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Abstract: Several months ago, we both met in Cooperstown, New York, for the annual Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture. While the idyllic village is not where baseball was invented. and not by Abner Doubleday; it was the perfect place for us to talk about this issue of NINE as we were surrounded by the game’s history in the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.As it was the first time we’d been to Cooperstown together since working as the journal’s co-editors, and we thought it would be a great chance to talk with some of the symposium’s attendees, many of whom are regulars at our annual NINE Spring Training Conference. What we soon discovered was that, if we published even half of the articles from ... Read More PubDate: 2024-07-26T00:00:00-05:00
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Abstract: “Everyone in baseball is so afraid of losing, but I’ve begun to think that for a team, learning to lose is a very important part of the game . . . you have to learn to wait in baseball, and losing tests that capacity.”“I sat in the reserved seats and felt uncomfortable. Everybody is so polite . . . in the bleachers, however, you can be vindictive. Nearly everybody else is.”“Kids are always chasing rainbows, but baseball is a world where you can catch them.”“Hope rises each spring like sap in the trees. That’s part of baseball, that’s one of the greatest things about the game. You have the annual rebirth no matter how disastrous the previous year was.”“My idea of conceit would be a political speaker that would go on ... Read More PubDate: 2024-07-26T00:00:00-05:00
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Abstract: Statue of Douglas Tilden’s The Ball Player statue in Golden Gate Park; Photo from Municipal Blue Book of San Francisco, 1915, courtesy of Wikimedia ... Read More PubDate: 2024-07-26T00:00:00-05:00
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Abstract: Animated mice buttress the angelic outfield, complete with styrofoam splash mountain, remembering when California, Anaheim, and Los Angeles jockeyed greedily, claiming baseball for themselves.A former Giant roamed the well-manicured diamond, the first Jamaican summer slugger with flip-up shades, a statuesque visage clothed in #24.In haloed “A” cap, our ballplayer looks plaintive in profile, concealing the secret of his spicy moniker. When they called him “Chili,” did they imagine he’d grow to 6’ 3,” 200 lbs. of switch-hitting Adonis'We remember our boyhood sandlot nicknames: Twister, Dusty, and Rocket, hoping to resurrect our innocence in a musty box deep in a closet that smells of lavender and mothballs.Edging ... Read More PubDate: 2024-07-26T00:00:00-05:00
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Abstract: I drove by the sign for the “Birthplace of Connie Mack” on State Route 9 in central Massachusetts in the summer of 2023. It was in East Brookfield, Massachusetts, to be exact, more or less in the middle of nowhere. It occurred to me that if I stayed on the same road eastbound another fifteen miles or so, I would pass close to the Worcester Red Sox (Woo Sox) stadium—a AAA team recently ripped out of nearby Pawtucket, Rhode Island (formerly Paw Sox), for the price of sweeter taxation deals and the prospect of a growing metro west Boston population and revenue base. Keep on traveling the same state route and I would eventually be stuck in appalling Boston traffic within walking distance of Fenway Park. There were a ... Read More PubDate: 2024-07-26T00:00:00-05:00
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Abstract: OMG, I waited for this, yearned for it, and finally watched Ken Burns’s Baseball for the requisite nine Innings over the eleven days of its screening in 1994 (Rather than calling each segment an episode or a chapter, Burns cleverly uses “Innings”). Game over, spent, I wondered: Who won' The hype for this epic nine-part documentary on baseball as the quintessential sport in America’s past and present seemed promising. Hundreds of thousands, probably millions, watched it on PBS when it debuted. Burns attempted to tell it in the vernacular to non-baseball fans by including hundreds of participants, images, and minutes. The production was marvelous. Sounds, sights, and songs ran the length of this epic, inundating ... Read More PubDate: 2024-07-26T00:00:00-05:00
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Abstract: When I was ten years old, I had a conversation with a real Brooklyn Dodger. Not a benchwarmer, mind you, but a starting player and five-time All-Star.I played Little League baseball in Clymer, Pennsylvania, a town of about 2,500 people northeast of Pittsburgh. Almost all the men in Clymer either worked in the coal mines or for the Hiram Swank brickyard. Many played baseball in the local county league after work and on weekends, but some still found time to be coaches and managers for us Little Leaguers. One of my managers stressed that at the plate, we should follow the pitch and try to see the ball come in contact with the bat as we swung, as Ted Williams and Stan Musial did. Since Stan “The Man” was from ... Read More PubDate: 2024-07-26T00:00:00-05:00
