Marquard & Seeley: A true story of romance and betrayal, baseball, mascots, misfits, and vaudeville in the years before World War One (Revised ... Baseball's Golden Era - 1903 through 1957) Paperback – May 3, 2021

I found this to be a charming book about two people who in a way personified the American dream. Hynd takes us through the early 20th century and introduces us to the names of big entertainment. In a curious way baseball players also became entertainers on the stage. It was usually vaudeville and famous players of the 1910-1920 ilk often became acts on the vaudeville circuit during the off season. It was there that the two up and coming giants of their field, Richard Lemarquis aka Rube Marquard and Minnie Guyer aka Blossom Seeley became lovers. She became one of the biggest stars of theater, and he eventually became a Hall of Famer.Their marriage didn't last long but they remained friends for life. Their stories and those of that era are told in this short and unique tale of the intertwining of baseball and vaudeville. I think fans of baseball, historians, and entertainment buffs will find this a fun read.

This is "Baseball, Vaudeville, Romance and Scandal in the Ragtime Era" as advertised, but be aware that it's not a steamy novel but a true story, full of researched anecdotes. I'm not sure everyone will love this book as much as I did, but I'm old enough to remember when the New York Giants played in the Polo Grounds, and their arch enemies were the Brooklyn Dodgers (my team), and the Yankees. Although Marquard was playing a generation and a half before my time I still remember the names of a lot of the players talked about (Christy Mathewson, Carl Hubble, etc). And Marquard set a record of 19 wins in a row in one season that hasn't been broken in a hundred years, while Babe Ruth's home run record and all the others are long since gone. In fact, no one has even come close. This was the age of iron men. Rube once pitched a 21 inning victory. Pitched it all himself and didn't skip a rotation afterwards. There's also a lot of description about what vaudeville was like in its heyday. It's a very interesting read. But only if this kind of book is your kind of thing.

Mixed entertainment and sports in a very readable way

The historical portion was interesting I didn't realize baseball had such a different historyGot a bit tired of some of the writing on some folks but for the most partit was a learning experience

Rube Marquard was the MLB lefty pitching star prior to George Herman (Babe) Ruth. I'd never heard of him either, though if you look online you can find reference to him pretty easily. You can also find youtube videos of the heroine Blossom Seeley. It's a dated look & sound, but you can tell that she was very good at delivering it.The scandalous romance part is the icing on the cake, but there is plenty of substance to this.I found this book excellent. It moves forward with the story, though the majority of the text is some sort of historical 'aside.' Try to envision a time with no tv, no cell phones, no internet - newspaper was the only media. The two areas covered are vaudeville (probably the main historical topic) & early baseball - pre Babe Ruth. The writers talent is to interweave story & 'asides' without totally losing your interest.

I am not a big baseball fan but this book held my interest from start to finish. As a history buff I was fascinated by the characters, their actions & the times. The research was impeccable & the writing flowed from start to finish.

Great story, well told. The author does a fantastic job of providing the background story of not just Rube and Seely, but all those that figured predominantly in their remarkable story. Highly recommended!!

The two main characters of the book don't even meet each other until half way through the book. Not to mention, the book read more like a history report on baseball in the early 1900s. This was really hard to finish because it did not peak my interest. It was also quite difficult to read all the baseball statistics without my eyes glazing over. Not at all what I expected.