Join Bricker-Price Block on April 16, 2027 for “From Winterset to the World Series: Iowa’s Hidden Role in Creating Modern Baseball,” a Speakers Bureau presentation by Tim Zarley.

Most people assume baseball’s greatest stories happened in New York, Chicago, or Boston. Few realize how many of them ran through Iowa. In this presentation, baseball historian and author Timothy Zarley reveals the remarkable Iowans who stood at the center of the most turbulent and transformative period in baseball history — the battle between the National and American Leagues that created the game we know today.

From Fred Clarke of Winterset, who managed the Pittsburgh Pirates to three consecutive pennants while doubters said he was too obtuse to win, to the Robison brothers of Dubuque who controlled one of the National League’s most powerful franchises, to an Iowa Senator from Davenport who introduced a bill to hang anyone caught playing baseball on Sunday — Iowa’s fingerprints are all over the early game. Drawing on primary source research from period newspapers and his award-nominated Baseball War Series, Zarley brings these forgotten figures back to life and connects their stories to the birth of modern baseball.