Cooperstown Confidential

Cooperstown Confidential PDF Author: Zev Chafets
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1608191095
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 252

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Book Description
If baseball is America's national religion, then the Hall of Fame is its High Church. Being named among its 286 inductees makes you the closest thing our country has to an undisputed hero - even a secular saint. But the men in the Hall of Fame are no angels. Among their number are gamblers, drunks, race-baiters, at least one murderer, and perhaps the greatest collection of bona fide characters ever to be dignified by an honor of any kind. This is the book the Hall of Fame deserves. Along with the story of the institution comes a smart, irreverent discussion of some of the great barstool questions of all time (Why did Jim Bunning make the Hall but not Mickey Lolich? How much is it worth to a player's autograph-signing career to get in? Did Ty Cobb really kill somebody?) and a fresh look at some of the Hall's most and least admirable characters. Taken in all, it amounts to a shadow history of America's Game, shown through the prism of its most sacred spot. Written with a deep love of the game and a hardened skeptic's eye, this is a book to incite both passionate conversation and a fresh appreciation of baseball as a mirror and catalyst for our nation's culture.

Cooperstown Confidential

Cooperstown Confidential PDF Author: Zev Chafets
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1608191095
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 252

Get Book Here

Book Description
If baseball is America's national religion, then the Hall of Fame is its High Church. Being named among its 286 inductees makes you the closest thing our country has to an undisputed hero - even a secular saint. But the men in the Hall of Fame are no angels. Among their number are gamblers, drunks, race-baiters, at least one murderer, and perhaps the greatest collection of bona fide characters ever to be dignified by an honor of any kind. This is the book the Hall of Fame deserves. Along with the story of the institution comes a smart, irreverent discussion of some of the great barstool questions of all time (Why did Jim Bunning make the Hall but not Mickey Lolich? How much is it worth to a player's autograph-signing career to get in? Did Ty Cobb really kill somebody?) and a fresh look at some of the Hall's most and least admirable characters. Taken in all, it amounts to a shadow history of America's Game, shown through the prism of its most sacred spot. Written with a deep love of the game and a hardened skeptic's eye, this is a book to incite both passionate conversation and a fresh appreciation of baseball as a mirror and catalyst for our nation's culture.

The Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture, 2013-2014

The Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture, 2013-2014 PDF Author: William M. Simons
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 1476620148
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 299

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Book Description
Generally acknowledged as the preeminent gathering of baseball scholars, the annual Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture has made significant contributions to baseball research and pedagogy. This collection of 17 new essays is selected from the approximately 100 presentations of the 2013 and the 2014 symposia, covering topics whose importance extends beyond the ballpark. Presented in six themed parts, the essays consider the congruence of culture and baseball, the importance of ballpark itself, the myths, legends and icons of the baseball imagination, international and ethnic game variations, the work of baseball museum curators and a context for the game's rules of play and labor.

The Yankee Road

The Yankee Road PDF Author: James D. McNiven
Publisher: Wheatmark, Inc.
ISBN: 1627871411
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 579

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Book Description


Swinging '73

Swinging '73 PDF Author: Matthew Silverman
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 0762793236
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 275

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Book Description
Interest and attendance were dropping, and football was ascending. Stuck in a rut, baseball was dying. Then Steinbrenner bought the Yankees, a second-division club with wife-swapping pitchers, leaving the House That Ruth Built not with a slam but a simper. He vowed not to interfere—before soon changing his mind. Across town, Tom Seaver led the Mets’ stellar pitching line-up, and iconic outfielder Willie Mays was preparing to say goodbye. For months, the Mets, under Yogi Berra, couldn’t get it right. Meanwhile, the A’s were breaking a ban on facial hair while maverick owner Charlie Finley was fighting to keep them underpaid. But beneath the muttonchops and mayhem, lay another world. Elvis commanded a larger audience than the Apollo landings. A Dodge Dart cost $2,800, gas was a quarter per gallon. A fiscal crisis loomed; Vietnam had ended, the vice president resigned, and Watergate had taken over. It was one of the most exciting years in the game’s history, the first with the designated hitter and the last before arbitration and free agency. The two World Series opponents went head-to-head above the baby steps of a dynasty that soon dwarfed both league champions. It was a turbulent time for the country and the game, neither of which would ever be the same again.

Roberto Clemente

Roberto Clemente PDF Author: Gerry Boehme
Publisher: Cavendish Square Publishing, LLC
ISBN: 1502610590
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 114

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Book Description
Barriers have existed to deny people the chance to compete athletically based on their race, ethnic background, or sex. Some athletes, through their courage and class, have broken down the barriers that have afflicted our society, and sometimes affected greater social change. A superstar on and off the baseball diamond, Roberto Clemente overcame bias toward blacks and stereotypes that had harmed his fellow Puerto Ricans and other Latinos in all walks of life. He became a role model for Hispanics, and then for everybody when he died bringing aid to earthquake victims in Nicaragua.

