America's National Game is a book by Albert Spalding

Albert Spalding

Albert Goodwill Spalding was a professional baseball player, manager and co-founder of A.G. Spalding sporting goods company.-Biography:...

, published in 1911

1911 in literature

The year 1911 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*George Moore publishes the first of his three-volume Hail and Farewell .*Gallimard publishing house founded in Paris by Gaston Gallimard...

 detailing the early history of the sport of baseball

Baseball

Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...

. Much of the story is told first-hand, since Spalding had been involved in the game, first as a player and later an administrator, since the 1850s. In addition to his personal recollections, he had access to the records of Henry Chadwick, the game's first statistician

Baseball statistics

Statistics play an important role in summarizing baseball performance and evaluating players in the sport.Since the flow of a baseball game has natural breaks to it, and normally players act individually rather than performing in clusters, the sport lends itself to easy record-keeping and statistics...

and archivist. Spalding was, however, known to aggrandise his role in the major moments in baseball's history.