Orator O'Rourke: The Life of a Baseball Radical
The work chronicles the evolution of the national pastime and American society during their formative years. As a player, manager, umpire, owner, and league president, Jim O'Rourke (1850-1919) spoke out for fair play on and off the field. His driving motivation was to enjoy the personal dignity he thought everyone deserved. But this human condition would not surrender to him easily. O'Rourke struggled against prejudice toward his Irish heritage in order to win acceptance into the baseball clubs of the 1860s. (They once really were clubs.) Then, when players began to be paid, he would defend his new profession against a disdainful attitude toward people who labored for their living.
Over the years, as his renown grew (he played on nine pennant-winning teams) his demands became bolder. There even was a moment when he and other future Hall-of-Famers formed a secret society to turn the power structure of America inside out, merging the labor and capital classes into one amalgam of equals in the now forgotten Baseball War.
