Description
Book SynopsisA history of baseball as a sport and business during the middle of the twentieth century, examining the game on and off the field and tracing its development within the broader contours of American history.
Trade Review“Steven Gietschier knows that history is not merely a record of what happened long ago but also what it may portend for today’s game, fans, and nation. The Seymours’ scholarly history of baseball ended in 1930; this ambitious, sprawling volume tells us what has happened since and why—it is a splendid successor. If you take a serious interest in baseball,
Baseball: The Turbulent Midcentury Years must find a place on your shelf.”—John Thorn, official historian of Major League Baseball
“Baseball seemingly lurched from one crisis to the next during the middle decades of the twentieth century, as a host of new and newly urgent challenges threatened to overshadow the on-field product. In
Baseball: The Turbulent Midcentury Years, Steven Gietschier gives due consideration to both baseball’s triumphs and its blind spots, providing much-needed clarity about a troubled and misunderstood era. Highly recommended!”—Peter Morris, author of
A Game of Inches: The Stories behind the Innovations That Shaped Baseball“Business, baseball, and politics make for a fascinating discussion about America during the mid-twentieth century. Good narrative stories are paired with analysis to offer a new look at turbulent time in American history.
Baseball: The Turbulent Midcentury Years is a must-read for fans of baseball and American history.”—Leslie Heaphy, associate professor of history at Kent State University at Stark
“Extremely well researched and ingeniously organized. Steven Gietschier has produced a work that I predict will stand the test of time. There is something of value to fans, baseball and cultural historians, and lovers of a good yarn on almost every page.”—Lee Lowenfish, author of the award-winning biography
Branch Rickey: Baseball’s Ferocious Gentleman“‘Dunnie’s baby’—know his real name? What manager lived with ‘an entire retinue of shady characters’? Why did DiMaggio take a pay cut from $40,000 to $50 a month? Here are all the answers. What a stupendous book! All the tumult and shouting of organized baseball’s 150 years of messy, thrilling, hair-raising, and altogether unpredictably beautiful evolution.”—Dave Kindred, author of
Leave Out the Tragic Parts: A Grandfather’s Search for a Boy Lost to AddictionTable of ContentsIntroduction
Prologue: “A Grim Harvest”
1. “The Ball Player Is a Fortunate Man”
2. “So You’re the Goddamned Prohibitionist”
3. “A Tyro in the Intricacies of Organized Baseball”
4. “The Yankees Need Building Up”
5. “Keen Competition throughout the Closing Month”
6. “They Could Never Say He Wasn't a ‘Real Jew’”
7. “It Would Be Best for the Country to Keep Baseball Going”
8. “A Great Display of Tingling Patriotism”
9. “The Smiling Young Man with the $1,000,000 Check Book”
10. “Bright Colored Paper and Red Ribbons”
11. “Il A Gagné Ses Épaulettes”
12. “A Sound If Not Spectacular Choice”
13. “I Have Long Desired to See California”
14. “Henry, Don’t Go Out There”
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index
