In October 1888, Albert Goodwill Spalding -- baseball star, sporting-goods magnate, promotional genius -- departed Chicago on a trip that would take him and two baseball teams on a six-month barnstorming journey around the globe. Their mission: to fix the game in the American consciousness as the purest expression of national spirit, and to seed markets for Spalding products. In the process, these early cultural ambassadors played before kings and queens, visited the Coliseum and the Eiffel Tower, and took pot shots with their baseballs at the Great Sphinx in Egypt. Upon their return, they were celebrated as heroes by Mark Twain and Theodore Roosevelt. Chosen as one of the best baseball books of 2006 by ¿Sports Illustrated.¿ Photos.