Black Baseball, Black Business

Black Baseball, Black Business PDF Author: Roberta J. Newman
Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi
ISBN: 1626742251
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 254

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Book Description
Winner of the 2014 Robert W. Peterson Award for Excellence in Negro League Research from the Jerry Malloy Negro League Conference, sponsored by Negro Leagues Committee of the Society for American Baseball Research Roberta J. Newman and Joel Nathan Rosen have written an authoritative social history of the Negro Leagues. This book examines how the relationship between black baseball and black businesses functioned, particularly in urban areas with significant African American populations—Chicago, Detroit, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Newark, New York, Philadelphia, and more. Inextricably bound together by circumstance, these sports and business alliances faced destruction and upheaval. Once Jackie Robinson and a select handful of black baseball’s elite gained acceptance in Major League Baseball and financial stability in the mainstream economy, shock waves traveled throughout the black business world. Though the economic impact on Negro League baseball is perhaps obvious due to its demise, the impact on other black-owned businesses and on segregated neighborhoods is often undervalued if not outright ignored in current accounts. There have been many books written on great individual players who played in the Negro Leagues and/or integrated the Major Leagues. But Newman and Rosen move beyond hagiography to analyze what happens when a community has its economic footing undermined while simultaneously being called upon to celebrate a larger social progress. In this regard, Black Baseball, Black Business moves beyond the diamond to explore baseball’s desegregation narrative in a critical and wide-ranging fashion.

The Ultimate Boston Red Sox Time Machine Book

The Ultimate Boston Red Sox Time Machine Book PDF Author: Martin Gitlin
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1493045857
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Book Description
The Ultimate Boston Red Sox Time Machine presents a timeline format that not only includes the Red Sox's greatest moments—including its nine World Series wins and individual achievements—but focuses also on some very unusual seasons and events, such as the refusal of the New York Yankees to go up against them in the 1904 World Series, the derivation of its name, and of course the famous Curse of the Bambino. There are dozens of impressive, wild, wacky and wonderful stories over the years regarding Red Sox history and Gitlin is the perfect person to write it with his trademark humor and thorough knowledge of Red Sox lore.

Historical Dictionary of Baseball

Historical Dictionary of Baseball PDF Author: Lyle Spatz
Publisher: Scarecrow Press
ISBN: 0810879549
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 505

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Book Description
Dating back to 1869 as an organized professional sport, the game of baseball is not only the oldest professional sport in North America, but also symbolizes much more. Walt Whitman described it as “our game, the American game,” and George Will compared calling baseball “just a game” to the Grand Canyon being “just a hole.” Countless others have called baseball “the most elegant game,” and to those who have played it, it’s life. The Historical Dictionary of Baseball is primarily devoted to the major leagues it also includes entries on the minor leagues, the Negro Leagues, women’s baseball, baseball in various other countries, and other non-major league related topics. It traces baseball, in general, and these topics individually, from their beginnings up to the present. This is done through a chronology, an introductory essay, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 900 cross-referenced entries on the roles of the players on the field—batters, pitchers, fielders—as well as non-playing personnel—general managers, managers, coaches, and umpires. There are also entries for individual teams and leagues, stadiums and ballparks, the role of the draft and reserve clause, and baseball’s rules, and statistical categories. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about the sport of baseball.

Pete Rose

Pete Rose PDF Author: Kostya Kennedy
Publisher: Time Home Entertainment
ISBN: 1618939238
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 385

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Book Description
Best-selling author Kostya Kennedy delivers evocative answers in his fascinating reexamination of Pete Rose’s life; from his cocky and charismatic early years through his storied playing career to his bitter war against baseball’s hierarchy to the man we find today—still incorrigible, still adored by many. Where has his improbable saga landed him in the redefined, post-steroid world? Do we feel any differently about Pete Rose today? Should we?

Jackie and Campy

Jackie and Campy PDF Author: William C. Kashatus
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
ISBN: 0803254474
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 273

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Book Description
As star players for the 1955 World Champion Brooklyn Dodgers, and prior to that as the first black players to be candidates to break professional baseball’s color barrier, Jackie Robinson and Roy Campanella would seem to be natural allies. But the two men were divided by a rivalry going far beyond the personality differences and petty jealousies of competitive teammates. Behind the bitterness were deep and differing beliefs about the fight for civil rights. Robinson, the more aggressive and intense of the two, thought Jim Crow should be attacked head-on; Campanella, more passive and easygoing, believed that ability, not militancy, was the key to racial equality. Drawing on interviews with former players such as Monte Irvin, Hank Aaron, Carl Erskine, and Don Zimmer, Jackie and Campy offers a closer look at these two players and their place in a historical movement torn between active defiance and passive resistance. William C. Kashatus deepens our understanding of these two baseball icons and civil rights pioneers and provides a clearer picture of their time and our own.