MUNCIE, Ind. - A strike by major league baseball players may be looming, but conflict between players and team owners is as old as the game, a Ball State University educator says.

It's revealed in the literature studied by assistant professor of English Trey Strecker, whose upcoming book probes baseball fiction from after the Civil War to the rise of Babe Ruth in the 1920s.

"You need to understand the history of baseball's labor problems and how the owners treated the players before to have a sense of the dimensions of the current impasse," Strecker said. "There's a lot of history on both sides whether the players and owners today realize it or not."

Strecker's book, "In Fast Company: An Anthology of Early Baseball Fiction" will be published next spring by the Southern Illinois University Press.

In researching the book, Strecker found stories indicating that fan resentment of professional athletes may date as far back as the founding of the first pro team, the Cincinnati Redlegs, in 1869.

"Fans felt teams were supposed to represent the people in their town," he said. "Professional ballplayers were seen as a bit rough and more likely to carouse. People questioned why these imported players were taking money to play a game when they could be working at respectable jobs."

Strecker shared his research with students in an Honors College colloquium called "The American Game in American Literature."

"One of the things that surprised the students was that labor troubles have been going on since the beginning," he said.  "In the early days of the National League, players often jumped from team to team depending on whomever offered the most money. Rival leagues would compete to steal each other's best players. To end this practice of 'revolving,' the owners endorsed the reserve clause, which contractually bound a player to one team for life."

Strecker began researching baseball history as a respite after completing his dissertation. He discovered that magazines at the turn of the century were filled with baseball fiction that had never been reprinted.

"Critics assert that baseball fiction began with Ring Lardner," Strecker said. "The short stories of Charles Van Loan or Hugh Fullerton stand alone in their literary quality and as a reflection of the culture of the time."

Common themes in the early literature included youth and old age. There's the disrespectful rookie getting his comeuppance from the veterans as well as the aging star trying to hang on for one more year despite injuries.

There was also talk of gambling in the early stories, Strecker said, as well as friction between small towns and big cities and between German and Irish ballplayers.

Strecker is also a player - 1880s style-as a member of the White River Base Ball Club at Conner Prairie in Noblesville, Ind. The team plays by 1886s rules: no gloves and with overhand pitching.

(Note to Editors: For more information about this story, contact Trey Strecker at (765) 285-8477 or tstrecke@bsu.edu.)