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

by William M. Simons (Editor)

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780786498895
Publisher:	McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Publication date:	02/12/2015
Series:	Cooperstown Symposium Series , #12
Pages:	300
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.80(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

William M. Simons is professor of history at the State University of New York–Oneonta.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments viii

Introduction William M. Simons 1

Part I Baseball Poetry, Music, and Literature

Baseball, Casey, and Me Frank Deford 14

"The Band Is Playing Somewhere": Unpacking the Music of "Casey at the Bat" Timothy A. Johnson 14

Towards a History of the Baseball Poem Joseph Stanton 20

Part II The Ballpark: Place and Atmosphere

Back to the Future: Building a Ballpark, Not a Stadium Janet Marie Smith 52

Ballpark Advertising Decade-by-Decade - and the Impact on the Fan Experience and Team Branding Edward Mayo John Weitzel Dobh Mayo 62

Food Concessions and Middle-Class Identification at Baseball Games, 1900-1950 Seth S. Tannenbaum 77

The Seven Dirty Words You Can't Say About Baseball: How George Carlin Explains the Relative Lack of Spectator Violence in U.S. Professional Sport Martin Lewison 93

Part III Myths, Legends, and Icons of the Game

Greenberg at the Bat: A Twenty-First Century Jewish Moonlight Graham William M. Simons 112

Superstition and Ritual as Strength -or "Keep brushing those teeth between innings, Turk Wendell" Matthew R. Yeazel 135

The Big Leagues on the Big Screen: Character, Culture, and the Mythology of the Majors in the Hollywood Baseball Film Robert Repici 143

Part IV Asian and Asian-American Baseball

Battered but Not Broken: Baseball and Masculinity at Tule Lake, 1942-1946 Terumi Rafferty-Osaki 164

A Strategic Approach for Baseball to Flourish in Modern China Keith Spalding Robbins 180

Part V Museums: Baseball Exhibits, Standards, and Preservation

Mrs. Jack-Art Collector, Muse, Mentor, and Mascot: Isabella Stewart Gardner and the Boston Red Sox Jay Hurd 198

Preservation of Integrity or Succumbing to the Pressures of the Electronic Media: The Moral and Statistical Conundrums on the Horizon for the Baseball Hall of Fame Wayne G. McDonnell, Jr. 207

"One for the Books": (Re)Constructing Baseball History, Memory, and Community Todd F. McDorman 225

Part VI Contracts, Jurisprudence, and the Pastime

Pine Tar and the Infield Fly Rule: An Umpire's Perspective on the Hart-Dworkin Jurisprudential Debate William Blake 244

The Nation's Strongest Union: Marvin Miller, the Major League Baseball Players Association, and the Labor Movement in the 1970s Ron Briley 258

Index 275