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- The Cheap Seats: A Note from the Editor
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Abstract: Three years since my last visit to the Baseball Hall of Fame— with the annual Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball History and Culture being canceled in 2020 and shifted to online for 2021— I started writing this note from the deck of my hotel, overlooking Lake Otsego in June 2022. Twenty- four hours ago, I was sitting with my college roommate in the bleachers at Fenway Park, my first game at the iconic park, which opened in 1912. Red Sox fan and noted baseball writer Bill Nowlin gave us access to see the view from the top of the Green Monster in left field and took us to the press box where we listened to him and the Red Sox official scorekeeper reminisce about the games they’ve seen there, the most notable of which ... Read More
PubDate: 2023-02-16T00:00:00-05:00
- Diamond Quotes
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Abstract: “Any schnook can play it, and they do play it, at all levels, whether it is stickball in the streets or rockball in the country.”Carlton Fisk“Next to religion, baseball has furnished a greater impact on American life than any other institution.”Herbert Hoover“I have discovered, in twenty years of moving around the ballpark, that the knowledge of the game is usually in inverse proportion to the price of the seats.”Bill Veeck“Nobody likes to hear it, because it’s dull. But the reason you win or lose is darn near always the same— pitching.”Earl Weaver“Nothing flatters me more than to have it assumed that I could write prose— unless it be to have it assumed that I once pitched a baseball with distinction.”Robert ... Read More
PubDate: 2023-02-16T00:00:00-05:00
- Loved It: The Boys of Summer
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Abstract: Roger Kahn aspired to be a writer. When the crunch came, he promised himself to write one book, his book, about the things and places and people he loved.1 That his subject was baseball is particularly American. Writers had been inspired by organized baseball almost from its beginning. The press box at the Polo Grounds circa 1907– 11 “could easily have been mistaken for an outdoor literary club,” sportswriter Bozeman Bulger once said.2 In The Boys of Summer Kahn is fan, reporter, and literary artist. His book is a classic.I call as my first witness Brett McKay of theartofmanliness.com. After studying the classics in college, McKay will tell you why every man should study classical culture. We know Kahn grew up ... Read More
PubDate: 2023-02-16T00:00:00-05:00
- Loathed It: The Boys of Summer
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Abstract: When I began this piece, I conducted a very unscientific poll of friends on what they thought of the iconic book, The Boys of Summer; some were baseball fans, some were not. Visiting California I talked to a handful of people, especially if they were Dodgers fans. At a friend’s house, I mentioned that I had to write an article on the book. He laughed and said it was around the house somewhere, and he would be happy to give me his copy. When I asked Brandon what he thought of the book, he described it as a “shelf turd.” It sat there collecting dust, not really wanted but not getting rid of it. He’d had the book since the eighth grade. He liked its idea but found it incredibly dull— a lot of exposition about nothing. ... Read More
PubDate: 2023-02-16T00:00:00-05:00
- A Very Live Corpse: How a Military-Industrial Complex Saved Bay Area
Baseball during World War I-
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Abstract: Walt Whitman once said, “I see great things in baseball. It’s our game, the American game. It will repair our losses and be a blessing to us.” You could look it up.Many sports fans and pundits believed that baseball died during the summer of 1918. Nearly all minor leagues folded, one after another. Both major leagues quit early, complying with a federal “work-or- fight” order that required draft- eligible men either to find war-related jobs or to serve in the armed forces. “In a period of upwards of twenty years as a writer of baseball,” San Francisco Call columnist T. P. Magilligan wrote, “I cannot recollect the time when there was so little enthusiasm for the national pastime as there is at the present ... Read More
PubDate: 2023-02-16T00:00:00-05:00
- Satchel Paige and the 1948 Pennant Race
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Abstract: Although not as well known as other famous pennant races (1951 and 1993 in the National League, for example), the 1948 American League pennant race stayed tense and exciting down to the last day of the season.1 On August 29, with five weeks left in the season, the Red Sox led the pack, but the Yankees, Indians, and Athletics (of Philadelphia at the time) were all within three games. The race continued tight down the stretch, with Boston and Cleveland ending the season having identical 96-58 records.2 This necessitated a one- game playoff in Boston. The Indians’ victory in that game sent them on to the World Series against Boston’s National League franchise, the Braves, and prevented a historic subway series in ... Read More
