Creating the national pastime : baseball transforms itself, 1903-1953 / G. Edward White.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

White, G. Edward, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Baseball--United States--History--20th century.

Baseball.

Baseball--Social aspects--United States--History--20th century.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (385 p.)

Edition:

Course Book

Other Title:

Creating the National Pastime

Place of Publication:

Princeton, New Jersey ; Chichester, [England] : Princeton University Press, 1996.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

At a time when many baseball fans wish for the game to return to a purer past, G. Edward White shows how seemingly irrational business decisions, inspired in part by the self-interest of the owners but also by their nostalgia for the game, transformed baseball into the national pastime. Not simply a professional sport, baseball has been treated as a focus of childhood rituals and an emblem of American individuality and fair play throughout much of the twentieth century. It started out, however, as a marginal urban sport associated with drinking and gambling. White describes its progression to an almost mythic status as an idyllic game, popular among people of all ages and classes. He then recounts the owner's efforts, often supported by the legal system, to preserve this image. Baseball grew up in the midst of urban industrialization during the Progressive Era, and the emerging steel and concrete baseball parks encapsulated feelings of neighborliness and associations with the rural leisure of bygone times. According to White, these nostalgic themes, together with personal financial concerns, guided owners toward practices that in retrospect appear unfair to players and detrimental to the progress of the game. Reserve clauses, blacklisting, and limiting franchise territories, for example, were meant to keep a consistent roster of players on a team, build fan loyalty, and maintain the game's local flavor. These practices also violated anti-trust laws and significantly restricted the economic power of the players. Owners vigorously fought against innovations, ranging from the night games and radio broadcasts to the inclusion of African-American players. Nonetheless, the image of baseball as a spirited civic endeavor persisted, even in the face of outright corruption, as witnessed in the courts' leniency toward the participants in the Black Sox scandal of 1919. White's story of baseball is intertwined with changes in technology and business in America and with changing attitudes toward race and ethnicity. The time is fast approaching, he concludes, when we must consider whether baseball is still regarded as the national pastime and whether protecting its image is worth the effort.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

Illustrations

Preface

Introduction

Chapter One. The Ballparks

Chapter Two. The Enterprise, 1903-1923

Chapter Three. The Rise of the Commissioner: Gambling, the Black Sox, and the Creation of Baseball Heroes

Chapter Four. The Negro Leagues

Chapter Five. The Coming of Night Baseball

Chapter Six. Baseball Journalists

Chapter Seven. Baseball on the Radio

Chapter Eight. Ethnicity and Baseball: Hank Greenberg and Joe DiMaggio

Chapter Nine. The Enterprise, 1923-1953

Chapter Ten. The Decline of the National Pastime

Notes

Index

Notes:

Includes index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780691034881

0691034885

9781400851362

140085136X

OCLC:

871631848