If an umpire could steal the show in a Major League game, Al Clark might well have been the one to do it. Tough but fair, in his thirty years as a professional umpire he took on some of baseball's great umpire baiters, such as Earl Weaver, Billy Martin, and Dick Williams, while ejecting any number of the game's elite--once tearing a hamstring in the process. He was the first Jewish umpire in American League history, and probably the first to eject his own father from the officials' dressing room. But whatever Clark was doing--officiating at Nolan Ryan's three hundredth win, Cal Ripken's record breaker, or the earthquake World Series of 1989, or braving a labor dispute, an anti-Semitic tirade by a Cy Young Award winner, or a legal imbroglio--it makes for a good story. Called Out but Safe is Clark's outspoken and often hilarious account of his life in baseball from umpire school through the highlights to the inglorious end of his stellar career. Not just a source of baseball history and lore, Clark's book also affords a rare look at what life is like for someone who works for the Major Leagues' other team.

Their names were chanted, crowed, and cursed. Alone they were a shortstop, a second baseman, and a first baseman. But together they were an unstoppable force. Joe Tinker, Johnny Evers, and Frank Chance came together in rough-and-tumble early twentieth-century Chicago and soon formed the defensive core of the most formidable team in big league baseball, leading the Chicago Cubs to four National League pennants and two World Series championships from 1906 to 1910. At the same time, baseball was transforming from small-time diversion into a nationwide sensation. Americans from all walks of life became infected with "baseball fever," a phenomenon of unprecedented enthusiasm and social impact. The national pastime was coming of age. Tinker to Evers to Chance examines this pivotal moment in American history, when baseball became the game we know today. Each man came from a different corner of the country and brought a distinctive local culture with him: Evers from the Irish-American hothouse of Troy, New York; Tinker from the urban parklands of Kansas City, Missouri; Chance from the verdant fields of California's Central Valley. The stories of these early baseball stars shed unexpected light not only on the evolution of baseball and on the enthusiasm of its players and fans all across America, but also on the broader convulsions transforming the US into a confident new industrial society. With them emerged a truly national culture. This iconic trio helped baseball reinvent itself, but their legend has largely been relegated to myths and barroom trivia. David Rapp's engaging history resets the story and brings these men to life again, enabling us to marvel anew at their feats on the diamond. It's a rare look at one of baseball's first dynasties in action.

Beginning in 1912, Detroit's Tiger Stadium provided unmatched access for generations of baseball fans. Based on a classic grandstand design, it expanded throughout the 20th century reflecting the booming industrial city around it. Emphasising utility over adornment and offering more fans affordable seats near the field than any other venue in sports, it was in every sense a working-class ballpark that made the game the central focus. Drawing on the perspectives of historians, architects, fans and players, the authors describe how Tiger Stadium grew and adapted and then, despite the efforts of fans, was abandoned and destroyed. It is a story of corporate welfare, politics and indifference to history pitted against an enduring love of place. Chronological diagrams illustrate the evolution of the playing field.

Recent advances in sabermetrics have made it possible to assess the exact contribution of each player to the success of failure of his team. Using the simple metric Wins Above Average-the number of wins that the 2016 Red Sox, for example, added to their total because they had Mookie Betters in right field instead of an average player (5)-David Kaiser leads us on a fascinating tour through the history of major league baseball from 1901 through 2016, analyzing all the greatest players and teams of the past and showing exactly why they enjoyed the success that they did. Along the way, he identifies the 15 or 20 greatest players of every generation, using simple metrics that allow him to compare the impact of players from Ty Cobb through Ted Williams to Willie Mays, Rickey Henderson and Barry Bonds, and pitchers from Christy Mathewson to Roger Clemens. The book also says a great deal about short- and long-term strategies for organizational success. Along the way, Kaiser takes on a good many tenets of diamond faith.. The importance of pitching, he argues, has been vastly exaggerated since the beginning of baseball time, and great pitching has almost never been the key to a dynasty. Many Hall of Fame pitchers and some hitters as well, he finds, have reached Cooperstown almost entirely on the backs of their teammates. Accurate metrics also reveal that a few over-qualified players are still awaiting selection to Cooperstown. Last but hardly least, Kaiser shows that baseball is threatened by an unprecedented shortage of great players, and challenges MLB to do something about it.