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Abstract: He was eighteen. In 1959, Pat Jordan was six feet, two inches tall and weighed 193 pounds. He was a pitcher at Fairfield High School in Connecticut. He had an Irish surname but, in fact, was deeply Italian. Patsy Giordano was his father’s semi-Americanized name.Pat was an indomitable high school pitcher whose outings were attended by crowds larger than he would see in his minor league baseball career. His straight, overhand motion was effortless and graceful. He did not throw, hurl, or heave the ball. He released it from his hand, probably over ninety miles per hour, maybe closer to one hundred.In 2022, Pat was eighty-one years old. He had lost nearly all his curly black Italian hair to Alopecia, and he was ... Read More PubDate: 2024-07-26T00:00:00-05:00
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Abstract: In the long history of Major League Baseball, only eight managers have been lawyers. In addition to Jack Hendricks, the subject of this article, the group consists of Miller Huggins,1 Hughie Jennings,2 Tony La Russa,3 Jim O’Rourke,4 Branch Rickey,5 Muddy Ruel,6 and Monte Ward.7Of the foregoing octet, Hendricks is the least well-known. Two reasons account for this fact. First, unlike the others, Hendricks does not have a published biography.8 Second, although Hendricks spent time in the majors as a player and a manager, his greatest success (in either capacity) came in the minors. Accordingly, this article seeks to give Hendricks some long-overdue recognition.9John Charles “Jack” Hendricks, Jr., hereinafter referred ... Read More PubDate: 2024-07-26T00:00:00-05:00
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Abstract: Professional baseball is a child of Reconstruction era America. The game’s evolution occurred as the United States dealt with the aftermath of the Civil War; the physical and moral reconstitution of America paralleled the development of the professional game. Sensing opportunity, Black ballplayers and club organizers attempted to organize and play in what had already been termed “the national pastime.”1 As Reconstruction withered across America by the late 1870s, the Black baseball community met resistance. American culture and business colluded to discriminate against Black players and clubs, reduce their opportunities for revenue and profit at the ballpark, and ultimately exclude them from the organized ... Read More PubDate: 2024-07-26T00:00:00-05:00
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Abstract: Many historians and fans have referred to the decade following World War I as the Golden Age of Sport because of the abundance of sports heroes. Some critics, however, cite this same period as a low point in American sports journalism.In 1949, looking back on the sportswriting of the 1920s, Stanley Woodward, a sports reporter of that decade, had this to say:If reporters on the city staff had written as did those of the sport subdivision they would have been thrown out without benefit of severance pay . . . The writers of the period which some have called the “Golden Era of Sport” wallowed in jargon, florid phraseology and mixed figures. Even the best of them fell into line . . . It was an era of make-believe in ... Read More PubDate: 2024-07-26T00:00:00-05:00
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Abstract: The story of Major League Baseball’s infamous color barrier has become a well-documented and often repeated narrative in the annals of baseball history. From the first racist actions of Cap Anson to the notorious “gentleman’s handshake” agreement of MLB team owners, professional baseball’s barring of African American players created a period of MLB history that stands as a dark mark on America’s pastime. However, when Jackie Robinson stepped onto the field for the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15th, 1947, the decades-long racial barrier that had permeated Major League Baseball had finally been broken. That day, a crowd of 26,6231 fans at Ebbets Field saw the beginning of a new chapter in professional baseball and a ... Read More PubDate: 2024-07-26T00:00:00-05:00
