Baseball and American Culture

Across the Diamond

Frank Hoffmann, Edward J Rielly, Martin J Manning

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN:
  9780789014856
• eBook ISBN:
  9781317788560
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: African American Studies
• Index: Business

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 Statespast 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 societygood 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.

Index

Aaron, Henry, 63

autobiography, 202

historical importance, 95

integration problems, 52, 55

Internet sites, 85

world baseball, 111

Abbott and Costello's “Who's on First?”, 9

Adams, Franklin P., 196

Advertising, 122–135, 201

Aesthetics, 99, 102, 152. See also Women's role in sports

African American. See also Baseball clubs; Desegregation; Social importance

blackness, 50–59

exclusion from sport, xx, 64

numbers declining, 90–95

value of Robinson's work, 43

Aldrich, Mark C., 199

All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, 10, 97, 105

Altrock, Nick, 202

American Baseball Congress, 111

American Church of Baseball, 123–124, 130–134, 151–159

American Football League, 37

American League, 110, 222

Anderson, Lou Eastwood, 105

Anderson, Sparky, 215

Andressen, Marc, 80

Angell, Roger, 100, 173, 268

Angelos, Peter, 112, 233

Anson, Cap, 141

Armstrong, Neil, 208

Arocha, Rene, 113

Artworks, 118–119

Ashburn, Richie, 234

Atlanta Braves, 145

Australian baseball, 114–115

Babe, The, 168

Babe Ruth Organization, 6, 10

Bach, James B., 66

Backyard diamonds, 13–19

Baer, Clara, 104–105

Baker, Aaron, 82

Baker, Home Run, 221

Baker, William J., 82

Baldwin, James, 50–51, 53, 85

Ballard, Byron, 242

Ballparks

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Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• The Haworth Press
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• About the Editor
• Contributors
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Section I: The American Fan
• Section II: Baseball Inclusivity
• Section III: Money, Managing, and Myth
• Section IV: Baseball and the Arts
• Section V: Baseball and Resolution of Conflict
• Index