PubDate: 2023-02-16T00:00:00-05:00
- Art and the Psychology of Baseball (or Vice Versa)
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Abstract: In the summers of 1982 and 1983, after my junior and senior years in high school, I found myself in the most enviable position (for a high school baseball player, anyway). I was working as a clubhouse attendant and batboy (in other words I picked up bats and washed lots of uniforms) for the visiting teams at Wrigley Field. I was a bright kid, a decent athlete, and a good student. But spending ten hours a day among twenty-five elite athletes reminded me of just how remarkable top-tier professional athletes are and how it takes more than natural athletic ability to become a top- tier athlete. I came to understand the importance of the mental game as well. High doses of tenacity, resilience, creativity, and a hint of ... Read More
PubDate: 2023-02-16T00:00:00-05:00
- The Negro Leagues Newly Incorporated into Major League Baseball: An
Examination of Their Strength and an Evaluation of the Unification-
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Abstract: In December 2020 Major League Baseball (MLB) acknowledged that seven of the Negro Leagues were, indeed, major leagues. The seven specific leagues and their active years are as follows:Negro National League I (NNLI) 1920– 31Eastern Colored League (ECL) 1923– 28American Negro League (ANL) 1929Negro Southern League (NSL) 1932 seasonNegro East- West League (NEWL) 1932Negro National League II (NNLII) 1933– 48Negro American League (NAL) 1937– 48This study explores the strength of the Negro Leagues incorporated into MLB versus that of the National League (NL) and the American League (AL). To this end two methods are employed: (1) a statistical comparison of eleven seasons between the two sets of leagues and (2) an ... Read More
PubDate: 2023-02-16T00:00:00-05:00
- Putting Politics Aside: The Congressional Baseball Game
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Abstract: For many Americans, watching representatives from the two major US political parties locked in fierce political battles is nothing new. And while legislative disagreements and challenges have traditionally taken place inside the US Capitol in Washington, DC, the two parties that have dominated American politics for more than 150 years have annually taken their combative spirit to nearby settings (most recently Washington Nationals Park) to settle their perceived and very real differences via competitive baseball. This contest, the Congressional Baseball Game (CBG) played between Democrats and Republicans in the nation’s capital, stands as an American cultural tradition unlike almost any other. Despite receiving ... Read More
PubDate: 2023-02-16T00:00:00-05:00
- The Four
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Abstract: It was spring. I love spring. One of the things I like most about spring is the return of our national pastime. Baseball. Listen to the speech by James Earl Jones in Field of Dreams. If you’re reading this, those words probably give you goose bumps.The problem was, it was the spring of 2020. Baseball wasn’t the only thing missing. We were trapped in our homes, many working from there, staring endlessly at computer screens. The NCAA tournament was canceled (my college roommate and I had a thirty- four-year annual bet paused), and the NBA postponed their season and finished it in a “bubble” in Disney World. Spring training stopped, and a shortened sixty- game season followed in late July without fans. It was ... Read More
PubDate: 2023-02-16T00:00:00-05:00
- Baseball’s Most Bizarre Plays: A Roster of the Odd, the Improbable and
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Abstract: For well over a century, thousands of baseball games have featured even more thousands of players, and to no one’s surprise, all the action on the field taking place over so many innings provides ample opportunity for strange plays and quirks of circumstance to occur. Alan Hirsch takes a stab at finding the craziest of these as evinced by the title of this slim volume.In the introduction, the author states his methodology for determining his roster of 150 peculiar occurrences, not least of which includes proof in the form of a “newspaper or other eyewitness account of the game that reports this incident” (3). Although mass media has evolved greatly in recent years, thereby affording quick access to current website ... Read More
PubDate: 2023-02-16T00:00:00-05:00
- Major League Rebels: Baseball Battles over Workers’ Rights and American
Empire by Robert Elias and Peter Dreier (review)-
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Abstract: Any book with the word “rebel” in its title is going to attract my attention, as people who have not been happy with the way things are and fight for change are fascinating to me.With a foreword written by former Major League pitcher Bill “Spaceman” Lee I was further convinced I was going to like this book before I ever started a chapter.
