Peeking through the Knothole Volume 1

Peeking through the Knothole, Volume 1: Essays on Baseball Origins in the West, 1858–1883, features eight essays on the beginnings of baseball competition on the sport’s western frontier. Essays focus on the organization and competition among the first formal clubs in California during the 1850s and those that followed during and after the US Civil War in Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, and Oregon. In addition, the story is told of the initial year of intercity competition among clubs from Kansas and Missouri in 1866, which did not involve a game reportedly umpired by an armed James Butler “Wild Bill” Hickok. Two essays also describe baseball teams composed of soldiers serving in the Seventh US Cavalry and quartermaster units in the West.