Not only was it probably the most cutthroat pennant race in baseball history, it was also a struggle to define how baseball would be played. A Game of Brawl re-creates the rowdy, season-long 1897 battle between the Baltimore Orioles and the Boston Beaneaters. The Orioles had acquired a reputation as the dirtiest team in baseball. Future Hall of Famers John McGraw, Wee Willie Keeler, and “Foxy� Ned Hanlon were proven winners—but their nasty tactics met with widespread disapproval among fans. So it was that their pennant race with the comparatively saintly Beaneaters took on a decidedly moralistic air.   Bill Felber brings to life the most intensely watched team sporting event in the country’s history to that time. His book captures the drama of the final week, as the race came down to a three-game series. And finally, it conveys the madness of the third and decisive game, when thirty thousand fans literally knocked down the gates and walls of a facility designed to hold ten thousand to watch the Beaneaters grind out a win and bring down baseball’s first and most notorious evil empire.

Base Ball is a peer-reviewed journal published annually. Offering the best in original research and analysis, the journal promotes study of baseball's early history, from its protoball roots to 1920, and its rise to prominence within American popular culture.

Organized baseball has survived its share of difficult times, and never was the state of the game more imperiled than during the Great Depression. Or was it? Remarkably, during the economic upheavals of the Depression none of the sixteen Major League Baseball teams folded or moved. In this economist's look at the sport as a business between 1929 and 1941, David George Surdam argues that although it was a very tough decade for baseball, the downturn didn't happen immediately. The 1930 season, after the stock market crash, had record attendance. But by 1931 attendance began to fall rapidly, plummeting 40 percent by 1933.

To adjust, teams reduced expenses by cutting coaches and hiring player-managers. While even the best players, such as Babe Ruth, were forced to take pay cuts, most players continued to earn the same pay in terms of purchasing power. Off the field, owners devised innovative solutions to keep the game afloat, including the development of the Minor League farm system, night baseball, and the first radio broadcasts to diversify teams' income sources.

Using research from primary documents, Surdam analyzes how the economic structure and operations side of Major League Baseball during the Depression took a beating but managed to endure, albeit changed by the societal forces of its time.

In the early 1930s, the Motor City was sputtering from the Great Depression. Then came a talented Detroit Tigers team, steered by player-manager Mickey Cochrane, to inject new pride into the Detroit psyche. It was a cast of colorful characters, with nicknames like Schoolboy, Goose, Hammerin' Hank and Little Tommy. Over two seasons in 1934 and 1935, the team powered its way to the top of the baseball world, becoming a symbol of a resurgent metropolis and winning the first-ever Tigers championship. This exhaustively researched account provides an in-depth look into a remarkable period in baseball history.

In Baseball Rebels Peter Dreier and Robert Elias examine the key social challenges-racism, sexism and homophobia-that shaped society and worked their way into baseball's culture, economics, and politics. Since baseball emerged in the mid-1800s to become America's pastime, the nation's battles over race, gender, and sexuality have been reflected on the playing field, in the executive suites, in the press box, and in the community. Some of baseball's rebels are widely recognized, but most of them are either little known or known primarily for their baseball achievements-not their political views and activism. Everyone knows the story of Jackie Robinson breaking baseball's color line, but less known is Sam Nahem, who opposed the racial divide in the U.S. military and organized an integrated military team that won a championship in 1945. Or Toni Stone, the first of three women who played for the Indianapolis Clowns in the previously all-male Negro Leagues. Or Dave Pallone, MLB's first gay umpire. Many players, owners, reporters, and other activists challenged both the baseball establishment and society's status quo. Baseball Rebels tells stories of baseball's reformers and radicals who were influenced by, and in turn influenced, America's broader political and social protest movements, making the game-and society-better along the way.

For 52 years, Boston was a two-team Major League city, home to both the Red Sox and the Braves. This comprehensive study focuses on the two team's period of coexistence and competition for fan allegiance. The author analyzes the Boston fan base through trends in transportation, communication, geography, population and employment. Tracing the pendulum of fan preference between the two teams over five distinct time periods, a deeper understanding emerges of why the Red Sox remained in Boston and the Braves moved to Milwaukee.

The previously untold legacy of Ty Cobb Ty Cobb is a baseball immortal, considered by many the greatest player who ever lived. In an age when the game was young and tough, he cultivated a reputation as the fiercest competitor of them all. Yet after he retired, he realized that the very qualities that helped him reach the pinnacle of his profession also undermined his relationship with his own children. He was deeply depressed when two of his sons died at a very young age. Cobb never had the chance to bridge the emotional distance between them. Herschel Cobb grew up in a chaotic, destructive household. His father was cruel and abusive, and his mother was an adulterous alcoholic. After his father died, when Herschel was eight, he began to spend a portion of each summer with his grandfather. Along with his sister and brother, Herschel visited Ty Cobb at his home in Atherton, California, or at his cabin at Lake Tahoe. These days were filled with adventures, memorable incidents, and discoveries as "Granddaddy" warmed to having his "three redheads" with him. Heart of a Tiger is Herschel Cobb's moving account of how a retired sports star seized a second chance at having a close family, with his grandchildren the lucky recipients of his change of heart. He provided wisdom, laughter, and a consistent affection that left an indelible mark. He proved the enormous power of a grandparent to provide stability, love, and guidance. As he developed this new, wholly different legacy, in turn he would finally come to peace with himself.

