author
John Montgomery Ward
1860–1925
A star of 19th-century baseball who also wrote about the game and fought for players’ rights, he brought an unusually sharp, thoughtful voice to sports writing. His life ranged from the pitcher’s mound to the courtroom, giving his work a rare mix of firsthand experience and big-picture insight.
1 Audiobook
Base-ball : How to become a player, with the origin, history and explanation of the game
by John Montgomery Ward
About the author
Born in Pennsylvania in 1860, John Montgomery Ward—often known as Monte Ward—became one of baseball’s most remarkable early figures. He played in the major leagues as both a pitcher and an infielder, managed teams, studied law, and became a leading spokesman for professional players.
Beyond the field, he is remembered as an author and organizer. Ward helped form the first professional baseball players’ union and played a central role in the short-lived Players’ League, reflecting how seriously he took questions of fairness and independence in the sport. That same intelligence and conviction shaped his writing, which grew out of deep firsthand knowledge of baseball at a formative moment in its history.
He died in 1925, but his reputation has lasted well beyond his playing days. For readers interested in classic sports writing, Ward stands out not just as a famous athlete, but as an early baseball thinker whose words came from lived experience at the center of the game.