Authors Robert Elias and Peter Dreier didn’t disappointment me with their book Major League Rebels: Baseball Battles over Workers’ Rights and American Empire.This is an extensive examination of the often-dark side of baseball from a business standpoint with players in battles over low pay, overall treatment, and racism.The authors skillfully show how baseball owners in the late ... Read More
PubDate: 2023-02-16T00:00:00-05:00
- Charlie Murphy: The Iconoclastic Showman behind the Chicago Cubs by Jason
Cannon (review)-
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Abstract: Within less than two years Charles Webb Murphy soared from being an assistant newspaper editor in Cincinnati to owning the Chicago Cubs. He was in charge for nine seasons that included the team’s most successful run, four National League pennants, and two World Series championships between 1906 and 1910. Murphy was intelligent, energetic, and forceful. But by 1914 he had been forced out of Major League Baseball by his fellow owners because sometimes you can be too forceful, particularly if you are also relentlessly critical of baseball’s other magnates. Due to his blackballing, Murphy has mostly vanished from MLB history despite overseeing those championship teams. Jason Cannon has fixed that, though, with his book ... Read More
PubDate: 2023-02-16T00:00:00-05:00
- Baseball Rebels: The Players, People, and Social Movements That Shook Up
the Game and Changed America by Peter Dreier and Robert Elias (review)-
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Abstract: In an age where increasing amounts of attention continue to be devoted to diversity and inclusion, Peter Dreier and Robert Elias reinforce the notion that we’ve come a long way but still have a long way to go. Baseball Rebels serves as a well- rounded volume that examines various aspects of the national pastime vis-à- vis the tumultuous social issues of race relations, the battle of the sexes— in more ways than one— and progressive activism.The narrative is made up of short essays related to a common theme and as such makes for a handy reference for each topic or subtopic. Possibly the best of these is found in chapter 3, titled “Before Jackie Robinson,” which provides readers with overviews of the state of Blacks ... Read More
PubDate: 2023-02-16T00:00:00-05:00
- Pride of the Greyhounds: Ray Legenza and 64 Straight Wins by
Connecticut’s Best High School Baseball Team by Paul Hensler (review)-
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Abstract: There are few things that can make a small town prouder than to have a group of their youths “make good” at the state level and, even in some cases, to bring national notoriety to the community. Winning state titles, particularly for a locale steeped in working- class values, is also often an element in such stories. The chronicle of the 1969– 72 Naugatuck High School Greyhounds, under the leadership of their legendary coach Ray Legenza, fits into this framework perfectly.In this self-published work, author Paul Hensler, himself a 1974 graduate of Naugatuck High, takes his readers on an ephemeral tour of the borough since the mid-nineteenth century. From the start, industrial production was at the heart of the ... Read More
PubDate: 2023-02-16T00:00:00-05:00
- Loserville: How Professional Sports Remade Atlanta— and How Atlanta
Remade Professional Sports by Clayton Trutor (review)-
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Abstract: In Loserville: How Professional Sports Remade Atlanta—and How Atlanta Remade Professional Sports Clayton Trutor offers a thorough and compelling study of Atlanta’s execution of a strategy to bring major league sports teams to the city in the mid-to- late 1960s. While Trutor’s comprehensive investigation and analysis tell the story of four different teams— the MLB Braves, the NFL Falcons, the NBA Hawks, and the NHL Flames—this review focuses primarily on the issues regarding the relocation of the Braves from Milwaukee to Atlanta.The Braves, of course, had already moved once—from Boston to Milwaukee in 1953, the first move by an MLB team from one city to another in fifty years. Especially in the early years, the ... Read More
PubDate: 2023-02-16T00:00:00-05:00
- American Legion Baseball: A History, 1924–2020 by William E. Akin
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Abstract: William Akin’s treatise on the American Legion baseball program makes a twofold contribution to baseball literature. On an overt level, it is a reference book that chronicles the American Legion World Series (ALWS), the capstone of a late- summer baseball tournament among teams of teenagers to crown a national champion. At a deeper level, Akin explores how a baseball program sponsored by a national organization of military veterans developed into a pathway to professional baseball during the middle decades of the twentieth century.As a reference book, Akin provides an encyclopedic compilation of the annual ALWS from its inaugural year in 1926 through the prepandemic year of 2019. He supplies exceptional detail to ... Read More
PubDate: 2023-02-16T00:00:00-05:00
- Red Barber: The Life and Legacy of a Broadcasting Legend by Judith R.
