel Gabriel, Elysian Fields Quarterly
“Not only has Morris answered thousands of questions about
the arcane foundations of baseball, he has done it in story form, an
entertaining series of numbered answers-often just a paragraph, sometimes a
couple of pages. … The book’s a hoot. … And, far beyond that, this is an
encyclopedia the way encyclopedias should be written.” Blue Ridge Business
Journal
“Peter Morris has created not only a fantastic reference
resource, but a thoroughly entertaining read as well. I am sure I will reach for
these volumes many many times in the years to come, and I look forward to it.”
CASEY Award Judge Anne Jewell of the Louisville Slugger Museum
“Most spectacular single-season artistic achievement? That
came in 1978, when all four members of Kiss released solo albums on the same
day, to universal critical and commercial acclaim. Second most spectacular
single-season artistic achievement? Why of course that would be 2006, which saw
the publication of Peter Morris’s two-volume opus, ‘A Game of Inches: The
Stories Behind the Innovations That Shaped Baseball.’ With nearly 900 pages,
Morris covers ‘The Game on the Field’ in the first volume and ‘The Game Off the
Field’ in the second.” Rob Neyer, ESPN.com baseball columnist
“Insightful,
informative, thorough, well researched, and extraordinarily well written. Years
from now we will look back and call these two volumes some of the most important
historical baseball scholarship written to date.” Dr. John D. Eigenauer,
Super70s.com Baseball
“Majestic in their detail and exemplary in their dedication to scholarship,
these books will leave the reader...exhilarated.” Choice
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