Mexican Raiders in the Major Leagues
Mexican Raiders in the Major Leagues

Author: G. Richard McKelvey

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2006-09-08

Total Pages: 213

ISBN-13: 0786425636

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In 1946 American baseball was a shadow of its former self. In the wake of depression and war, attendance had spiraled down. Management was at odds with players, and some began to wonder if there might be other career options. Enter the five Pasquel brothers from Mexico. Armed with promises of wealth and stardom, the Pasquels recruited 23 players away from American teams. For most, it was the beginning of the end of their careers. Mexican baseball wasn't the picture the Pasquels painted, and the players were not given a cheerful welcome home. This book tells the story of the 1946 exodus to Mexican baseball, setting the stage with chapters on change and war in the U.S., player-management issues that clouded baseball's recovery, and a history of the Mexican "outlaw" league. Chapters then delve into the stories of 23 players who took their bats and gloves south of the border. The author unravels lawsuits that followed the players' five-year ban from American baseball, and concludes with the career outcomes for players after they returned home.

Major League Rebels
Major League Rebels

Author: Robert Elias

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2022-04-13

Total Pages: 377

ISBN-13: 1538158892

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A captivating history of the baseball reformers and revolutionaries who challenged their sport and society—and in turn helped change America. Athletes have often used their platform to respond to and protest injustices, from Muhammad Ali and Colin Kaepernick to Billie Jean King and Megan Rapinoe. Compared to their counterparts, baseball players have often been more cautious about speaking out on controversial issues; but throughout the sport’s history, there have been many players who were willing to stand up and fight for what was right. In Major League Rebels: Baseball Battles over Workers' Rights and American Empire, Robert Elias and Peter Dreier reveal a little-known yet important history of rebellion among professional ballplayers. These reformers took inspiration from the country’s dissenters and progressive movements, speaking and acting against abuses within their profession and their country. Elias and Dreier profile the courageous players who demanded better working conditions, battled against corporate power, and challenged America’s unjust wars, imperialism, and foreign policies, resisting the brash patriotism that many link with the “national pastime.” American history can be seen as an ongoing battle over wealth and income inequality, corporate power versus workers’ rights, what it means to be a “patriotic” American, and the role of the United States outside its borders. For over 100 years, baseball activists have challenged the status quo, contributing to the kind of dissent that creates a more humane society. Major League Rebels tells their inspiring stories.

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.

A Brand New Ballgame
A Brand New Ballgame

Author: G. Scott Thomas

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2021-11-11

Total Pages: 335

ISBN-13: 1476686564

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America grew rapidly after World War II, and the national pastime followed suit. Baseball dramatically changed from a 19th century pastoral relic to a continental modern sport. Six Major League clubs relocated to new cities, capped by the coast-to-coast moves of the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants. Four expansion teams were created from thin air. Dozens of black stars emerged after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier. The players formed a union--higher salaries materialized. This book tells the story of baseball's metamorphosis 1945-1962, driven by larger-than-life personalities like the bombastic Larry MacPhail, the sage Branch Rickey, the kindly Connie Mack, the quick-witted Bill Veeck and the wily Walter O'Malley--Hall of Famers all. The upheaval they sparked--and sometimes failed to control--would broaden the sport's appeal, setting the stage for tremendous growth in the half-century to come.

Playing for Change
Playing for Change

Author: Russell Field

Publisher: University of Toronto Press

Published: 2016-01-27

Total Pages: 478

ISBN-13: 1442621982

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For more than forty years, scholars of the history and sociology of sport and recreation have studied how, no matter the time or place, sport is always more than just a game. In Playing for Change, leading scholars in the field of sports studies consider that legacy and forge ahead into the discipline’s future. Through essays grouped around the themes of international and North American sport, including the Vancouver and Sochi Olympic Games; access to physical activity in Canadian communities; and the role of activism and the public intellectual in the delivery of sport, the contributors offer a comprehensive examination of the institutional structures of sport, physical activity, and recreation. This book provides wide-ranging examples of cutting-edge research in a vibrant and growing field.

Baseball Meets the Law
Baseball Meets the Law

Author: Ed Edmonds

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2017-03-04

Total Pages: 336

ISBN-13: 1476629064

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Baseball and law have intersected since the primordial days. In 1791, a Pittsfield, Massachusetts, ordinance prohibited ball playing near the town's meeting house. Ball games on Sundays were barred by a Pennsylvania statute in 1794. In 2015, a federal court held that baseball's exemption from antitrust laws applied to franchise relocations. Another court overturned the conviction of Barry Bonds for obstruction of justice. A third denied a request by rooftop entrepreneurs to enjoin the construction of a massive video screen at Wrigley Field. This exhaustive chronology traces the effects the law has had on the national pastime, both pro and con, on and off the field, from the use of copyright to protect not only equipment but also "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" to frequent litigation between players and owners over contracts and the reserve clause. The stories of lawyers like Kenesaw Mountain Landis and Branch Rickey are entertainingly instructive.