Bat, Ball, and Bible chronicles the collision of moral and social forces in the argument over playing baseball on Sunday or upholding New York's blue laws, meant to restrict social activities and maintain Sunday's traditional standing as a day of religious observation. Baseball was at the center of this conflict, which led to social and moral upheaval at a time when New York was already undergoing rapid changes. Bat, Ball, and Bible is not solely about baseball; rather it illuminates one of the earliest instances of a "culture war" whose effects are still being felt today.

During the 1890s, Cleveland's National League team, called the Blues and later the Spiders, built a reputation as baseball's roughest, toughest club. Baseball became a war in the Gay Nineties, full of cheating, intimidation, and violence on and off the field, from which the concept of sportsmanship had virtually disappeared. The Spiders were the rowdiest team of all. Managed by Oliver (Patsy) Tebeau, a hard-charging, quick-fisted infielder, the Spiders cut a swath through the National League. They fought with umpires, opposing players, and fans at home and on the road, and though they never won a pennant, their battles with the Baltimore Orioles became the stuff of legend. Their story is not all unpleasant. Cy Young, who won more games than any pitcher who ever lived, spent his first nine seasons with the Spiders. They were also ahead of their time from a racial perspective when they signed Louis Sockalexis, the first recognized Native American in major league ball. The Spiders ended their run on a sour note when the 1899 club compiled the worst record in major league history, winning only 20 of 154 games. Shortly afterward, the Spiders were no more. They left a complicated legacy, but an interesting one.

The emergence of baseball as the ""national pastime"" established the dynamics of spectator sports. Evolving in an urban landscape, the game attracted a dedicated fan base and enshrined the sports hero as a national celebrity. The game's allure was colored by the ethnic ambitions of the players and their supporters. Ethnic tensions were magnified when players began to see the game as a vehicle for individual rather than group achievement. The effect Irish-American players had on how the game was played and their support of Jim Crow culture shaped baseball into the next century. Players' salaries and off-season occupations were not overlooked by the public, who questioned their entitlement to the fruits of notoriety and derided their gratifying lifestyles. This book examines the development of baseball as 19th-century popular culture and as an institution that reinforced ideas about race, masculinity and American exceptionalism.

Jackie Robinson was a Negro Leaguer before he became a Major Leaguer. So too were Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, Monte Irvin, Roy Campanella, Willie Mays, and Willie Wells before entering the Baseball Hall of Fame. Invisible Men is the story of their lives in baseball. The Negro baseball leagues were among the most important Black institutions in segregated America, and the players were known and revered throughout Black America, both north and south. At a time when baseball was America's favorite sport, the Negro League players crossed the color barrier to play memorable games with their white Major League counterparts and paved the way for Latin American ballplayers to become part of baseball's history. The Negro Leaguers helped lay the groundwork for the civil rights movement with their achievements and examples. This remarkable narrative is filled with the memories of many surviving Negro League players. What emerges is a glorious chapter in African American history and an often overlooked aspect of our American past. This edition features a new introduction by the author.

Baseball and law have intersected from the very beginnings of the sport in America. In 1791, a Pittsfield, Massachusetts, ordinance prohibited ball playing near the town's meeting house. A 1794 Pennsylvania statute barred ball playing on Sundays. That intersection has continued unabated to the present day. In 2015 alone, a federal court held that baseball's exemption from antitrust laws applied to franchise relocations, another overturned the conviction of Barry Bonds for obstruction of justice, and a third denied a request by rooftop entrepreneurs to enjoin the construction of a massive video board at Wrigley Field. By recounting the long history of law's close relationship with the National Pastime-with stories about lawyers like Kenesaw Mountain Landis and Branch Rickey, the use of copyright to protect not only equipment but also ""Take Me Out to the Ball Game,"" the frequent litigation between players and owners over contracts and the reserve clause, and so many other instances in which law in some form has intertwined with baseball-this exhaustive and detailed chronology documents the profound effect law has had on the sport, both on and off the field. It makes a convincing case that knowledge of when and how baseball and law have come together is essential for anyone wishing to understand not only the game's past and present, but also its future.

