During the more than one hundred years that baseball has been our national pastime, all types of individuals have been managers of teams. They have run the gamut from political appointees to tyrants, schemers, incompetents and geniuses. Legendary baseball stars have been managers such as Ty Cobb, Rogers Hornsby, Walter Johnson, Mel Ott, George Sisler, and Honus Wagner. And Mediocre players, including Branch Rickey, Earl Weaver, Walter Alston have become managers. Antics galore have accentuated managerial behavior: the pratfalls of Charley Grimm in the third-base coaching box; the umbrella-carrying Frankie Frisch arguing with the umpires that a game should be called; the cap twisting, body-gyrating movements of Earl Weaver, puffing cigarettes in the dugout and attempting to use body language to will his players to perform better. Idiosyncrasies and special styles have characterized managers through the years. An entire collection of one-liners has developed over the years to characterize the managing profession. For trivia buffs, there's an entire world of statistical records about managers. This books attempts to capture the style and substance of some of the greatest managers of all time. An effort has been made to give representation to the different eras of baseball, the various managing styles, and all the nuances and nostalgia that shape this fascinating subject.

This collection focuses on the multi-layered links between international events and identity discourses. With a unique line-up of international scholars, this book offers a diverse range of exciting case studies, including sports competitions, music festivals, exhibitions, fashion shows and royal celebrations.

This is still the only textbook to introduce the principles of diversity and inclusion in sport management Diversity and inclusion is an essential component of the sport management curriculum Strong focus on how to implement diversity and inclusion strategies in practice Includes a brand new chapter on researching diversity in sport Includes additional material on intersectionality Includes international cases and examples in every chapter Includes useful teaching and learning features in every chapter, and ancillaries include a full test bank and PowerPoint slides

This book takes a multi-disciplinary approach to analyzing the nature of 'competition' and 'competitive advantage' within the U.S. pro sport industry. By many measures, the four major pro sports leagues in the U.S. - the National Football League (NFL), National Basketball Association (NBA), National Hockey League (NHL), and Major League Baseball (MLB) - are now some of the most successful business entities in the country. While these established leagues have generally been highly profitable throughout their respective existences, the past two decades have been particularly lucrative, with franchise values in all four leagues growing rapidly, and at levels well beyond market rates of return. Within this context, the book seeks to explore the nature of the competitive advantage that these leagues apparently possess. The purpose is to identify not only how these leagues have been able to get to where they are today, but also to examine the competitive threats and opportunities that these leagues face as they move forward. A key contribution of the book is that it analyzes these issues from a multi-disciplinary approach including a traditional economics perspective, public policy and public choice theory and strategic management, to provide a parallel explanation for the success of each of the four major leagues. It argues that no single conceptual approach can, in itself, adequately explain the full richness of the issue. Its stresses that these various approaches should generally be viewed as complements, rather than as being mutually exclusive, and that a full understanding of the issue requires one to adopt a multi-disciplinary perspective, making it of interest to scholars in strategic management, sport management, and economics. It can serve as an effective teaching tool in both graduate and upper-level undergraduate courses for students in these fields, and is particularly useful for faculties seeking to emphasize to their students the importance of a multi-disciplinary, integrative, approach when analyzing business and management issues. The book may also be of interest to leaders within the sport industry itself, and will help to provide insight and perspective as leagues seek to enhance their competitive advantage in the marketplace.

The ultimate underdog story of a swim coach who could not swim, a swim club that accepted minorities when others would not, and a group of young swimmers who became Olympic champions. Before the United States was the swimming power it is today, a novice coach named Sherm Chavoor formed a swim club that accepted all swimmers—no matter their religion, race, or social status—and started a dynasty. Following Chavoor’s intense and unorthodox coaching methods, his young swimmers quickly began dominating competitions across northern California—and then the world. In Victory in the Pool: How a Maverick Coach Upended Society and Led a Group of Young Swimmers to Olympic Glory, Bill George tells the inspiring story of Sherm Chavoor and his dedicated athletes who rose from obscurity to win twenty Olympic gold medals during the 1960s and ‘70s. They triumphed in two of the most tumultuous and dangerous Olympic Games ever held, the 1968 Mexico City Games and the 1972 Munich Games marred by the terrorist attack that killed eleven Israeli athletes. Mark Spitz and Debbie Meyer were the two most prominent members of the team, but they were challenged every step of the way by teammates and fellow Olympians Sue Pedersen, Mike Burton, John Ferris, Jeff Float, and more. Featuring exclusive interviews with the athletes and with Sherm Chavoor before he passed away, Victory in the Pool delivers an inside look at this unparalleled time in Olympic history. But more than that, it is the story of young people overcoming incredible odds—often in the face of insults and bigotry and under the intense glare of the spotlight—and coming out triumphant.

