The Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture, 2015-2016

by William M. Simons (Editor)

Overview

Widely acknowledged as the preeminent gathering of baseball scholars, the annual Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture has made significant contributions to baseball research. This collection of 15 new essays selected from the 2015 and the 2016 symposia examines topics whose importance extend beyond the ballpark. Presented in six parts, the essays explore Biography: From Mythology to Authenticity, Gender and Generations, Race and Ethnicity on the Base Paths, Ballparks Abandoned and Envisioned, Baseball Cinema, and Business, Law and the Game.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781476670140
Publisher:	McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Publication date:	03/13/2017
Series:	Cooperstown Symposium Series
Pages:	260
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.70(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

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction (William M. Simons)
Part I. Biography: From Mythology
to Authenticity Finding George: The Unique Challenge of Writing Sports Biography (Jane Leavy)
Seeking a More Authentic Jackie Robinson (Sarah Burns)
Part II. Gender and Generations
Skirting the Game VI: A Conversation with Jane Leavy
and Janet Marie Smith (Jean Hastings Ardell)
Play, Play, Gone Away, Come Again Another Day: My Father’s
Reflections on His Youth Baseball Experience… and Why It Matters
(Jay C. Kimiecik)
Your Father’s Field: What the National Pastime Tells Us About
Dads, Their Children and the Relationships Between Them (Rick Ginsberg)
“The Mo’ Things Change…”: Exceptionalism in Girls’ Baseball
in the United States (Jennifer Ring)
Part III. Race and Ethnicity on the Base Paths Baseball as a Bridge on the Border: Baseball as a Driving Force for Desegregation in Baltimore (Jacob R. Levin)
Chasing Baseball Dreams: Curating Jewish American Identity (William M. Simons)
Part IV. Ballparks Abandoned and Envisioned
The ­O’Malley and the City: The Connection of the Stadium
to Postwar Urban Renewal (Andrew Lang)
The Braves’ Plan to Desert Turner Field and Move Again:
Public Funding for a New Stadium in the Suburbs (Patricia L. Bryan)
The Social Construction of Baseball Stadiums as Cathedrals
of Consumption (Michael Friedman)
Part V. Baseball Cinema
Blown Saves: The Fate of Baseball’s Silent Cinema (Marshall G. Most)
“I’m a Goddamn Peach”: Feminine Force and Narrative Friction in Penny Marshall’s A League of Their Own (Robert Repici)
Part VI. Business, Law and the Game
Reshaping Baseball: The Positive Impact of Commissioner
Ford Frick (David A. Bohmer)
Major League Baseball’s Next Expansion Team: A Case Problem
for University Students (Daniel Gutch and Samuel Marshall—with faculty advisors Lawrence J. Gramling and Steven K. Wisensale)
Index