Baseball's early labor wars America's national pastime has been marked from its inception by bitter struggles between owners and players over profit, power, and prestige. In this labor history of baseball from its beginning to 1920, Robert Burk describes the evolution of the ballplaying world force and recounts its battles for a place in baseballs decision-making structure. Tracing the development of franchise competition, rival leagues, and trade wars - and the boom-and-bust cycles, franchise bankruptcies, and Jeague mergers they triggered in turn - he explores the off-field acrimony that characterized the sport's labor-management relations.