Breaking into Baseball: Women and the National Pastime (Writing Baseball)

Breaking into Baseball: Women and the National Pastime (Writing Baseball) Review

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Breaking into Baseball: Women and the National Pastime (Writing Baseball) Feature

While baseball is traditionally perceived as a game to be played, enjoyed, and reported from a masculine perspective, it has long been beloved among women—more so than any other spectator sport. Breaking into Baseball: Women and the National Pastime upends baseball’s accepted history to at last reveal just how involved women are, and have always been, in the American game.

Through provocative interviews and deft research, Jean Hastings Ardell devotes a detailed chapter to each of the seven ways women participate in the game—from the stands as fans, on the field as professionals or as amateur players, behind the plate as umpires, in the front office as executives, in the press box as sportswriters and reporters, or in the shadows as Baseball Annies. From these revelatory vantage points, Ardell invites overdue appreciation for the affinity and talent women bring to baseball at all levels and shows us our national game anew.

From its ancient origins in spring fertility rituals through contemporary marketing efforts geared toward an ever-increasing female fan base, baseball has always had a feminine side, and generations of women have sought—and been sought after—to participate in the sport, even when doing so meant challenging the cultural mores of their era. In that regard, women have been breaking into baseball from the very beginning. But recent decades have witnessed great strides in legitimizing women’s roles on the diamond as players and umpires as well as in vital management and media roles. In her thoughtfully organized and engagingly written survey, Ardell offers a chance for sports enthusiasts and historians of both genders to better appreciate the storied and complex relationship women have so long shared with the game and to glimpse the future of women in baseball.

Breaking into Baseball is augmented by twenty-four illustrations and a foreword from Ila Borders, the first woman to play more than three seasons of men’s professional baseball.

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The Dark Side of the Diamond: Gambling, Violence, Drugs and Alcoholism in the National Pastime

The Dark Side of the Diamond: Gambling, Violence, Drugs and Alcoholism in the National Pastime Review

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The Dark Side of the Diamond: Gambling, Violence, Drugs and Alcoholism in the National Pastime Feature

Roger Abrams latest book discusses the vices of baseball and how they reflect American society. The Dark Side of the Diamond relates little-known parts of baseball history, presenting evidence of game-fixing and gambling dating to the mid-19th century. Cobb, Ruth, Mantle, Rose, and Bonds are both idols and flawed human beings. While baseball can teach young people resourcefulness, fortitude, teamwork and pride, it is just as likely to instruct them in violence, disparagement, cheating, and human frailty.

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Baseball, Inc.: The National Pastime As Big Business

Baseball, Inc.: The National Pastime As Big Business Review

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Baseball, Inc.: The National Pastime As Big Business Feature

During the second half of the twentieth century, Major League Baseball and its affiliated minor leagues evolved from local and regional entities governing the play of America’s favorite pastime to national business organizations. The relocation of teams, league expansion, the advent of free agency and an influx of international players has made baseball big business, on an increasingly global scale. Focusing on the last fifty years, this work examines the past and present commercial elements of organized baseball, emphasizing the dual roles—competitive sport and profitable business—which the sport must now fulfill. Twenty-five essays cover five areas integral to the economic side of baseball: business and finance, human resources, international relations, management and leadership and sports marketing. Detailed discussions of the redistribution of revenues, the history of player unionization, aggressive global marketing, strategies of franchise owners and an evaluation of fan costs, among other topics introduce the reader to the important issues and specific challenges professional baseball faces in an increasingly crowded—yet geographically expansive—sports marketplace. The work is also indexed.

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Baseball in the Classroom: Essays on Teaching the National Pastime

Baseball in the Classroom: Essays on Teaching the National Pastime Review

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Baseball in the Classroom: Essays on Teaching the National Pastime Feature

As scholarly interest in baseball has increased in recent years, so too has the use of baseball both as subject and as teaching method in college courses. In addition to lecturing on baseball history, professors are more frequently using baseball as a pedagogical tool to teach other disciplines. Baseball’s interdisciplinary appeal is evident in the myriad ways that diverse college faculty have made use of it in the classroom. In this collection of essays, professors from different disciplines explain how they have used baseball in higher education. Organized by academic field, essays offer insight into how baseball can help teach key issues in archival research, business, cultural studies, education, experiential learning, film, American history, labor relations, law, literature, Native American studies, philosophy, public speaking, race studies and social history.

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