J. Brian Ross earned a B.A. and an M.A. in history from the University of Michigan, and a Ph.D. from Case Western Reserve University. Born in Boston, Ross frequented Fenway Park, where he gained a lifelong devotion to Boston baseball. He acquired a passion for the 1880–1914 time period, the background years for the “Miracle Braves,” when writing the “The New Philanthropy,” a case study that looks at the politics of charity during the first two decades of the twentieth century. Ross has served as history teacher and department chair at Hawken School and Hathaway Brown School in northeast Ohio, as well as Collegiate School in Richmond, Virginia. He has researched baseball history since 1997, when, at Hathaway Brown School, in Shaker Heights, Ohio, he organized a history conference celebrating the 50th anniversary of Jackie Robinson’s breaking the color barrier of the major leagues.