{"product_id":"a-g-spalding-and-the-rise-of-baseball","title":"A. G. Spalding and the Rise of Baseball","description":"\u003cp\u003eA. G. Spalding was a key figure in the professionalization and commercialization of American sports.  Co-founder of baseball's National League, owner of the Chicago White Stockings (later Cubs), and founder of a sporting goods business that made him a millionaire, Spalding not only willed baseball to be our national pastime but also contributed to making sport a significant part of American life.     This biography captures the zest, flamboyance, and\n\u003cbr\u003ecreativity of Albert Goodwell Spalding, a man of insatiable ego, a showman and entrepreneur, whose life illuminated the hopes and fears of 19th-century Americans.  It is also a vivid evocation of the\n\u003cbr\u003evanished world of 19th-century baseball, recreating a time when it was transformed from a game played on unkempt fields to modern style.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Oxford University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46059346526446,"sku":"9780195042207","price":73.29,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/bookland.com.au\/products\/a-g-spalding-and-the-rise-of-baseball","provider":"Book Land AU","version":"1.0","type":"link"}