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Abstract: The Chicago White Stockings were created to challenge the Cincinnati Red Stockings. They would go on to have an indelible impact on the game of baseball. Of particular significance were the innovations of team executives William Hulbert and Albert Spalding, who were responsible for fundamental structural changes to organized baseball that have endured for more than a century, and the creation of the National League, which became the blueprint for every professional sports league that followed.Hulbert was an owner and team officer since its National Association days. After his premature death in 1882, Albert Spalding, who had retired as a player five years earlier and assumed a position as team secretary, succeeded ... Read More PubDate: 2024-07-26T00:00:00-05:00
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Abstract: In Baseball in Huntsville, Alabama sports-writing legend Mark McCarter looks back on over a hundred years of baseball history in northern Alabama and what is now the state’s largest city, Huntsville. As the town transformed from a bustling burg with a thriving cotton mill industry to today’s aerospace and technological “Rocket City,” one constant thread has been baseball, and, as McCarter’s book illustrates, that thread has been a rich and enduring one.McCarter organizes his book chronologically, beginning with a Huntsville team participating in the professional Tennessee-Alabama State League in 1903, having a heated rivalry with neighboring Decatur, and players with Huntsville roots like Jim “Ducky” Holmes ... Read More PubDate: 2024-07-26T00:00:00-05:00
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Abstract: Black Stats Matter by Philip Lee has some incredibly excellent aspects despite its shortcomings. Early in the book, Lee describes both its purposes: (1) to convince the reader “that the players and numbers of the Negro Leagues should be regarded as Major” (6) exactly as they are for the National and American Leagues and (2) to encourage discourse regarding the Negro Leagues advance from being based on anecdotal stories to being analytical and grounded in statistics. The undertaking to achieve these is highly worthwhile and possibly necessary regarding elements in the baseball community reluctant to recognize or acknowledge that the Negro Leagues were, indeed, major leagues.Part I, “Arguments,” is where the book ... Read More PubDate: 2024-07-26T00:00:00-05:00
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Abstract: Steve Gietschier’s Baseball: The Turbulent Midcentury Years is built upon the foundation of two classic scholarly works on baseball. The new book satisfies the interests of the game’s most serious historians and the general audience. The volume is a magnificent treatment of baseball, on and off the diamond, in the middle of the twentieth century. His book should rightfully be among the select group of important works on the game.Gietschier served as the Managing Editor, Researcher, and head of The Sporting News Research Center from 1986 through 2008. Afterward, he spent over a decade as the University Curator and history professor at Lindenwood University. He is also an honored member of the Society of American ... Read More PubDate: 2024-07-26T00:00:00-05:00
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Abstract: From the beginning of Dwayne Brenna’s novel Long Way Home, the reader is drawn to the narrative of the Appalachian All Stars, a ragtag barnstorming baseball team run by former major leaguer turned clergyman, Preacher Allan Bentham, on a 1934 summer tour during the Depression Era. The story is told by Tom “Spitball” McKague, Spitz for short, and readers are privy to his worldview and inner thoughts about people, places, and events. The account of the trip is full of quirky characters who seem to spring from the page and create a desire to know more about their backstory and where they are headed. These former players have come together to continue playing the game they love and make a few dollars as they travel ... Read More PubDate: 2024-07-26T00:00:00-05:00
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Abstract: I am always impressed with solid research.Mark Braff, author of Sons of Baseball: Growing Up with a Major League Dad, shows that hard work pays off. Even though he spent most of his career on the media relations side, “the dark side,” as many reporters refer to media relations, he demonstrated skills any journalist would do well to duplicate. What happened to these children of baseball is a fascinating subject, and Braff covers the territory with ease. In each chapter, he provides a background on the fathers, then introduces the sons and incorporates the two.One thing that impressed me was while he could have used the same basic quotes from each of the sons about their youthful baseball experiences, Braff attempts ... Read More PubDate: 2024-07-26T00:00:00-05:00
