Award-winning author Richard Michelson chronicles the meteoric rise of one of baseball's earliest (and unsung) champions, Lipman Pike.

In the mid 1800s the sport of baseball was working its way across the United States. Amateur teams were springing up and in 1858 the National Association of Base Ball Players was formed. Young men were eager to show their prowess on the field and in the batter's box playing the game of "Base."

Lipman Pike's father, a Dutch immigrant, runs a small haberdashery in Brooklyn, New York, where Lip works behind the counter. But Lip is more interested in watching the ball players, even though his mother believes that Jewish boys should be "exercising their minds" instead of chasing a ball. But when Lip is barely a teenager, he's invited to join the Nationals Junior Club and play first base. When he hits his first pitch over the right fielder's head, Lip knows baseball is the sport for him.

Click below to hear interviews with the author:

http://www.ronkaplansbaseballbookshelf.com/?powerpress_pinw=10561-podcast

http://richardmichelson.com/C_Lipman-Pike.html