bookstores

In the closing years of the nineteenth century, Sacramento was a city of gaslight and grit—its streets lined with gambling halls, saloons, and restless ambition. At the center stood Ed Kripp: gambler, promoter, and architect of one of California’s earliest baseball dynasties. The Gilt Edge of Ambition traces Kripp’s rise as he led his Sacramento club to an unprecedented run of pennants and built Buffalo Park, navigating a world where deals were struck in back rooms and fortunes turned overnight. Baseball, in this moment, was not yet a settled institution—it was spectacle, business, and risk all at once. As the twentieth century approached, Sacramento—and the game itself—began to change. Informal power gave way to structure, and the chaotic world that had made Kripp possible slowly receded.

“Jonsson transforms exhaustive research into a narrative that begs for Hollywood script treatments… Before Jonsson began to dig and write, they all missed the goldmine left behind by Ed Kripp.”
— R. E. Graswich, veteran columnist, Sacramento Bee; and author of Vagrant Kings

“Long before today’s independent clubs like the Oakland Ballers were reimagining what baseball could be, pioneers like Ed Kripp were building the game on the West Coast through sheer ambition and grit. The Gilt Edge of Ambition captures the entrepreneurial spirit that built West Coast baseball—and still drives the game forward today.”
— Mark Kahn, Co-founder, Oakland Ballers