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Abstract: Baseball and Cultural Heritage, edited by Gregory Ramshaw and Sean Gammons, provides readers with a diverse collection of essays that discuss the creation, meanings, and complexities of baseball’s cultural heritage today. From stadiums and monuments to food and pop culture, these writings dissect an array of baseball heritage topics and examine them through the various perspectives that have shaped societies in the past and continue to do so today. It seeks to expand our notion of what baseball heritage is, is not, and should be.Baseball and Cultural Heritage does a great job of moving readers past the more common perception of baseball cultural heritage and positioning them to understand the more in-depth social ... Read More PubDate: 2024-07-26T00:00:00-05:00
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Abstract: On April 19, 1985, the Double-A Huntsville Stars hosted the Birmingham Barons for their inaugural home opener. The stands of the brand-new and state-of-the-art stadium were packed with just over 10,000 fans who watched the Stars maul the Barons by a score of 10–0. The home opener was, in the words of Huntsville city councilman John Glenn (not the astronaut, despite the rocket connection), “the most exciting thing that has happened to Huntsville since man landed on the moon” (98).In his latest book from the University of Nebraska Press, Dale Tafoya details the development and delight of the Stars’ first season. In the afterword, Tafoya relates how One Season in Rocket City emerged from the process of composing his ... Read More PubDate: 2024-07-26T00:00:00-05:00
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Abstract: During the 2022 MLB season, Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees hit 62 home runs before heading into free agency. Judge surpassed Roger Maris’ 61 record and broke the American League record for most home runs in a season. There is some debate whether he should be considered the MLB home run record holder, as those who passed Maris in the late 90s and early 2000s have their records tainted by steroid use. This debate is one of the first things mentioned in the book. Roger Maris Jr.’s opinion that Judge should be considered the MLB leader is stated unequivocally in his foreword. While Bryan Hoch engages with this debate, he does not overtly take a stance, focusing instead on providing an in-depth account of Judge’s ... Read More PubDate: 2024-07-26T00:00:00-05:00
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Abstract: In an era when America is losing its heroes, Adam Lazarus brings us this fresh and engaging read about two men from ordinary means who became extraordinary Americans and lifelong friends.Though the title of The Wingmen references the “unlikely, unusual, unbreakable friendship between John Glenn and Ted Williams,” this narrative is about two Marine jet fighter pilots who (in my opinion) were always destined to become friends.Today, there’s a vast supply of books detailing the patriotic brotherhood of World War II. The Korean conflict, often referred to as the “Forgotten War,” is different. I commend Lazarus for exploring the dynamics of John Glenn and Ted Williams’s friendship developed during this obscure ... Read More PubDate: 2024-07-26T00:00:00-05:00
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Abstract: A baseball manager’s career is often judged on wins, losses, and championships. And if one were to take this approach with Chuck Tanner, who managed four major league clubs across nineteen consecutive seasons, the results would uncover moderate success: a career winning percentage of .495, buoyed by a World Series title in 1979. Of course, a truer measure of a manager is in his legacy, particularly how he affected the game and influenced players. Author Dale Perelman presents this legacy in Chuck Tanner and the Pittsburgh Pirates, a detailed biography of the manager who showed that nice guys can, in fact, finish first.As the title suggests, Perelman focuses most of the attention on Tanner’s nine seasons with the ... Read More PubDate: 2024-07-26T00:00:00-05:00
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Abstract: In 2021, Joe Posnanski released his book The Baseball 100, which was his personal ranking of the one hundred best players in baseball history. But not really. The list, a product of the author’s individual columns for The Athletic, seemed almost intended to start arguments. Some players, like Tom Seaver (ranked #41) and Jackie Robinson (#42), were placed in the number corresponding with their jersey numbers. Others, like Joe DiMaggio, who came in at #56, were placed in a spot corresponding with a number important to their career, in this case, Joltin’ Joe’s fifty-six-game hitting streak in 1941.Posnanski’s latest book, Why We Love Baseball: A History in 50 Moments, seems less likely to cause arguments and more ... Read More PubDate: 2024-07-26T00:00:00-05:00
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