A History of Boxing in Mexico
A History of Boxing in Mexico

Author: Stephen D. Allen

Publisher: University of New Mexico Press

Published: 2017-09-15

Total Pages: 297

ISBN-13: 082635856X

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The violent sport of boxing shaped and was shaped by notions of Mexican national identity during the twentieth century. This book reveals how boxing and boxers became sources of national pride and sparked debates on what it meant to be Mexican, masculine, and modern. The success of world-champion Mexican boxers played a key role in the rise of Los Angeles as the center of pugilistic activity in the United States. This international success made the fighters potent symbols of a Mexican culture that was cosmopolitan, nationalist, and masculine. With research in archives on both sides of the border, the author uses their life stories to trace the history and meaning of Mexican boxing.

Havana Hardball
Havana Hardball

Author: César Brioso

Publisher: University Press of Florida

Published: 2015-10-13

Total Pages: 284

ISBN-13: 0813059526

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In February 1947, the most memorable season in the history of the Cuban League finished with a dramatic series win by Almendares against its rival, Habana. As the celebration spread through the streets of Havana and across Cuba, the Brooklyn Dodgers were beginning spring training on the island. One of the Dodgers' minor league players was Jackie Robinson. He was on the verge of making his major-league debut in the United States, an event that would fundamentally change sports--and America. To avoid harassment from the white crowds in Florida during this critical preseason, the Dodgers relocated their spring training to Cuba, where black and white teammates had played side by side since 1900. It was also during this time that Major League Baseball was trying its hardest to bring the "outlaw" Cuban League under the control of organized baseball. As the Cubans fought to stay independent, Robinson worked to earn a roster spot on the Dodgers in the face of discrimination from his future teammates. Havana Hardball captures the excitement of the Cuban League's greatest pennant race and the anticipation of the looming challenge to MLB's color barrier. Illuminating one of the sport's most pivotal seasons, veteran journalist César Brioso brings together a rich mix of worlds as the heyday of Latino baseball converged with one of the most socially meaningful events in U.S. history.

The Baseball Trust
The Baseball Trust

Author: Stuart Banner

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2013-03-01

Total Pages: 300

ISBN-13: 0199974691

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The impact of antitrust law on sports is in the news all the time, especially when there is labor conflict between players and owners, or when a team wants to move to a new city. And if the majority of Americans have only the vaguest sense of what antitrust law is, most know one thing about it-that baseball is exempt. In The Baseball Trust, legal historian Stuart Banner illuminates the series of court rulings that resulted in one of the most curious features of our legal system-baseball's exemption from antitrust law. A serious baseball fan, Banner provides a thoroughly entertaining history of the game as seen through the prism of an extraordinary series of courtroom battles, ranging from 1890 to the present. The book looks at such pivotal cases as the 1922 Supreme Court case which held that federal antitrust laws did not apply to baseball; the 1972 Flood v. Kuhn decision that declared that baseball is exempt even from state antitrust laws; and several cases from the 1950s, one involving boxing and the other football, that made clear that the exemption is only for baseball, not for sports in general. Banner reveals that for all the well-documented foibles of major league owners, baseball has consistently received and followed antitrust advice from leading lawyers, shrewd legal advice that eventually won for baseball a protected legal status enjoyed by no other industry in America. As Banner tells this fascinating story, he also provides an important reminder of the path-dependent nature of the American legal system. At each step, judges and legislators made decisions that were perfectly sensible when considered one at a time, but that in total yielded an outcome-baseball's exemption from antitrust law-that makes no sense at all.

The Stars Are Back
The Stars Are Back

Author: Jerome M. Mileur

Publisher: SIU Press

Published: 2013-11-11

Total Pages: 331

ISBN-13: 0809332728

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In 1946, as the aftershocks of World War II still trembled across the globe, America returned to its favorite pastime: baseball. In The Stars Are Back, Jerome M. Mileur offers a fascinating account of this storied season and of the backstage battle that would forever transform the game of professional baseball. Mileur begins with one of the most famous clashes in major league history: the neck-and-neck race to the National League pennant between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Brooklyn Dodgers. As these two iconic teams engaged in a bitter struggle leading to the first-ever playoff to determine the winner of the National League pennant, the Boston Red Sox blazed a trail to the top of the American League to face the Cardinals in the World’s Series, as it was then called. But while the nation was riveted by the return of its beloved baseball heroes, the game behind the scenes was just as dramatic. As the threat of unionization loomed and the Mexican League continued to lure players away from the United States with lucrative contracts, tensions between players and team owners mounted. The result was a standoff for control of the game that would culminate in the Magna Carta of baseball and the creation of standard contracts for players, ushering in the modern era of baseball. Set against the backdrop of a country recovering from war, facing the new adversary of Communism, and absorbing the emotional impact of the atomic bomb, The Stars Are Back tells the story of a nation hungry for a return to normalcy and a game poised on the brink of new horizons.