Baseball fans will love “Death in the Strike Zone: The Mystery of America’s First Baseball Hero,” the first official biography of James Creighton (1841–1862). Who, readers may ask, is he?
In his new baseball history, Thomas W. Gilbert argues that Creighton threw the first fastball and the first curveball—before they were known as such, helping establish the strike zone. Creighton even appeared on the first baseball card. Dubbed a “phenom,” he’s one of the greatest players, though few today have ever heard of him.