NCAA boxing represented a brief, but colorful, chapter in the history of intercollegiate athletics, and it played an important part in the lives of persons making substantial contributions to American society. This story of NCAA boxing is told from the perspectives of former national champions and coaches. One hundred-fifty-six men won 199 NCAA championships. Perspectives of 72 of them and 13 prominent coaches are presented in this book. Almost from its inception in 1932, coaches and other supporters concentrated on the physical and psychological welfare of participants. They took action to get opponents to know and appreciate each other as human beings. Opponents ate together before their bouts and socialized afterwards. Lifelong friendships resulted. These socializing practices and opposition to the sport caused officials, coaches, and boxers to be very close. Wallenfeldt narrates the history of this sport from its inception to 1960, when NCAA boxing effectively came to an end. Of considerable interest to sports historians and boxing history buffs.

Through key research papers from Palgrave's Journal of Operational Research, this book showcases how Operational Research can be applied to sports in a variety of ways, including: timetabling fixtures; scheduling officials; forecasting outcomes; optimizing tactics and strategy; analyzing the effects of rules and laws; planning issues, and performance measurement. The introductory chapter provides a broad overview with an examination of how this area has developed over time, and a look at its wide ranging applications to sports including football, tennis and cricket etc.

Managing the Football World Cup explores areas often overlooked by project management and business studies researchers. Therefore considering the global impact of the Football World Cup it is time for a detailed examination of the planning, organization, management, implementation and related commercial features of this mega-sport event.

Historically, the mass media have marginalized women's sports by devoting more coverage to men's sports and trying to appeal to a male audience. This volume analyzes the mass media's portrayal of women's sports. The Olympic Games are highlighted because they provide one of the few sports arenas where women's participation is heavily covered, promoted, and celebrated. The author suggests the media are recognizing the significance of female spectatorship and are attempting to respond to this growing audience by adopting some of the rhetorical and textual characteristics of soap opera and melodrama.

Low back pain affects most of us at some time, and exercise is key to both its prevention and treatment. Critically appraising work from several approaches to produce an integrated, practical approach suitable for day-to-day clinicians and personal trainers, this essential guide looks at the science and practice of designing and teaching the best exercise programmes for this common condition. Learn: vital client assessment skills, which exercises to use and why, the most effective teaching methods, how to structure and progress a full backpain management programme. Aimed at student therapists and clinical exercise teachers, as well as trainers planning exercise programmes for subjects recovering from low back pain, Back Rehabilitation is essential reading for Therapists and Exercise academics and professionals of all types.

The economics of the NCAA Division I men's basketball league are peculiar because it fails to hire the best college-aged players and does little to enhance competitive balance within the league. The league's policy decisions and its ability to remain economically viable, despite its short-sighted governance decisions, are discussed.

This book provides students and event managers with an insight into the strategic management of sports events of all scales and types, from international mega-events to community sport. Introducing key theory and best practice, it offers a practical, step-by-step guide to planning, organizing, managing and evaluating events.

Now in a fully revised and updated fourth edition, the book explains the importance of adopting a strategic approach, showing how to implement strategies that lead to successful outcomes over the short and the long term. It uses international case studies in every chapter, from the NBA and NFL to Formula 1 and the English Premier League, offering real-world insight into both larger and smaller events. In addition, woven throughout the book are a series of in-depth studies of several Olympic Games, the ultimate sporting event and an important point of reference for all practising and aspiring event managers. The book covers every key aspect of the sports event management process, including:

sports organizations, such as the IOC, FIFA and World Athletics, and their interactions with event partners, the media and promoters

short-term and long-term benefits of the planning process

event impact and legacy

operational functions, including finance, ticketing, transport, venues, IT, human resources and security

marketing and communications, including social networking and new media

the bidding process

research and evaluation

This new edition includes expanded coverage of digital and social media, the social impact of events, sustainability, security, entrepreneurship, employability and much more. It is an essential text for any sports event course and invaluable reading for any student or practitioner working in sport business, sport management, sport development or event management.

The textbook is supported by useful online resources, including additional case studies and exam questions for each chapter.

