American Baseball. Vol. 2: From the Commissioners to Continental Expansion
American Baseball. Vol. 2: From the Commissioners to Continental Expansion

Author:

Publisher: Penn State Press

Published: 1983

Total Pages: 377

ISBN-13: 0271044772

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"How did "America's National Game" evolve from a gentlemen's pastime in the 1850s to a national obsession in the Roaring Twenties? What really happened at Cooperstown in 1839, and why does the "Doubleday legend" persist? How did the commissioner system develop, and what was the impact of the "Black Sox" scandal? These questions and many others are answered in this book, with colorful details about early big league stars such as Mike "King" Kelly and pious Billy Sunday, Charles Comiskey and Ty Cobb, Napoleon Lajoie and "Cy" (Cyclone) Young. The author explores historically the four major periods of transformation of the game: the Gentlemen's Era, the Golden Age, the Feudal Age, and the incipient Silver Age. Attention is given to the changing face of the major league spectacle, the evolving style of the game, and the changing interests of players, fans, and owners, along with influential innovators and their innovations. There are a number of surprises in the book. For instance, several black players made the big leagues in the 1880s, only to be driven out by a rising tide of Jim Crowism. For three generations black players were to be confined to their own clubs and leagues. American baseball history reflects the nation's economic and social history, as author Voigt graphically demonstrates. On the fans' side, mass attendance at ball games reflects the rise of cities and the dilution of a work ethic with pursuit of leisure; on the owners' and players' side, organized baseball reflects the developing tension between big business and skilled employees. The result--despite ups and downs--is a typical American success story." --

Home Team
Home Team

Author: Michael N. Danielson

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2021-06-08

Total Pages: 419

ISBN-13: 0691231125

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Most books that study professional sports concentrate on teams and leagues. In contrast, Home Team studies the connections between professional team sports in North America and the places where teams play. It examines the relationships between the four major professional team sports--baseball, basketball, football, and hockey--and the cities that attach their names, their hearts, and their increasing amount of tax dollars to big league teams. From the names on their uniforms to the loyalties of their fans, teams are tied to the places in which they play. Nonetheless, teams, like other urban businesses, are affected by changes in their environments--like the flight of their customers to suburbs and changes in local political climates. In Home Team, professional sports are scrutinized in the larger context of the metropolitan areas that surround and support them. Michael Danielson is particularly interested in the political aspects of the connections between professional sports teams and cities. He points out that local and state governments are now major players in the competition for franchises, providing increasingly lavish publicly funded facilities for what are, in fact, private business ventures. As a result, professional sports enterprises, which have insisted that private leagues rather than public laws be the proper means of regulating games, have become powerful political players, seeking additional benefits from government, often playing off one city against another. The wide variety of governmental responses reflects the enormous diversity of urban and state politics in the United States and in the Canadian cities and provinces that host professional teams. Home Team collects a vast amount of data, much of it difficult to find elsewhere, including information on the relocation of franchises, expansion teams, new leagues, stadium development, and the political influence of the rich cast of characters involved in the ongoing contests over where teams will play and who will pay. Everyone who is interested in the present condition and future prospects of professional sports will be captivated by this informative and provocative new book.

Sports in America from Colonial Times to the Twenty-First Century: An Encyclopedia
Sports in America from Colonial Times to the Twenty-First Century: An Encyclopedia

Author: Steven A. Riess

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2015-03-26

Total Pages: 1204

ISBN-13: 1317459474

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A unique new reference work, this encyclopedia presents a social, cultural, and economic history of American sports from hunting, bowling, and skating in the sixteenth century to televised professional sports and the X Games today. Nearly 400 articles examine historical and cultural aspects of leagues, teams, institutions, major competitions, the media and other related industries, as well as legal and social issues, economic factors, ethnic and racial participation, and the growth of institutions and venues. Also included are biographical entries on notable individuals—not just outstanding athletes, but owners and promoters, journalists and broadcasters, and innovators of other kinds—along with in-depth entries on the history of major and minor sports from air racing and archery to wrestling and yachting. A detailed chronology, master bibliography, and directory of institutions, organizations, and governing bodies—plus more than 100 vintage and contemporary photographs—round out the coverage.

A Companion to American Sport History
A Companion to American Sport History

Author: Steven A. Riess

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2014-03-26

Total Pages: 921

ISBN-13: 1118609409

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A Companion to American Sport History presents a collection of original essays that represent the first comprehensive analysis of scholarship relating to the growing field of American sport history. Presents the first complete analysis of the scholarship relating to the academic history of American sport Features contributions from many of the finest scholars working in the field of American sport history Includes coverage of the chronology of sports from colonial times to the present day, including major sports such as baseball, football, basketball, boxing, golf, motor racing, tennis, and track and field Addresses the relationship of sports to urbanization, technology, gender, race, social class, and genres such as sports biography Awarded 2015 Best Anthology from the North American Society for Sport History (NASSH)

The Origins and History of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League
The Origins and History of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League

Author: Merrie A. Fidler

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2015-05-07

Total Pages: 401

ISBN-13: 1476604282

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This in-depth treatment of the organization and operation of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League draws on primary documents from league owner Arthur Meyerhoff and others for a unique perspective inside the AAGPBL. The study begins with a brief history of women's softball, an important precursor to, and talent pool for, women's professional baseball. Next the book investigates league administration and organization as well as publicity and promotion. Later chapters cover team administrative structures, managers, chaperones, player backgrounds, and league policies. Finally, discussion focuses on the activities of the AAGPBL Players' Association from 1980 onward. Informed by many years of research and insights from former players, this exhaustive history contains 149 photographs.

