Description
Book SynopsisA revealing look at the history of women's exclusion from America's national pastime
Trade ReviewA Choice Outstanding Academic Title, 2010.
"Sharp, thoroughly researched examination of gender discrimination in [baseball].--Los Angeles Times
"Throwing 'like a girl' is an age-old taunt, and Jennifer Ring has had enough of it."--
Washington Post“An extraordinary account of the rejection of female players from baseball. . . . [Ring] searches for ways to reclaim baseball’s nickname, 'the people’s game,' and encourage females who want to play a game they are passionate about. Highly recommended.”--
Choice"The story Ring tells is outrageous. Her title is accurate: baseball has been stolen from girls."--
Women's Review of Books“An important work. . . . Ring traces over a 100 years of issues arising from individuals, cultural biases, legal arguments, and the like to develop a full picture.”--
Cave 17.com"By examining the systematic exclusion of women from baseball, this compelling book goes into depth about a topic that most historians do not even question. With a gripping storyline and strong, clear prose,
Stolen Bases contains some of the best sportswriting I have seen."--Susan K. Cahn, coeditor of
Women and Sports in the United States: A Documentary Reader"This book blends history, political economy, sociology, and biography to form an engaging narrative about the place of women in baseball. Jennifer Ring offers fresh insights, focusing on the game's maternity and the development of efforts to preclude women from playing baseball or acknowledging their place in the game's past."--Adrian Burgos Jr., author of
Playing America's Game: Baseball, Latinos, and the Color LineTable of ContentsAcknowledgments ix
Prologue: Entitlement and Its Absence 1
1. Introduction: A Quick and Dirty History of Baseball 15
2. The Girls' Game 31
3. A. G. Spalding and America's Needs 47
4. Enter Softball 59
5. How Baseball Became Manly and White 73
6. American Womanhood and Athletics 91
7. Cricket 102
8. Stolen Bases 116
9. Collegiate Women's Baseball 134
10. The Invisibility of Bias 151
Epilogue: What Does Equality Look Like? 169
Notes 183
Index 197
