Center Field Shot

Center Field Shot PDF Author: James R. Walker
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
ISBN: 0803248253
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 402

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Book Description
This work explores how the new medium of television changed America's pastime and traces the sometimes contentious but mutually beneficial relationship between baseball and television, from the first televised game in 1939 to the modern-day world of Internet broadcasts, satellite radio, and high-definition television. Original.

Center Field Shot

Center Field Shot PDF Author: James R. Walker
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
ISBN: 0803248253
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 402

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Book Description
This work explores how the new medium of television changed America's pastime and traces the sometimes contentious but mutually beneficial relationship between baseball and television, from the first televised game in 1939 to the modern-day world of Internet broadcasts, satellite radio, and high-definition television. Original.

The Baseball Film

The Baseball Film PDF Author: Aaron Baker
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
ISBN: 0813596904
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 144

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Book Description
Baseball has long been viewed as the Great American Pastime, so it is no surprise that the sport has inspired many Hollywood films and television series. But how do these works depict the game, its players, fans, and place in American society? This study offers an extensive look at nearly one hundred years of baseball-themed movies, documentaries, and TV shows. Film and sports scholar Aaron Baker examines works like A League of their Own (1992) and Sugar (2008), which dramatize the underrepresented contributions of female and immigrant players, alongside classic baseball movies like The Natural that are full of nostalgia for a time when native-born white men could use the game to achieve the American dream. He further explores how biopics have both mythologized and demystified such legendary figures as Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jackie Robinson and Fernando Valenzuela. The Baseball Film charts the variety of ways that Hollywood presents the game as integral to American life, whether showing little league as a site of parent-child bonding or depicting fans’ lifelong love affairs with their home teams. Covering everything from Bull Durham (1988) to The Bad News Bears (1976), this book offers an essential look at one of the most cinematic of all sports.

They Came from Center Field

They Came from Center Field PDF Author: Dan Gutman
Publisher: Scholastic Paperbacks
ISBN: 9780590479752
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 90

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Book Description
A team of youngsters takes on a crew of extraterrestrials determined to learn the game of baseball. Original.

The Called Shot

The Called Shot PDF Author: Thomas Wolf
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
ISBN: 0803255241
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 408

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Book Description
In the summer of 1932, at the beginning of the turbulent decade that would remake America, baseball fans were treated to one of the most thrilling seasons in the history of the sport. As the nation drifted deeper into the Great Depression and reeled from social unrest, baseball was a diversion for a troubled country—and yet the world of baseball was marked by the same edginess that pervaded the national scene. On-the-field fights were as common as double plays. Amid the National League pennant race, Cubs’ shortstop Billy Jurges was shot by showgirl Violet Popovich in a Chicago hotel room. When the regular season ended, the Cubs and Yankees clashed in what would be Babe Ruth’s last appearance in the fall classic. After the Cubs lost the first two games in New York, the series resumed in Chicago at Wrigley Field, with Democratic presidential candidate Franklin Roosevelt cheering for the visiting Yankees from the box seats behind the Yankees’ dugout. In the top of the fifth inning the game took a historic turn. As Ruth was jeered mercilessly by Cubs players and fans, he gestured toward the outfield and then blasted a long home run. After Ruth circled the bases, Roosevelt exclaimed, “Unbelievable!” Ruth’s homer set off one of baseball’s longest-running and most intense debates: did Ruth, in fact, call his famous home run? Rich with historical context and detail, The Called Shot dramatizes the excitement of a baseball season during one of America’s most chaotic summers.

Long Shot

Long Shot PDF Author: Mike Piazza
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1439150230
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 384

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Book Description
The twelve-time All-Star catcher describes the inspiration he gleaned from his self-made father, his early career with the Dodgers, his memorable 2000 World Series with the Mets, and the controversies that have marked his career.

The Team That Forever Changed Baseball and America

The Team That Forever Changed Baseball and America PDF Author: Society for American Baseball Research (SABR)
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
ISBN: 0803240252
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 396

