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Creating the National Pastime : Baseball Transforms Itself, 1903-1953 / G. Edward White.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press, [2014]Copyright date: ©1996Edition: Course BookDescription: 1 online resource (384 p.) : 25 halftonesContent type:
Media type:
Carrier type:
ISBN:
  • 9780691058856
  • 9781400851362
Subject(s): Other classification:
  • online - DeGruyter
Online resources: Available additional physical forms:
  • Issued also in print.
Contents:
Frontmatter -- 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
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.
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number URL Status Notes Barcode
eBook eBook Biblioteca "Angelicum" Pont. Univ. S.Tommaso d'Aquino Nuvola online online - DeGruyter (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Online access Not for loan (Accesso limitato) Accesso per gli utenti autorizzati / Access for authorized users (dgr)9781400851362

Frontmatter -- 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

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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.

Issued also in print.

Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.

In English.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 30. Aug 2021)