Building the South Side
Building the South Side

Author: Robin F. Bachin

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2020-05-06

Total Pages: 445

ISBN-13: 022677211X

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Building the South Side explores the struggle for influence that dominated the planning and development of Chicago's South Side during the Progressive Era. Robin F. Bachin examines the early days of the University of Chicago, Chicago’s public parks, Comiskey Park, and the Black Belt to consider how community leaders looked to the physical design of the city to shape its culture and promote civic interaction. Bachin highlights how the creation of a local terrain of civic culture was a contested process, with the battle for cultural authority transforming urban politics and blurring the line between private and public space. In the process, universities, parks and playgrounds, and commercial entertainment districts emerged as alternative arenas of civic engagement. “Bachin incisively charts the development of key urban institutions and landscapes that helped constitute the messy vitality of Chicago’s late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century public realm.”—Daniel Bluestone, Journal of American History "This is an ambitious book filled with important insights about issues of public space and its use by urban residents. . . . It is thoughtful, very well written, and should be read and appreciated by anyone interested in Chicago or cities generally. It is also a gentle reminder that people are as important as structures and spaces in trying to understand urban development." —Maureen A. Flanagan, American Historical Review

The Human Tradition in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era
The Human Tradition in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era

Author: Ballard C. Campbell

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Published: 1999-12-01

Total Pages: 260

ISBN-13: 1461710863

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The period between 1870 and 1920 was one of the most dynamic in American history. This era witnessed the invention of the automobile, the establishment of women's suffrage, and the opening of the Panama Canal. While a time of great advancement, the Gilded Age and Progressive Era were also periods of uncertainty as Americans coped with corrupt politicians, unchecked big business, and a vast influx of immigrants. SR Books offers a new approach to this time period in its book The Human Tradition in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. This volume looks at the experiences of 13 people who contributed to the shaping of American culture and thought during this period. These concise accounts are written by leading historians and give students an intimate view of history. This is an excellent text for courses in American studies.

Game Faces
Game Faces

Author: Peter Devereaux

Publisher: Smithsonian Institution

Published: 2018-10-23

Total Pages: 169

ISBN-13: 158834634X

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A charming gift book showcasing baseball cards from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries alongside photos from the early days of the nation's beloved pastime Game Faces showcases rare and colorful baseball cards from the Library of Congress's Benjamin K. Edwards Collection, bringing to life an era of American history that saw the game explode in popularity. Marrying gems from the collection's 2,100 baseball cards to images of American life from 1887 to 1914, the book also offers engaging insights into the players and the game, giving readers an intimate view of both baseball's development and American culture at the turn of the twentieth century. The book highlights cards depicting many of the game's first stars--including Ty Cobb, Cy Young, and Christy Mathewson--as well as less widely known figures, shown with extravagant ornamentation and boldly juxtaposed colors that render the cards works of art in their own right. Game Faces is a rich, engrossing history of the baseball card and the ways that it has illustrated and influenced American culture as a whole. It is a must-have for those who love baseball.

Encyclopedia of Major League Baseball Clubs
Encyclopedia of Major League Baseball Clubs

Author: Steven Riess

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2006-06-30

Total Pages: 1103

ISBN-13: 0313083061

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From exploits on the field, to machinations in the front office, to data on the cities where they play, the Encyclopedia of Major League Baseball Clubs presents the team history of each of the 30 MLB teams. Intelligent, in-depth essays provide social and economic histories of each club that go beyond the recounting of team glories or failures year by year. Team origins, annual campaigns, and players and managers all figure into the story, but so do owners, financiers, politicians, neighborhoods and fans. Teams are also looked at as business enterprises, with special attention given to labor issues like the reserve clause and free agency, as well as stadium construction and financing. Social and political issues are covered as well, including racism and integration, ethnic makeup of fans and players, gambling, liquor sales, and Sunday play. National events, like World War I, World War II, the Great Depression and the Cold War, and their impact on the national pastime, are also brought into the picture where they are relevant. Media coverage and broadcasting rights are discussed, as is the great influence the flood of media money has had on the sport. As America's sport, baseball reflects not just our ideas and beliefs about competition, it also reflects our national and regional identities. Readers will be able to find useful information about: important players, managers, owners; community relations/charity work; business and labor issues (television income, free agency); race relations; baseball/sports economics (including stadium construction, team relocations; and teams in local and national culture (Fenway Park, Wrigley Field as local icons, Yankees as a national team). Every essay is signed, and concludes with suggested readings and a bibliography. The work is illustrated, has a comprehensive bibliography, and is thoroughly indexed.

The Empire Strikes Out
The Empire Strikes Out

Author: Robert Elias

Publisher: New Press, The

Published: 2010-01-19

Total Pages: 451

ISBN-13: 1595585281

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Is the face of American baseball throughout the world that of goodwill ambassador or ugly American? Has baseball crafted its own image or instead been at the mercy of broader forces shaping our society and the globe? The Empire Strikes Out gives us the sweeping story of how baseball and America are intertwined in the export of “the American way.” From the Civil War to George W. Bush and the Iraq War, we see baseball's role in developing the American empire, first at home and then beyond our shores. And from Albert Spalding and baseball's first World Tour to Bud Selig and the World Baseball Classic, we witness the globalization of America's national pastime and baseball's role in spreading the American dream. Besides describing baseball's frequent and often surprising connections to America's presence around the world, Elias assesses the effects of this relationship both on our foreign policies and on the sport itself and asks whether baseball can play a positive role or rather only reinforce America's dominance around the globe. Like Franklin Foer in How Soccer Explains the World, Elias is driven by compelling stories, unusual events, and unique individuals. His seamless integration of original research and compelling analysis makes this a baseball book that's about more than just sports.