Early professional baseball and the sporting press : shaping the image of the game / R. Terry Furst.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Furst, R. Terry, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Baseball--United States--History--19th century.

Baseball.

Baseball--United States--Public opinion.

Baseball--Social aspects--United States.

Sports--Public relations--United States.

Sports.

Mass media and sports--United States.

Mass media and sports.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (183 p.)

Place of Publication:

Jefferson, North Carolina : McFarland & Company, 2014.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The book analyzes the process by which the collective image of professional baseball was formed. It traces both the negation and the affirmation of ideas in the sports press that would impede or promote the growth of baseball from a recreational pastime to a team sport spectacle in the mid-19th century. The American collective image grew as a result of sports reportage, conversations about baseball in social and work groupings, game attendance (and changing values toward work and play), and reports of gambling. Newspaper editorials and news stories and letters to the editor are studied as to s

Contents:

Cover; Acknowledgments; Table of Contents; Introduction; I. Changing Views Toward Man, Recreation, Leisure and Health; Muscular Christianity and the Y.M.C.A.; Periodicals, Sport Magazines, Newspapers and the Dissemination of Ideas About Physical Fitness; II. The Amateur Ideal in Baseball; The Rise of Sportsmanship in England; Social Class, Status and Amateurism in England; The Amateur Rower in England; The Amateur Rower in America; The Influence of the English on American Sport; III. The Origin of Baseball and the Early Years of the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club; The Abner Doubleday Myth

The North American Indian and the Origin of BaseballThe Origin and Structure of the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club; Baseball Clubs Before and After the Knickerbockers; The First Convention and the First Association of Baseball Players; IV. Positive Press; Well-Publicized Events in the Early History of Baseball; Recognition and Acclaim of the Skill of Baseball Players and Adoption of the Fly Rule; V. The Baseball Public and the Spectacle of Baseball; The Public; The Baseball Consumer; Composition of the Baseball Public; The Baseball Public and the Press; The Baseball Spectacle and Rule Changes

Baseball StrategiesThe Appeal of Baseball; The Rowdy Behavior of the Baseball Audience; Club Rivalries; VI. The Disreputable Image of Baseball; Professional Athletics of the Early Nineteenth Century; Substitution and Revolving: Disreputable Practices in the Transformation of Baseball; Gambling and Corruption in Baseball; The Championship of Baseball: The Quest for Supremacy; The Impact of the Championship on Baseball; The Moral Image of Baseball; African Americans in Baseball: The Early Years; VII. Compensation and Image in Professional Baseball

Precursor of Direct Payment to Players: The "Benefit Match"Admission Charges and Sharing of Gate Receipts; Sinecures: An Indirect Form of Player Compensation; The Adoption of the Rule Prohibiting Compensation to Players; Some Issues Surrounding Salaries; Player Compensation, Socio-Occupational Background and the Professionalization of Baseball; The Cincinnati Red Stocking Team of 1869-70; Player Compensation and the Image of Professional Baseball; The 1870s: A Time for Decisions in Organized Baseball; Attempts by the Press to Define the Terms Amateur and Professional

The Image of Professional BaseballChapter Notes; Bibliography; Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

1-4766-0625-0