Baseball and American Culture : Across the Diamond.

ISBN:

9781317788560

9781317788577

Title:

Baseball and American Culture : Across the Diamond.

Author:

Hoffmann, Frank.

Personal Author:

Hoffmann, Frank.

Publication Information:

Hoboken : Taylor and Francis, 2014.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (306 pages)

Contents:

Cover; Baseball and American Culture; Title Page; Copyright Page; Dedication; Table of Contents; About the Editor; Contributors; Preface; Acknowledgments; Section I: The American Fan; Chapter 1. A Distinct Sense of Belonging; Chapter 2. Home Base: A Survey of Backyard Baseball Diamonds; Chapter 3. On Fenway, Faith, and Fandom: A Red Sox Fan Reflects; Chapter 4. Baseball Memorabilia; Section II: Baseball Inclusivity; Chapter 5. From Jackie to Elvis, from Selma to St. Petersburg: The Desegregation of Spring Training.

Chapter 6. Creating Home with the Ball Field: The Dynamics of Baseball and Civic Inclusivity for Germans, Irishmen, and Blacks During the Late Nineteenth CenturyChapter 7. The Internet and the Popularization of the Negro Leagues; Chapter 8. Baseball and Blacks: A Loss of Affinity, a Loss of Community; Chapter 9. The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League: Accomplishing Great Things in a Dangerous World; Chapter 10. Globalization of Baseball in Popular Culture; Section III: Money, Managing, and Myth; Chapter 11. Here's the Pitch: Baseball and Advertising.

Chapter 12. From John McGraw to Joe Torre: Industrial Management Styles Applied Throughout the History of Major League BaseballChapter 13. The Hall of Fame and the American Mythology; Section IV: Baseball and the Arts; Chapter 14. Politics, Patriotism, and Baseball On-Screen; Chapter 15. Writing Their Way Home: American Writers and Baseball; Chapter 16. Baseball As a Second Language: The Impenetrability of Our National Pastime; Chapter 17. Baseball Poetry: Society's Overlooked and Underestimated Literary Art Form.

Chapter 18. Eiron Men, "You Know Me, Alazons," and Pixies: Baseball Humor As American HumorSection V: Baseball and Resolution of Conflict; Chapter 19. Baseball Labor Relations: Is It Safe to Go Back to the Ballpark?; Chapter 20. God and the Diamond: The "Born-Again" Baseball Autobiography; Chapter 21. The Winter Meetings, the King of Baseball, and the Conscience of the Game; Chapter 22. Control Problems: The Limitations of Baseball As Metaphor; Chapter 23. Boys of Summer, Suicides of Winter: An Introduction to Baseball Suicides; Index.

Local Note:

eBooks on EBSCOhost

Subject Term:

Baseball -- Social aspects -- United States.

Baseball -- United States -- History.

GAMES -- Gambling -- Sports.

SPORTS & RECREATION -- Business Aspects.

SPORTS & RECREATION -- Essays.

SPORTS & RECREATION -- History.

SPORTS & RECREATION -- Reference.

TRAVEL -- Special Interest -- Sports.

Baseball. (OCoLC)fst00827904

Baseball -- Social aspects. (OCoLC)fst00827951

Geographic Term:

United States. (OCoLC)fst01204155

Added Author:

Rielly, Edward J.

Manning, Martin J.

Format:

Electronic Resources

Electronic Access:

http://ezproxy.angliss.edu.au/login?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&AN=685107

Publication Date:

2014

Publication Information:

Hoboken : Taylor and Francis, 2014.

Available:*

Shelf Number	Material Type	Copy	Shelf Location	Status
796.3570973	1:E-BOOK	1	1:ONLINE	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

Discover baseball's role in American society!

Baseball and American Culture: Across the Diamond is a thoughtful look at baseball's impact on American society through the eyes of the game's foremost scholars, historians, and commentators. Edited by Dr. Edward J. Rielly, author of Baseball: An Encyclopedia of Popular Culture, the book examines how baseball and society intersect and interact, and how the quintessential American game reflects and affects American culture. Enlightening and entertaining, Baseball and American Culture presents a multidisciplinary perspective on baseball's involvement in virtually every important social development in the United States--past and present.

Baseball and American Culture examines baseball's unique role as a sociological touchstone, presenting scholarly essays that explore the game as a microcosm for American society--good and bad. Topics include the struggle for racial equality, women's role in society, immigration, management-labor conflicts, advertising, patriotism, religion, the limitations of baseball as a metaphor, and suicide. Contributing authors include Larry Moffi, author of This Side of Cooperstown: An Oral History of Major League Baseball in the 1950s and Crossing the Line: Black Major Leaguers, 1947-1959, and a host of presenters to the 2001 Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture, including Thomas Altherr, George Grella, Dave Ogden, Roberta Newman, Brian Carroll, Richard Puerzer, and the editor himself.

Baseball and American Culture features 23 essays on this fascinating subject, including:
"On Fenway, Faith, and Fandom: A Red Sox Fan Reflects"
"Baseball and Blacks: A Loss of Affinity, A Loss of Community"
"The Hall of Fame and the American Mythology"
"Writing Their Way Home: American Writers and Baseball"
"God and the Diamond: The Born-Again Baseball Autobiography"

Baseball and American Culture: Across the Diamond is an essential read for baseball fans and historians, academics involved in sports literature and popular culture, and students of American society.

Author Notes

Frank Hoffmann

Reviews (1)

Choice Review

Rielly offers 23 chapters by 23 authors exploring with very uneven success the relationship between baseball and American culture. The best chapters treat desegregation, the Internet, women, labor relations, and the winter meetings. Although most of the chapters are well written, what this reviewer found frustrating was an excess of description and a corresponding minimum of analysis in most chapters. A recurring theme is the indication of baseball's reduced popularity (per certain indexes) in contrast to upward swings for other professional team sports. But nowhere is there mention of American culture's increasing pace and triviality as one explanation of football and basketball's appeal because of their obvious action and lack of complexity. Ignored also are underlying reasons for the substantially greater number of baseball publications, why there is more humor in baseball, more interesting characters, and more coffee-shop talk about the sport than is true of its competitors. Shakespeare, this reviewer suspects, would characterize several of the chapters as "much ado about nothing." ^BSumming Up: Not recommended. W. F. Gustafson emeritus, San Jose State University