COMING MARCH 2026

HE WAS BASEBALL’S FIRST STAR. HE INVENTED MODERN PITCHING. HIS PICTURE IS ON THE FIRST BASEBALL CARD. HE INSPIRED A FAMOUS NOVEL. HE DIED AT 21. HE IS THE REASON FOR THE STRIKE ZONE. HIS NAME WAS JAMES CREIGHTON. YOU’VE NEVER HEARD OF HIM. THIS IS HIS FIRST BIOGRAPHY.

"With a zest for bringing 19th-century rogues and rowdies to life that recalls Lucy Sante's Low Life, Thomas Gilbert's Death in the Strike Zone grapples with the paradox that was James Creighton, at once baseball's first star and yet practically a cipher thanks to his premature death. Gilbert expertly unravels the mysteries around Creighton — where he came from, how he dominated hitters and set amateur baseball on a course towards professionalization, how he met such a tragic end — fleshing out our knowledge of an important, and underappreciated figure in the development of the national pastime." — Jay Jaffe, Senior Writer, FanGraphs

 “Tom Gilbert has invented a brilliant new kind of baseball book, a mystery biography that’s a history of an incandescent American folk hero, a masterful study of the physics of pitching, and a survey of the wild, weird 19th century. Because Gilbert is an expert on still-relevant topics like gambling, pitching mechanics, and baseball economics, Death is the Strike Zone is endlessly enlightening. Creighton died young, but I’ve never read anything about 19th century baseball that’s so alive.” - John W. Miller, author of NYT Bestseller The Last Manager: How Earl Weaver Tricked, Tormented, and Reinvented Baseball.  

“Jim Creighton was baseball’s first hero, changing the nature of the game even more than Babe Ruth. Tom Gilbert's eye-opening biography celebrates the pitcher's exceedingly brief life and unveils long-held mysteries.”
—John Thorn, Official Historian, Major League Baseball