Pinstripe Nation : The New York Yankees in American Culture

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

WILL BISHOP

Series:

Sport and popular culture.

Sport and popular culture

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Baseball--Social aspects.

Baseball--Social aspects--United States.

Baseball.

United States.

New York Yankees (Baseball team).

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (314 pages): illustrations ;

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

The University of Tennessee Press 2024

Summary:

Whether loved or reviled, the New York Yankees have had an impact on American culture that extends well beyond baseball. Since the early twentieth century, movies, novels, memoirs, pop songs, and even TV sitcoms have either dealt directly with the Bronx club and its star players or incorporated key elements of Yankee iconography. In Pinstripe Nation, Will Bishop explores the myriad of ways in which the Yankees and their successes (or spectacular failures) became interwoven with the nation's larger cultural narrative. In 1920, with their acquisition of Babe Ruth, the Yankees rose to prominence. With his power-hitting style attracting legions of new fans, the "Great Bambino" became a national hero of the Roaring Twenties. In contrast to Ruth's flamboyance, his less flashy successors Lou Gehrig and Joe DiMaggio captured the spirit of striving and courage that carried America through the Depression and WWII years. The Pride of the Yankees, a popular movie celebrating Gehrig's career, and the Hemingway novella The Old Man and the Sea, whose protagonist reveres DiMaggio, typified the trend. Mirroring the nation's postwar swagger and confidence, the club of the Mickey Mantle-era remained hugely popular, but "Yankee hating" set in as well. Novels like Mark Harris's The Southpaw and Douglas Wallop's The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant signified a widespread resentment of the team's outsized dominance. Amid the national turmoil of the 1960s, the Yankees also went into decline. In the following decades, as player salaries soared and team infighting grabbed headlines, the once-glowing portrayals of the team gave way to tell-all books like Ball Four and The Bronx Zoo. Yet, as this informative and entertaining book amply shows, the Yankees have, through all their ups and downs, retained a hold on the American imagination unmatched by any other sports franchise. -- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Foreword / Brian M. Ingrassia

"To be young and a Yankee": Babe Ruth and the first era of Yankee success

"Let me tell you about heroes": The pride of the Yankees and the crystallization of a cultural icon

"Think of the great DiMaggio": Joe DiMaggio and the mythic dimension of Yankee success in the postwar era

"Wall Street brokers and haughty businessmen": the Yankees and Brooklyn Dodger fan identity

"Those damn Yankees!": the popularization of Yankee hating in the 1950s

"Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio?": decline, cultural change, and the 1960s

You'd never guess this was ... the Yankees": the "me" decade and "the best team money could buy"

"All that once was good and could be again": baseball nostalgia in the 1980s and '90s and the return of the Yankees

Epilogue: Toward a new millennium.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 292-303) and index.

ISBN:

9781621904038

1621904032

OCLC:

998754362