Perhaps familiar today as an answer to sports trivia questions, Ken Williams (1890-1959) was once a celebrity who helped bring about a new kind of power baseball in the 1920s. One of the great sluggers of his era (and of all time), he beat Babe Ruth for the home run title in 1922, and became the first to hit 30 home runs and steal 30 bases in a season that year. Later recognized for his accomplishments, he was considered for but not inducted into the Hall of Fame. This first ever biography of Williams covers his life and career, from his small town upbringing, to his unlikely foray into pro baseball, to his retirement years, when he served as a police officer and ran a pool hall in his hometown.

The Burden of Over-representation artfully explores three curious racial moments in sport: Jackie Robinson's expletive at a Dodgers spring training game; the transformation of a formality into an event at the end of the 1995 rugby World Cup in South Africa; and a spectral moment at the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Grant Farred examines the connotations at play in these moments through the lenses of race, politics, memory, inheritance and conciliation, deploying a surprising cast of figures in Western thought, ranging from Jacques Derrida and Friedrich Nietzsche to Judith Butler, William Shakespeare, and Jesus-the-Christ. Farred makes connection and creates meaning through the forces at play and the representational burdens of team, country and race. Farred considers Robinson's profane comments at black Dodgers fans, a post-match exchange of "thank yous" on the rugby pitch between white South African captain Francois Pienaar and Nelson Mandela, and being "haunted" by the ghost of Derrida on the occasion of the first FIFA World Cup on African soil. In doing so, The Burden of Over-representation provides a passionate, insightful analysis of the social, political, racial, and cultural consequences of conciliation at key sporting events.

Cumberland Posey began his career in 1911 playing outfield for the Homestead Grays, a local black team in his Pennsylvania hometown. He soon became the squad's driving force as they dominated semi-pro ball in the Pittsburgh area. By the late 1930s the Grays were at the top of the Negro Leagues with nine straight pennant wins. Posey was also a League officer; he served 13 years as the first black member of the Homestead school board; and he wrote an outspoken sports column for the African American weekly, the Pittsburgh Courier. He was regarded as one of the best black basketball players in the East; he was the organizer of a team that held the consensus national black championship five years running. Ten years after his induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, he became a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame-one of only two athletes to be honored by two pro sports halls.

Oscar ""Happy"" Felsch was a rising star weaned on sandlot fields of Milwaukee who threw away his promising career for a few bucks after participating in the throwing of the 1919 World Series. Did Felsch really play to lose the series, or just say that he did for fear of retribution from crooked gamblers? None of the banned eight talked about the scandal more than Felsch, and this book analyzes how his three interviews revealed his ultimate gullibility, and why getting drawn into futile greed was easier than chasing down a fly ball. His rampant contradictions on the subject served as a metaphor for the entire scandal. Felsch's jovial, child-like exuberance for the game served him well as a player, but his lack of formal education became his downfall. On the field, Felsch was hitting his peak as a ballplayer in 1920, the year the scandal hit the newspapers. His speed, run-producing power, and stellar defensive prowess earned comparisons to the great Tris Speaker; all attributes that might have garnered him Hall of Fame consideration. Instead, he settled on playing fallen hero to far away, remote baseball enclaves of Montana and Canada.

The Detroit Tigers gave a memorable performance in the pennant race against the New York Yankees in 1961, the American League's first expansion season. Starting faster, the Tigers held first place for more than half the season, until the Yankees caught up in late July. They met in a climactic three-game series at Yankee Stadium. The Bronx Bombers swept all three, winning the pennant for the eleventh time in 13 seasons. But the 18 games the Tigers and Yankees played against each other were some of the most exciting contests of '61. The Yankees' saga is well known but the Tigers' tale has largely been ignored. This book chronicles the season highlights, such as the home run duel between Roger Maris, who slugged a record 61, and Mickey Mantle, who hit a personal best 54. Other outstanding performances were given by the Tigers' Norm Cash, who led the league with a .361 average, and Rocky Colavito, who hit 45 home runs.

Women have been involved in baseball from the game's early days, in a wide range of capacities. This ambitious encyclopedia provides information on women players, managers, teams, leagues, and issues since the mid-19th century. Players are listed by maiden name with married name, when known, in parentheses. Information provided includes birth date, death date, team, dates of play, career statistics and brief biographical notes when available. Related entries are noted for easy cross-reference. Appendices include the rosters of the World War II era All American Girls Professional Baseball League teams; the standings and championships from the AAGPBL; and all women's baseball teams and players identified to date.