American Baseball. Vol. 1: From Gentleman's Sport to the Commissioner System / Edition 2

by David Quentin Voigt

Overview

How did "America's National Game" evolve from a gentlemen's pastime in the 1850s to a national obsession in the Roaring Twenties? What really happened at Cooperstown in 1839, and why does the "Doubleday legend" persist? How did the commissioner system develop, and what was the impact of the "Black Sox" scandal? These questions and many others are answered in this book, with colorful details about early big league stars such as Mike "King" Kelly and pious Billy Sunday, Charles Comiskey and Ty Cobb, Napoleon Lajoie and "Cy" (Cyclone) Young.

The author explores historically the four major periods of transformation of the game: the Gentlemen's Era, the Golden Age, the Feudal Age, and the incipient Silver Age. Attention is given to the changing face of the major league spectacle, the evolving style of the game, and the changing interests of players, fans, and owners, along with influential innovators and their innovations. There are a number of surprises in the book. For instance, several black players made the big leagues in the 1880s, only to be driven out by a rising tide of Jim Crowism. For three generations black players were to be confined to their own clubs and leagues.

American baseball history reflects the nation's economic and social history, as author Voigt graphically demonstrates. On the fans' side, mass attendance at ball games reflects the rise of cities and the dilution of a work ethic with pursuit of leisure; on the owners' and players' side, organized baseball reflects the developing tension between big business and skilled employees. The result—despite ups and downs—is a typical American success story.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780271003344
Publisher:	Penn State University Press
Publication date:	09/15/1983
Series:	American Baseball Series , #1
Pages:	396
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.78(d)

About the Author

David Quentin Voigt has written five books on baseball history, plus American’s Leisure Revolution on the sociology of leisure and sport. After earning an M.A. in American history at Columbia and a Ph.D. in social science at Syracuse, Dr. Voigt returned to his hometown of Reading, PA, as Professor of Sociology and Anthropology at Albright College.

Table of Contents

	Foreword	ix
	Photo Credits	xii
	Acknowledgments	xiii
	Introduction: American Baseball at Mid-Century	xv
I	The Postwar Era
1	The Postwar Campaigns: The American League	3
2	The Postwar Campaigns: The National League	24
	Pofile Jackie Robinson, Equalitarian	44
3	Born Out of Time: Players of the Postwar Era	52
4	Postwar Potpourri	79
II	The Expansion Era
5	Plastic Baseball	111
	Profile Walter O'Malley, Expansionist	125
6	Expansion Baseball: The National League	134
7	Expansion Baseball: The American League	171
	Profile Marvin Miller, Emancipator	205
8	A New Breed of Ballplayers	217
9	Living the Dream	258
10	Fans, Owners, and Other Non-Players	282
11	New Vistas for Baseball	314
12	Or, Striking Out in the 'Eighties?	335
	Notes	360
	Bibliography	375
	Index	393

Editorial Reviews

Better than any other writer since Albert G. Spalding broke ground with America’s National Game in 1911, Mr. Voigt has investigated all aspects of the subject; the origins and evolution of the game, the professionalism that grew out of it, and the big business that was reared upon it. He has done a rapid, well proportioned, and critically objective narrative.”

—Allan Nevins

From the Publisher