Hiltner and James R. Walker (review)-
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Abstract: One can wonder, dear reader, why the world needs a 440- page tome about an obscure sports announcer; obscure to many, perhaps, but to those of us who know Walter Lanier Barber as “Red,” the need for such a thorough examination of his life should come as no surprise. Barber’s professional career, indeed his life, reads like something from the march of history.Born in the segregated south, he fell in line with the societal norms of Mississippi and Florida before gradually, thankfully, changing his outlook toward those with a different color of skin. Perhaps it is fitting that Red Barber is the man who handled the play- by- play radio call of the most momentous game in Major League Baseball history— the day Jackie ... Read More
PubDate: 2023-02-16T00:00:00-05:00
- Stumbling around the Bases: The American League’s Mismanagement in the
Expansion Era by Andy McCue (review)-
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Abstract: Andy McCue knows the business of baseball—the economics, the politics, and all the back- door wheeling and dealing. He showed as much in his previous book, Mover and Shaker: Walter O’Malley, the Dodgers, & Baseball’s Westward Expansion, which won SABR’s Seymour Medal in 2015. McCue’s latest, Stumbling around the Bases: The American League’s Mismanagement in the Expansion Era, focuses on some of the themes and issues that came up in that previous outing— namely, baseball’s westward expansion and relocation. But here, McCue’s attention turns to the various American League owners and their collective failure in leadership, resulting in their league’s twenty- year period of dysfunction, from 1961 to 1981.McCue doesn’t ... Read More
PubDate: 2023-02-16T00:00:00-05:00
- Swing and a Hit: Nine Innings of What Baseball Taught Me by Paul O’Neill
and Jack Curry (review)-
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Abstract: Paul O’Neill’s book is a clear, concise retelling of his baseball-player career. He played for Cincinnati from 1985 to 1992 and the Yankees from 1993 to 2001. He begins by describing the influence of his father “for every at bat” (2) of his major league career. He credits his drive and focus for playing well to his competition with his four older brothers for any playing time at all. While the book is purportedly a story in nine innings, the information quickly becomes rather repetitious across all the chapters. The authors thoroughly dissect the art and science of hitting as O’Neill understands and deployed it.Additionally, O’Neill discusses the impact of his personality in the dugout and on the team. Pete Rose ... Read More
PubDate: 2023-02-16T00:00:00-05:00
- The Saga of Sudden Sam: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of Sam McDowell by
Sam McDowell and Martin Gitlin (review)-
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Abstract: As a teenager residing in suburban Cleveland in the early 1960s I remember Sam McDowell as the great young hope for the future success of the Indians. In effect, he would be the next Herb Score, a southpaw strikeout artist who could return the ball club to its glory days of the 1950s. It didn’t happen. There were flashes of brilliance. McDowell often led the league in strike-outs, was frequently named to the All- Star team, and once even won twenty games. Yet he always seemed to fall short of expectations. I even recall a professor in graduate school alleging McDowell had been satisfied just knowing he could have been great. While a solid pitcher with Cleveland, his career went downhill after he was traded, never ... Read More
PubDate: 2023-02-16T00:00:00-05:00
- Whispers of the Gods: Tales from Baseball’s Golden Age, Told by the Men
Who Played It by Peter Golenbock (review)-
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Abstract: Whispers of the Gods details hundreds of hours of interviews Golenbock conducted with former major leaguers such as Roy Campanella, Roger Maris, Ted Williams, Monte Irving, and Rex Barney. These interviews, which Golenbock collected over the course of a few decades, give baseball fans new insight into the lives and opinions of their heroes.Golenbock’s new book closely resembles the style of writing and research seen in Lawrence Ritter’s classic The Glory of Their Times: The Story of the Early Days of Baseball Told by the Men Who Played It, which has emerged as a classic baseball book since its publication. Golenbock acknowledges just as much in the preface where he writes, “To this day I think of The Glory of ... Read More
PubDate: 2023-02-16T00:00:00-05:00
- Stolen Dreams: The 1955 Cannon Street All- Stars and Little League
Baseball’s Civil War by Chris Lamb (review)-
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Abstract: During any given summer, all across America, sounds of baseball can be heard. In 2023, much like 1995, or even 1955, kids are heard riding their bikes and laughing as they make their way to their local school yards, sandlots, or backyards. Bats are held tightly against their shoulders, gloves hanging from bicycle handlebars. Those without bikes often stood on the pegs of the back wheels, getting a free ride from a buddy (usually without helmets . . . gasp)! Some of the kids wore regular tees, while others wore jerseys of Ruth, Griffey, or Trout. The final group wore jerseys (on loan) from their local baseball teams, usually Little League teams. Who doesn’t remember wearing those polyester jerseys on a ninety- ... Read More
PubDate: 2023-02-16T00:00:00-05:00
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