The nineteenth century was a time of rapid growth and development for the game of &ldquo;base ball,&rdquo; and players George Wright and Albert Spalding were right in the thick of it. These two young men, the first superstars of the professional game, won the hearts of a country in search of a unifying spirit after a devastating civil war. Today&rsquo;s guest is Jeff Orens, author of Selling Baseball: How Superstars George Wright and Albert Spalding Impacted Sports in America. While these two men came from starkly different backgrounds&mdash;Albert was a young, gangly pitcher from the country&rsquo;s rural heartland and George the consummate athlete from the New York City area&mdash;their captivating performances on the field, along with their promotion of the game and of sports equipment, fed the public&rsquo;s insatiable appetite for leisure-time pursuits and helped grow professional baseball to unprecedented heights. George Wright and Albert Spalding&rsquo;s stories are woven together to paint a sweeping picture of the early days of professional baseball, the evolution of sports as a business, and the advancement of sports equipment and the sporting goods industry. Their rise as players and businessmen mirrored the rise of a nation that would lead the world in the coming century.See <a href="https://omnystudio.com/listener">omnystudio.com/listener</a> for privacy information.

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