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Book Description
Of all the teams in the annals of baseball, only a select few can lay claim to historic significance. One of those teams is the 1947 Brooklyn Dodgers, the first racially integrated Major League team of the twentieth century. The addition of Jackie Robinson to its roster changed not only baseball but also the nation. Yet Robinson was just one member of that memorable club, which included Carl Furillo, Gil Hodges, Pee Wee Reese, Pete Reiser, Duke Snider, Eddie Stanky, Arky Vaughan, and Dixie Walker. Also present was a quartet of baseball’s most unforgettable characters: co-owners Branch Rickey and Walter O’Malley, suspended manager Leo Durocher, and radio announcer Red Barber. This book is the first to offer biographies of everyone on that incomparable team as well as accounts of the moments and events that marked the Dodgers’ 1947 season: Commissioner Happy Chandler suspending Durocher, Rickey luring his old friend Burt Shotton out of retirement to replace Durocher, and brilliant outfielder Reiser being sidelined after running into a fence. In spite of all this, the Dodgers went on to win the National League pennant over the heavily favored St. Louis Cardinals. And of course, there is the biggest story of the season, where history and biography coalesce: Jackie Robinson, who overcame widespread hostility to become Rookie of the Year—and to help the Dodgers set single-game attendance records in cities around the National League.

Baseball's Ultimate Power

Baseball's Ultimate Power PDF Author: Bill Jenkinson
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 0762762470
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 355

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Book Description
The tape measure home run is the greatest single act of power in the game of baseball, and the tales of these homers are the most cherished legacies players and fans hand down through the generations. Fully illustrated with photos of the players and aerial ballpark photos showing the landing spots of each stadium's longest homers.

Here's the Pitch

Here's the Pitch PDF Author: Roberta J. Newman
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
ISBN: 1496213653
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 356

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Book Description
2020 SABR Baseball Research Award In the mid-nineteenth century, two industries arrived on the American scene. One was strictly a business, yet it helped create, define, and disseminate American culture. The other was ostensibly just a game, yet it soon became emblematic of what it meant to be American, aiding in the creation of a national identity. Today, whenever the AT&T call to the bullpen is heard, fans enter Minute Maid Park, or vote for favorite All-Stars (brought to us by MasterCard), we are reminded that advertising has become inseparable from the MLB experience. Here's the Pitch examines this connection between baseball and advertising, as both constructors and reflectors of culture. Roberta J. Newman considers the simultaneous development of both industries from the birth of the partnership, paying particular attention to the ways in which advertising spread the gospel of baseball at the same time professional baseball helped develop a body of consumers ready for the messages of advertising. Newman considers the role of product endorsements in the creation of the culture of celebrity, and of celebrity baseball players in particular, as well as the ways in which new technologies have impacted the intersection of the two industries. From Ty Cobb to Babe Ruth in the 1920s and 1930s to Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, and Willie Mays in the postwar years, to Derek Jeter, Rafael Palmeiro, and David Ortiz in the twenty-first century, Newman looks at many of baseball's celebrated players and shows what qualities made them the perfect pitchmen for new products at key moments. Here's the Pitch tells the story of the development of American and an increasingly international culture through the marriage between Mad Men and The Boys of Summer that made for great copy, notable TV advertisements, and lively social media, and shows how baseball's relationship with advertising is stronger than ever.

Baseball

Baseball PDF Author: Steven P. Gietschier
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
ISBN: 1496235371
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 624

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Book Description
A history of baseball as a sport and business during the middle of the twentieth century, examining the game on and off the field and tracing its development within the broader contours of American history.

Crack of the Bat

Crack of the Bat PDF Author: James R. Walker
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
ISBN: 0803245009
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 344

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Book Description
The crack of the bat on the radio is ingrained in the American mind as baseball takes center stage each summer. Radio has brought the sounds of baseball into homes for almost one hundred years, helping baseball emerge from the 1919 Black Sox scandal into the glorious World Series of the 1920s. The medium gave fans around the country aural access to the first All-Star Game, Lou Gehrig’s farewell speech, and Bobby Thomson’s “Shot Heard ’Round the World.” Red Barber, Vin Scully, Harry Caray, Ernie Harwell, Bob Uecker, and dozens of other beloved announcers helped cement the love affair between radio and the national pastime. Crack of the Bat takes readers from the 1920s to the present, examining the role of baseball in the development of the radio industry and the complex coevolution of their relationship. James R. Walker provides a balanced, nuanced, and carefully documented look at radio and baseball over the past century, focusing on the interaction between team owners, local and national media, and government and business interests, with extensive coverage of the television and Internet ages, when baseball on the radio had to make critical adjustments to stay viable. Despite cable television’s ubiquity, live video streaming, and social media, radio remains an important medium through which fans engage with their teams. The evolving relationship between baseball and radio intersects with topics as varied as the twenty-year battle among owners to control radio, the development of sports as a valuable media product, and the impact of competing technologies on the broadcast medium. Amid these changes, the familiar sounds of the ball hitting the glove and the satisfying crack of the bat stay the same. Purchase the audio edition.