The Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture, 2002

by William M. Simons (Editor)

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780786415700
Publisher:	McFarland & Company, Incorporated Publishers
Publication date:	05/19/2003
Series:	Cooperstown Symposium Series , #6
Edition description:	14th 2002 ed.
Pages:	379
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.76(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

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.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments      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