First Wednesday: Small Town Hardball as Americana: Mill Valley Ball Teams When Baseball Was King

While baseball still regards itself as the National Pastime, football and basketball have provided strong competition for at least 40 years. But especially between the 1890s and 1950s, baseball was king in America. Not merely the most popular sport for both fans and players alike, to most people baseball was America. It represented the nation's values and helped assimilate waves of new immigrants. The baseball craze extended far beyond the professional leagues, down to the local level. Virtually every U.S. town had its own baseball team comprised of adult amateurs. Town rivalries were fierce, ballgames were a major entertainment, and residents flocked to support their local clubs. Mill Valley and other Marin towns were no exception. The history of small-town baseball is a sports story but also a unique glimpse at American culture in days gone by.

Dr. Rob Elias is Emeritus Professor of Politics at the University of San Francisco and the Editor of the Mill Valley Historical Society Review. He’s taught at USF, Cal-Berkeley, McGill, Tufts, Penn State, and U. Maryland. He’s the author/editor of a dozen books, including six baseball books: Baseball & the American Dream, Baseball Rebels, The Empire Strikes Out, Major League Rebels, The Deadly Tools of Ignorance, and the Seymour Medal winning book, Dangerous Danny Gardella. He’s lived in Mill Valley for 35 years.