I’m pleased to share that The Gilt Edge of Ambition is featured in the July 2026 issue of Potpourri, the newsletter of the Pacific Coast League Historical Society.
The issue celebrates the Society’s 40th year of preserving and promoting the history of West Coast baseball and highlights several new books contributing to that history. PCL Summer newsletter
Among its new book releases, the newsletter features The Gilt Edge of Ambition alongside Carlos Bauer’s newly expanded Pacific Coast League Record, 1897–1968. PCL Summer newsletter
PCL Historical Society director Mark Macrae describes the book:
“The story of Sacramento baseball pioneer Ed Kripp, written by Lisa Jonsson. Kripp founded the GILT EDGE Baseball Club in the California League and later financed the building of Buffalo Park in Sacramento. The book is authored by Kripp’s great-great granddaughter, and reveals much of the background of this Sacramento legend.” PCL Summer newsletter
It is particularly meaningful to see Kripp recognized in a publication devoted to Pacific Coast League history. His baseball career began before the PCL existed, during an era when professional baseball in California was still struggling to establish lasting leagues and clubs. As manager and financial backer of Sacramento’s Gilt Edge team, Kripp helped build one of the most successful clubs of the period. His involvement in Sacramento baseball continued into the PCL era and included financing Buffalo Park, which became the city’s professional baseball home in 1910.
That larger story—how baseball developed in Sacramento and on the Pacific Coast, and the promoters, players, gamblers, businessmen and fans who helped build it—is at the heart of The Gilt Edge of Ambition.
The Pacific Coast League Historical Society has spent four decades helping preserve that history. Its newsletter has brought together the work of baseball historians and researchers as well as the memories of former players and their families. PCL Summer newsletter
I’m honored to have Ed Kripp and The Gilt Edge of Ambition included in that tradition.
