Tumultuous Times in America's Game

From Jackie Robinson's Breakthrough to the War over Free Agency

Bryan Soderholm-Difatte

• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
• Year: 2019
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781538127360
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

In Tumultuous Times in America's Game: From Jackie Robinson's Breakthrough to the War over Free Agency, Bryan Soderholm-Difatte provides a comprehensive examination of major developments and key figures in Major League Baseball from the integration of Jackie Robinson in 1947 to the owners-instigated catastrophic players' strike of 1994-95. While many fans will recall those decades with fond remembrances of the baseball stars who played then—from Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams, Mickey Mantle, and Willie Mays to Roberto Clemente, Pete Rose, Reggie Jackson, and Cal Ripken—they were also a time of substantial challenges that upended more than half a century of tradition that was the backbone of the major leagues.

Tumultuous Times in America's Game includes histories of each of the major league franchises, presented alongside Soderholm-Difatte's detailed examination of the controversies, developments, and innovations from these significant decades in professional baseball. Recaps of several of baseball's most exciting pennant races round out the narrative, making this book a valuable read for fans and historians of the national pastime.

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Preface
• Baseball’s Integration and Expansionist Imperative
• The Last of the Old-Fashioned Pennant Races
• Shifting Balances in the Game and the Business of Baseball
• Baseball’s (Almost) “All in It to Win It” Decade
• Baseball at the Brink
• Bibliography
• Index
• About the Author