REVIEWS

“Martin offers a well-researched and lively account, rich with fascinating characters and sparkling anecdotes. He skillfully explores an important era in Canada’s development when it banned slavery, offered sanctuary to those escaping it, played significant roles in the Civil War that was fought to end it, and later provided asylum to Confederates who had battled to keep it.” — John Boyko, author of Blood and Daring: How Canada Fought the American Civil War and Forged a Nation

“This book will make armchair historians head for the easy chair tonight. From Underground Railroad to Rebel Refuge will introduce you to a new set of heroes and villains. And if your goal is to learn more about American history, this book about Canada will get you right on track.” — The Miami Times

“This should be obligatory reading for serious Civil War, Canadian and international history buffs.” — The Passionate Reader blog

“Several good books have been written about Canadians in the Civil War. But the story of how Canada was a Confederate base and refuge during and after the Civil War was a black hole. Not anymore.” — Mark Bourrie, award-winning author of Bush Runner: The Adventures of Pierre-Esprit Radisson

“Martin’s book is fast-paced, informative, jaw-dropping and revelatory. It’s a non-fiction volume that reads at times like a thriller, with each chapter leaving you waiting for the surprises to come in the next.” — The Niagara-on-the-Lake Local

“entertaining…fascinating accounts…recommended”—Library Journal

“one of the best and most important Canadian baseball books ever written”—Kevin Glew, blogger for Cooperstowners in Canada

“meticulously researched”—Roundup Magazine

“award-winning journalist, Chip Martin has hit another home run with [this] latest book…ground-breaking…exhaustive research…well researched tome will ruffle feathers…an academic work that will intrigue baseball historians”—Toronto Sun

“an academic work that will intrigue baseball historians”—The London Free Press

“fascinating…Martin digs where no other baseball researcher has dug before to present the first detailed accounts of the lives of two complex men with links to the origins of baseball. In doing so, he has not only penned a compelling and groundbreaking page-turner, but he has written a book that should rank as one of the best and most important Canadian and American baseball history books ever released”—Canadian Baseball Network

“Baseball’s Creation Myth presents new evidence for the continuing debates on baseball’s origins. It is must reading for all baseball fans.”—Robert Knight Barney, former president of the North American Society for Sport History

“Engrossing and meticulously researched…. Martin has crafted another must-read for Canadian baseball and sports fans.”—Kevin Glew for the Canadian Baseball Network;

“There’s no denying [Martin’s] double play prowess consisting of deft research and writing skills, twinned with a strong knowledge of and passion for the diamond game…. The Tecumsehs of the International Association: Canada’s First Major League Baseball Champions is a winner”—Jeffrey Reed, London Ontario Sports.com;

“Brian Martin makes a convincing case that the Tecumsehs of London have been unfairly neglected and that they deserve to be recognized, not just as a pioneer Canadian club, but as one of the champion clubs of the early years of baseball.”—Peter Morris, author of A Game of Inches.

Finalist, Larry Ritter Book Award—SABR

“In recent years there has been a welcome interest in the history of the business of baseball and those who have made significant contributions to the growth and development of the game…. These studies have tended to focus on the post-World War II period and generally neglect earlier eras. Brian Martin has made a major contribution to narrowing this gap with the first full length biography of Barney Dreyfuss, the Pittsburgh owner who helped transform the Pirates…. The reviewer recommends it highly.”—SABR Deadball Era Committee Newsletter

• “A much-needed biography of the Hall of Fame pioneer, Pittsburgh Pirates owner and National League official and baseball magnate.”—The Inside Game

“What an absolute pleasure. It was delightful the way Brian Martin presented the life of Barney Dreyfuss, his Pittsburgh Pirates at the beginning of the 20th century, and his early organized baseball exploits so exactly and meticulously.”—Len Martin, creator, Forbes Field: Build-It-Yourself

“A needed contribution to baseball history….[T]he author makes a strong case for Dreyfuss as a powerful owner and a worthy Hall of Famer.”—Gabriel Schechter, author, Spanking the Yankees: 365 Days of Bronx Bummers

“An enjoyable and easily read book which adds surprising new detail to a story we thought we already knew well.”—SABR Deadball Era Committee Newsletter

“Martin’s wonderful book has brought an important story to the surface. We may not know where Babe Ruth’s baseballs are in Lake Ontario, but we know a great deal more about the unlikely Canadian hero who helped him become one of the greatest players the game has ever seen.”—Literary Review of Canada

“In Martin’s page-turner, we learn that not only did the hulking 6-foot-6 prefect of discipline and director of all physical activity at St. Mary’s Industrial Training School in Baltimore help shape Ruth mentally–instilling in him much-needed values and beliefs–but he was also responsible for introducing The Babe to baseball and for influencing Ruth’s home run swing…. This is another outstanding effort by Martin, who’s already one of Canada’s top baseball writers and historians.”—Kevin Glew, Coopertowners in Canada blog

“While the rags-to-riches story of Babe Ruth has been told in scores of books, this is the first to uncover the compelling story of the father figure in his life–Brother Matthias, C.F.X. The author’s meticulous and thorough research of the Xaverian Brothers, St. Mary’s Industrial School and Brother Matthias is apparent on every page.”—Harry Rothgerber, editor, Young Babe Ruth: His Early Life and Baseball Career, from the Memoirs of a Xaverian Brother