When Towns Had Teams
By Jim Baumer

Synopsis: 

It has been said that baseball is America’s pastime. Whether that is still true is a matter of debate. Yet half a century ago, there was no doubt which sport captured the imaginations of most Americans. While the professional game has always had passionate fans, in Maine, even amateur baseball was followed with an interest and fervor that many today would find hard to believe. 

When Towns Had Teams, the award-winning first release by RiverVision Press, takes readers back to a time when semi-pro and town team baseball was king, particularly in rural states like Maine. Capturing the first-hand accounts of many of the players who made this era unique, When Towns Had Teams is must reading for anyone who loves Maine, baseball, and the heritage of this truly special time from our past. 

Readers will learn: 

Who is the only Maine baseball team to ever travel to the National Baseball Congress World Series in Battle Creek, Michigan and win three games? 

What Maine pitcher won 232 games over his lengthy town team and semi-pro baseball career? 

Which northern Maine town was known for its barnstorming town baseball team, often playing 60 to 70 games per summer?

What town team ball club was known as the town team era’s version of the “gas house gang”? 

Learn these bits of trivia and many others when you read Jim Baumer’s book, When Towns Had Teams.

"The interviews that Baumer did conduct accurately portray how it was on most small-town baseball diamonds of yore."

-Kent Ward, Bangor Daily News

"Baumer knows his subject and his story reminds us why for so long baseball was considered America’s national pastime."

-Harry Gratwick, The Working Waterfront

"Baumer goes beyond the box scores…covering the exploits of some of the most colorful men in the game…"

-Randy Whitehouse, Lewiston Sun Journal