Bush League, Big City
Bush League, Big City

Author: Michael Sokolow

Publisher: State University of New York Press

Published: 2023-04-01

Total Pages: 395

ISBN-13: 1438493053

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Bush League, Big City tells the interwoven stories of two low-level minor league baseball teams brought to New York City in the late 1990s. It also illuminates the history of the New York-Penn League, America’s oldest and longest-running minor league, from its inception in 1939 until its abrupt contraction by Major League Baseball in 2020. With an eye for details and firsthand accounts by many of the baseball people involved, Michael Sokolow tells the story of two franchises that went in very different directions, as the Cyclones achieved astronomical success while Staten Island’s ‘Baby Bombers’ sank under the weight of debt and recriminations. Along the way, the book visits small communities in upstate New York, New England, and Canada, introduces the multimillionaires who came to dominate small-time baseball ownership, and tells the tale of two of the most expensive minor-league baseball stadiums ever built. It also sheds light on the complex, behind-the-scenes influence of New York City politics, as the indomitable will of Mayor Rudy Giuliani reshaped the geography of both the city and professional baseball. Bush League, Big City is a compelling examination of both the power and limits of nostalgia in a sport that is increasingly focused on the bottom line.

Sporting Dystopias
Sporting Dystopias

Author: Ralph C. Wilcox

Publisher: State University of New York Press

Published: 2012-02-01

Total Pages: 299

ISBN-13: 0791487091

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Reaching beyond the popular celebration of commercial gains often associated with the proliferation of stadiums, events, and teams in the city, Sporting Dystopias explores the role of sport in the process of community building. Scholars from various fields, including anthropology, cultural studies, history, marketing, media studies, and sociology, examine the cultural, economic, and political interplay of sport and the city. The book systematically challenges the overwhelming claims of sport's benefit to the city as it scrutinizes the various tensions inherent in the relationship. Grounded in economic means, racial and ethnic affiliation, and the contestation for space, sport is seen as precipitating a broad range of human challenges.

Democracy at the Ballpark
Democracy at the Ballpark

Author: Thomas David Bunting

Publisher: State University of New York Press

Published: 2021-11-01

Total Pages: 264

ISBN-13: 1438485689

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What is the relationship between sports and politics? Often, politics are thought to be serious, whereas sports are diversionary and apolitical. Using baseball as a case study, Democracy at the Ballpark challenges this understanding, examining politics as they emerge at the ballpark around spectatorship, community, equality, virtue, and technology. Thomas David Bunting argues that because spectators invest time and meaning in baseball, the game has power as a metaphor for understanding and shaping politics. The stories people see in baseball mirror how they see the country, politics, and themselves. As a result, democracy resides not only in exclusive halls tread by elites but also in a stadium full of average people together under an open sky. Democracy at the Ballpark bridges political theory and sport, providing a new way of thinking about baseball. It also demonstrates the democratic potential of spectatorship and rethinks the role of everyday institutions like sport in shaping our political lives, offering an expanded view of democracy.

Gotham Baseball: New York’s All-Time Team
Gotham Baseball: New York’s All-Time Team

Author: Mark C. Healey illustrations by

Publisher: Arcadia Publishing

Published: 2020

Total Pages: 208

ISBN-13: 1467141631

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Baseball may be the great American pastime, but in New York, it is a religion. Names like Ruth, Mays, Gehrig, Wright and Robinson live in the hearts and minds of New York fans like apostles. From the street corner to the subway car, debates about which Yankee, Giant, Dodger or Met is better than another have raged on for more than one hundred years. Now, the best of the best are chosen for each position as New York's all-time greatest team is imagined. Shoo-ins like the Babe and Jackie have their stories told with a fresh perspective. The compelling case for Mike Piazza, not Yogi Berra, as catcher is sure to spark arguments. Sportswriter Mark Healey crafts the Gotham baseball team through captivating tales of the legends of the New York game.

The Brooklyn Cyclones
The Brooklyn Cyclones

Author: Ben Osborne

Publisher: NYU Press

Published: 2004-04

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13: 9780814762059

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When professional baseball returned to Brooklyn in 2001, fans were jubilant and the media swarmed. After losing the Brooklyn Dodgers to California 44 years ago, Brooklyn baseball fans could once again claim a team of their own: the Cyclones, a Class A affiliate of the New York Mets. The Brooklyn Cyclones: Hardball Dreams and the New Coney Island recounts that first season of the Cyclones. From the construction of the incredible Keyspan Park at Coney Island to their improbable successes on the field, Ben Osborne tells the story of the Cyclones' delicate first year of operation. We see the story up close and personal through the eyes of two very different young men. The first is Anthony Otero, who was raised in a Coney Island housing project and loves baseball, but has never seen a game in person until the Cyclones land in his neighborhood. The second is Brett Kay, a young man from California who has never been to New York, until he becomes the catcher for the Brooklyn Cyclones. From the plans of politicians like Rudy Giuliani and Howard Golden, to the poverty of Coney Island's citizens, The Brooklyn Cyclones reveals the stories behind the headlines to show that the reality of creating a new sports team often involves broken promises and shattered dreams. Osborne includes chapters on the Cyclones' rivalry with the Staten Island Yankees, the Cyclones' chances of capturing the New York-Penn League title, and an epilogue updating Kay's, Otero's, and the Cyclones' progress through the 2003 season. Ultimately, Ben Osborne shows how, for these two young men, the Brooklyn Cyclones created dreams the same way the Brooklyn Dodgers allowed the boys of Flatbush to dream about one day playing in the Big Leagues.

The Haymakers, Unions and Trojans of Troy, New York
The Haymakers, Unions and Trojans of Troy, New York

Author: Jeffrey Michael Laing

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2015-08-13

Total Pages: 239

ISBN-13: 1476619654

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The Troy Haymakers were a pioneer baseball team legendary for exploits on and off the field. Formed in 1860 in Troy, New York--a rapidly growing industrial city--the team was embraced by the tough-minded Trojans as emblematic of their vigorous boomtown, rivaling larger, better established cities. The Haymakers were a strong amateur club before becoming a charter member of baseball's first major league, the National Association, and subsequently gaining a franchise in the National League. The team rosters were filled with characters and scalawags along with talented players, including four future Hall of Famers. After losing its National League franchise in 1882, Troy fielded minor league teams for 34 years--with a wistful eye to Haymaker history.

Bouton
Bouton

Author: Mitchell Nathanson

Publisher: U of Nebraska Press

Published: 2022-04

Total Pages: 448

ISBN-13: 1496229851

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Bouton examines the remarkable life of a player and an author who forever changed the way we view not only sports books but professional sports as a whole.

When Baseball Returned to Brooklyn
When Baseball Returned to Brooklyn

Author: Ed Shakespeare

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2003-05-13

Total Pages: 362

ISBN-13: 9780786414598

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Major league baseball has a long, rich history in Brooklyn. From the time Brooklyn started play in 1884 until their move west to Los Angeles following the 1957 season, the Dodgers and their predecessors were the emotional center of the borough's diverse population. But Brooklyn would be without a professional team until June of 2001, when the Cyclones took the field in Coney Island as the Mets' affiliate for the New York-Penn League. This work follows the rookie-level club from its formation through it first season. Brooklyn Dodgers Carl Erskine, Duke Snider, Clem Labine, Johnny Podres, Ralph Branca, Joe Pignatano and Clyde King comment on their own minor league days, and their days in Brooklyn. Also included are interviews of Cyclones players and fans of both teams.