Everyone knows the Cardinals, many know the St. Louis Browns, but who’s heard of the St. Louis Terriers? This team was one of four in the Federal League, a brief (1913–1915) challenger to the American and National Leagues. And what about Helene Britton, the first woman to own a major league baseball team (the Cardinals, 1911–1917)? Who knows the St. Louis Trolley League, perhaps the best semi-pro baseball organization—and major feeder system to the pros—in the United States until World War I? Or “Cool Papa” Bell, the 1920s star of the St. Louis Stars, the local Negro National League ball club? These fascinating tidbits of baseball history are among the many treasures in this spiffy little book. We watch baseball turn from a pretty rough-and-tumble profession into the more straitlaced and organized game it is today.

Perhaps the man most responsible for this is the book’s star, Branch Rickey. He played for the Browns, managed both the Browns and the Cardinals, and became the Cardinals’ president in 1917, and later general manager, until his shift to the Brooklyn Dodgers. His greatest contribution was the invention of the farm team system, which gave purpose to the minor leagues, provided a steady stream of talent, and placed the game on a far more professional footing.

Mostly, this is a book of remarkable photographs of largely forgotten men, players who captivated fans for a few seasons and then disappeared from memory. Steve Steinberg’s genius is to re-light sunny summer afternoons on long-forgotten ball fields and bring these men back to life.