How Baseball Explains America

by Hal Bodley, George Will (Foreword by)

Overview

Examining the connection between baseball and our society as a whole, How Baseball Explains America is a fascinating, one-of-a-kind journey through America's pastime. Longtime USA TODAY baseball editor and columnist Hal Bodley explores just how essential baseball is to understanding the American experience. He takes readers into the Oval Office with George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton as the former presidents share their thoughts on the game, he looks at the changes that America's Greatest Generation ushered in, as well as examining baseball's struggle with performance enhancing drugs alongside America's war on drugs.

An unabashedly celebratory explanation of America's love affair with baseball and the men who make it possible, this work sheds light on topics such as the role Jackie Robinson's signing with the Dodgers played in the civil rights movement, how baseball's westward expansion mirrored the growth of our national economy, labor strife, baseball families, the international explosion of the game, and even the myriad ways in which movies, music, and baseball are intrinsically tied. It is a must read for anyone interested in more fully understanding not only the game but also the nation in which it thrives.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781600789380
Publisher:	Triumph Books
Publication date:	05/01/2014
Series:	How...Explain
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 8.10(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Hal Bodley is a columnist for MLB.com and has covered baseball since 1958. He is a former columnist for USA Today and is the founder and former president of the Associated Press Editors Association and has served as a broadcast analyst for CBS, CNN, and NBC. He has won 30 regional and national writing awards and was elected to the Delaware Sports Hall of Fame and the Delaware Baseball Hall of Fame. He lives in Belleair Beach, Florida. George Will is a world-renowned newspaper columnist, journalist, and author. He was awarded the 1977 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary.

Table of Contents

Foreword George F. Will ix

1 The Greatest Decade 1

2 Drugs on the Street, Drugs on the Diamond 13

3 Owning a Team: How Hard Could It Be? 31

4 Bill Clinton and the Strike of'94 53

5 A Family Game 67

6 Baseball Chatter 83

7 George Steinbrenner's American Dream 87

8 Cox, La Russa, Torre-End of an Era 97

9 The Legacy of Jackie Robinson 117

10 The Dream Is Alive in Oakland 127

11 A Kid's Game 147

12 Mr. President 159

13 Take Me Out to the Ball Game 171

14 The American Dream (Cuban Edition) 185

15 Change Is Good? 199

16 The Big Job 213

17 There Used to Be a Ballpark 227

Acknowledgments 237

Sources 239

About the Author 243