Breaking into baseball : women and the national pastime / Jean Hastings Ardell ; with a foreword by Ila Borders.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ardell, Jean Hastings, 1943-

Series:

Writing baseball

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Women baseball players.

Baseball fans.

Baseball for women--History.

Baseball for women.

History.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

xx, 276 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

Carbondale : Southern Illinois University Press, [2005]

Summary:

While baseball is traditionally perceived as a game to be played, enjoyed, and reported from a masculine perspective, it has long been beloved among women, more so than any other spectator sport. This book upends baseball's accepted history to at last reveal just how involved women are, and have always been, in the American game. Through provocative interviews and deft research, Jean Hastings Ardell devotes a detailed chapter to each of the seven ways women participate in the game: from the stands as fans, on the field as professionals or as amateur players, behind the plate as umpires, in the front office as executives, in the press box as sportswriters and reporters, or in the shadows as Baseball Annies. From these revelatory vantage points, Ardell invites overdue appreciation for the affinity and talent women bring to baseball at all levels and shows us our national game anew. From its ancient origins in spring fertility rituals through contemporary marketing efforts geared toward an ever-increasing female fan base, baseball has always had a feminine side, and generations of women have sought, and been sought after, to participate in the sport, even when doing so meant challenging the cultural mores of their era. In that regard, women have been breaking into baseball from the very beginning. But recent decades have witnessed great strides in legitimizing womens roles on the diamond as players and umpires as well as in vital management and media roles. In her thoughtfully organized and engagingly written survey, Ardell offers a chance for sports enthusiasts and historians of both genders to better appreciate the storied and complex relationship women have so long shared with the game and to glimpse the future of women in baseball. This book is augmented by twenty-four illustrations and a foreword from Ila Borders, the first woman to play more than three seasons of men's professional baseball. -- Publisher description.

Contents:

In the beginning

In the stands : fans

In the shadows : baseball Annies

For love of the game : amateur players

For love and money : professional players

Behind the plate : umpires

In the front office : club owners and executives

In the press box : women in the media.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Ardell, Jean Hastings, 1943- Breaking into baseball.

ISBN:

0809326264

9780809326266

0809326272

9780809326273

OCLC:

56194810

Online:

Contributor biographical information

Publisher description