If Cap Anson was baseball's first star, King Kelly was the first player whose celebrity extended beyond the diamond. The dashing mustachioed Kelly was a favorite of newspapermen, who lionized him as "King of the Diamond" and "The $10,000 Beauty"; of fans, who celebrated his daring in song ("Slide, Kelly, Slide") and his grace in poetry ("Beautiful Mike"); and certainly of the baseball establishment, which was willing to pay outrageous sums for his services. Off the field, he pursued an interest in acting, and played parts in a number of theatrical productions. And in 1888, reacting to what he described as the bookishness of his new baseball home in Boston, Kelly even tried his hand at writing.

Play Ball: Stories from the Diamond Field was the first-ever memoir by a player. One of the most popular baseball titles of all time, Play Ball is a casual, often humorous stroll through Kelly's ball-playing past, with chapters on the teams he played for, the men he played alongside, his relationships with baseball figures such as Anson and Albert Spalding, his early involvement with John Ward's Brotherhood, his legendary contract with the Beaneaters, and his barnstorming adventures in the South and West.