“Steve Dunn has presented a very detailed accounting of that long baseball history in this book. The history of professional baseball [in Des Moines] includes a long list of Hall of Famers who have played in Des Moines. It includes Des Moines’ role in Negro League Baseball. Also, this book chronicles all the different locations of stadiums throughout the Des Moines area as well lists all the different teams that have been based in Des Moines. I think you will be very surprised to learn about all the significant professional baseball events that have occurred in central Iowa. Steve gives a great accounting of all things professional baseball In Des Moines.”

“In the magnificent microcosm of Iowa’s capital city baseball, Steve Dunn captures the full-bodied color, quirkiness, and irresistibility of 116 years of hard ball history.”

If you embrace history and you adore baseball, ‘Pug,’ ‘Fireball,’ and Company: 116 Years of Professional Baseball in Des Moines, Iowa is a must-read.  Steve Dunn has accomplished what few authors have.  He has written a comprehensive, in-depth history of Des Moines, Iowa, baseball from its infancy in 1887 to its current team, the Iowa Cubs…

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“Dunn knocks it out of the park with this one.”The magazine is available at Beaverdale Books in Des Moines, every Barnes & Noble in Iowa, on newsstands or in the pockets of checkout aisles of most Hy-Vee Food Stores, and select Walmart, Mills Fleet Farm, and Hy-Vee Drug Stores.

I was happy to see the space you gave to Gene Baker. Des Moines baseball has never accorded him the attention he deserves. Also, I was surprised at the number of Negro League teams that played in Des Moines over the years. I suspect J.L. Wilkinson’s connection with the city boosted those numbers some.

With skillful storytelling, Steve Dunn takes readers on a time-traveling journey through Des Moines’ decorated history of professional baseball. This thoroughly researched book details the legends and lore from the 1880s’ Des Moines Hawkeyes and Prohibitionists to today’s Iowa Cubs.

I especially enjoyed learning about the Negro Leagues and exhibition games here, featuring the likes of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig…Bob Feller, Satchel Paige and Buck O’Neil…Ernie Banks and Minnie Minoso…Roger Maris and Orlando Cepeda…Ryne Sandberg and Sammy Sosa…and on and on…

What a fun book – a great companion to Dunn’s “Principal Park: A Diamond in the Rough.”.

Book Name: The Annals of Iowa
Book Reference: Volume 83, Number 4
Fall 2024.

“Dunn illustrates how society’s treatment of and fan expectations from the game of baseball have changed over time and how those changes have influenced how, when, where, and by whom the game of baseball has been played in Des Moines and throughout the world since 1887.”

Book Name: The Annals of Iowa
Book Reference: Volume 83, Number 4
Fall 2024.

“He highlights some of the many Black ballplayers and teams that played in Des Moines decades before Jackie Robinson integrated Major League Baseball. In doing so, he specifically identifies those Black ballplayers as professionals contributing to their legacy as players, enhancing our memory of them, and increasing our understanding of the roles that race played in the Midwest.”