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This is an anthology of 24 papers that were presented at the Fourteenth Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture, held in June 2002, and co-sponsored by the State University of New York at Oneonta and the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.
Subsequent to initial presentation, papers were revised and edited for publication. The anthology is divided into five parts: Timebend: Baseball as History; The Business of Baseball; Race: Soul of the Game; Baseball Media: Literature, Journalism, and Cinema; and Baseball Culture: Age, Sexuality, and Religion. Timebend: Baseball as History ruminates on the lingering resonance of the game's past. The Business of Baseball examines sport from a commercial perspective. Race: Soul of the Game chronicles the African-American experience in baseball. Baseball Media: Literature , Journalism, and Cinema analyzes depictions of the game in the popular arts. Baseball Culture: Age, Sexuality, and Religion explores the social fabric of sport. Each part contains multiple essays related by theme and topic. A guide to the paper follows.
List of contents
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments viii
Preface Introduction PART 1. TIMEBENDS: BASEBALL AS HISTORY
Keynote Address: Baseball Lives in the Depression Era
Country Baseball on the Eastern Shore of Maryland (1867-1921)
Pitcher at Twilight: Bill Monbouquette and the American Dream
The Segregation of Professional Baseball in Kansas (1895-1899)
PART 2. THE BUSINESS OF BASEBALL
Engineering Baseball: Branch Rickey's Innovative Approach to Baseball Management
The Pitch Men: Ty Cobb, Yogi Berra, and Cal Ripken, Jr.
Assessing Outcomes of Baseball Labor Negotiations
Letting the Gini Out of the Bottle: A Look at Inequality in Major League Baseball Since 1985
PART 3. RACE: SOUL OF THE GAME
In the Tradition of Jackie Robinson: Ozzie Virgil and the Integration of the Detroit Tigers
Jim Crows of a Feather: A Comparison of the Segregation and Desegregation Eras in Professional Baseball and Football
The Social Significance of Sport: Implications for Race and Baseball
Blacks in Baseball: Up from Neglect to Center Stage
PART 4. BASEBALL MEDIA: LITERATURE, JOURNALISM, AND CINEMA
Baseball and Ernest Hemingway
The Black Press and the Integration of Baseball: When to Stop the Cheering
Portrayals of Racial Minorities in Baseball Films
When New York Was the Capital of Baseball: Remembering Bob Cooke and the Herald Tribune
Types and Archetypes: The Characters of Baseball
The Changing Language of Baseball Writers in Historical Context (1900-2001)
PART 5. BASEBALL CULTURE: AGE, SEXUALITY, AND RELIGION
On Being Gay in Major League Baseball
When Baseball Players Wore Skirts: The Promotion of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League
Baseball Heroes and Femme Fatales
Baseball and Its Appeal to Older Americans
Believing in Baseball: The Religious Power of Our National Pastime
Theology and Celebrity: How Celebrity Affects the Practice of Faith in Baseball
Index
About the author
William M. Simons is professor of history at the State University of New York-Oneonta.
Alvin L. Hall is director of Continuing Education and Summer Sessions at East Stroudsburg University in Pennsylvania.
