The First Fall Classic

“You couldn’t make this stuff up if you tried. It was that kind of World Series, and its story is very well told.”
—Boston Globe

“A smart, lively account of the series that goes beyond the games themselves.”
—The Washington Post

“A gripping drama, especially during the final game, which makes the reader want to flip ahead just to end the suspense and see who won.”
—New York Post

“Persuasive. . . . Vaccaro’s mastery of the facts allows him to evoke a bygone world.” —The Wall Street Journal

“A marvelous book. . . . In recapturing this bygone era, Vaccaro shows us a baseball world in which gamblers were as ubiquitous as ‘at-bat introduction songs’ are today.”
—Newsday
 
“It’s no small feat to re-create a sports event when all the participants and observers are no longer with it. But Vaccaro pulled it off. . . . It was a different time, one that Vaccaro does a splendid job of bringing to life. This book is a treasure for any baseball fan.”
—Buffalo News
 
“Nearly a century later, Mike Vaccaro has brilliantly portrayed a pivotal period in baseball history and how the game reflected the times in American Society in The First Fall Classic. Readers will thoroughly enjoy this fascinating look at the 1912 World Series and baseball’s transformation into our national pastime. I enjoyed the book so much I didn’t want it to end.”
—Baseball Commissioner Allan H. (Bud) Selig
 
“A truly compelling read.”
—New York Daily News
 
“Whether the 1912 World Series was the best of all time is debatable, though, as Vaccaro writes, a case can surely be made that it is. But its importance and excitement cannot be denied. The personalities and style of the game may have changed, but few events can rivet the sporting world like a back-and-forth World Series.”
—MLB.com
 
“Highly recommended. . . . As always, Vaccaro has exhaustively researched his subjects. . . . The book is the third for [him], and it meets the high standards of his first two excellent books.”
—Lowell Sun (Massachusetts)
 
“Informative yet entertaining, Vaccaro’s extraordinary baseball chronicle renders the early days of our national pastime in all its grit and glory.”
—Publishers Weekly