Table of Contents

Introduction

1 The Sports Event Industry

2 Event Organizations

3 The Sports Event Planning Process

4 Impacts and Legacies

5 Financial Planning and Control

6 Event Revenue Maximization

7 The Bidding Process

8 Event Implementation

9 Marketing Planning and Implementation

10 Innovative Communications

11 Sports Event Sponsorship

12 Research and Evaluation

As with any business, economic, financial, and marketing management for sports organizations is critical for attracting, retaining, and engaging fans. Unlike typical businesses, the sports industry is inconsistent, highly emotional with a strong personal nature, and operates in various markets where organizations compete and cooperate at the same time. Thus, traditional management techniques are not always appropriate for these organizations. Integrated Marketing Communications, Strategies, and Tactical Operations in Sports Organizations provides expert insight into the latest trends, strategies, and tactics that can be used in the sports industry to build foundations for successful commercialization. The content within this publication covers city marketing, social media interactions, and atmospheric influence and is designed for managers, marketers, business and industry professionals, stakeholders, academicians, researchers, and students.

Published to coincide with the Golden Globe Race's 50th Anniversary It lay like a gauntlet thrown down; to sail around the world alone and non-stop. No one had ever done it, no one knew if it could be done. In 1968, nine men - six Englishmen, two Frenchmen and an Italian - set out to try, a race born of coincidence of their timing. One didn't even know how to sail. They had more in common with Captain Cook or Ferdinand Magellan than with the high-tech, extreme sailors of today, a mere forty years later. It was not the sea or the weather that determined the nature of their voyages but the men they were, and they were as different from one another as Scott from Amundsen. Only one of the nine crossed the finishing line after ten months at sea. The rest encountered despair, sublimity, madness and even death.

While societies shape the way their cities look and are represented, urban images, in turn, nurture and structure social relations in multiple ways. Nowhere is this dialectical relationship between social processes and urban representations more visible than in the hosting of global spectacles such as the FIFA World Cup and the Olympic Games, which both embody some of society's deepest dreams and desires. The focus of this book is the image of cities. It is not only interested in the mechanisms of urban image construction but also in the politics of such a phenomenon, especially its social impacts in terms of representation and right to the city. The book investigates the complex power relationships that underscore the production of the urban landscape and the construction and diffusion of urban images, especially in the context of urban mega-events. It uses the notion of urban image construction as a lens through which to examine the mega-event spectacle, with chapters exploring the physical, social and political dimensions of the imagineering process as well as emerging resistance to controversial initiatives. Through an analysis of event-related urban construction efforts in Rio de Janeiro and Beijing, this book examines the effects of mega-events upon the construction of an exclusive vision of urbanity. It demonstrates how mega-events are increasingly utilized by local political and economic elites to reconfigure power relations, strengthen their hold upon the urban territory and exclude vulnerable population groups. The book thus offers a critical analysis of the practice of urban image construction, and will be of interest to those working in geography, urban studies, tourism, sport studies, development studies and politics.

The FIFA World Cup is arguably the biggest sporting event on earth. This book is the first to focus on the business and management of the World Cup, taking the reader from the initial stages of bidding and hosting decisions, through planning and organisation, to the eventual legacies of the competition. The book introduces the global context in which the World Cup takes place, surveying the history and evolution of the tournament and the geopolitical background against which bidding and hosting decisions take place. It examines all the key issues and debates which surround the tournament, from governance and corruption to security and the media, and looks closely at the technical processes that create the event, from planning and finance to marketing and fan engagement. Analysis of the Women's World Cup is also embedded in every chapter, and the book also considers the significance of World Cup tournaments at age-group level. No sport business or management course is complete without some discussion of the FIFA World Cup, so this book is essential reading for any student, researcher or sport business professional looking to fully understand global sport business today.

This is the first work to go beyond the popular myths of stock car racing to fully examine the sport's true history. NASCAR Nation: A History of Stock Car Racing in the United States details the ongoing saga of this quintessentially American pastime. Looking at the drivers, events, and teams, it positions NASCAR racing within larger social, economic, and cultural trends in an attempt to address the sport's phenomenal growth and popularity. This chronological examination of the evolution of stock car racing is the first history to go beyond the widely held myth that it was "invented" by Prohibition-era moonshiners. The book traces stock car racing history from its beginnings, to the formation of The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) in 1948, through today. Of course, readers will meet the sport's many colorful personalities, including the Earnhardts, Richard Petty, Jeff Gordon (who has raked in more than $70 million in career winnings), "Fireball" Roberts, Darrell Waltrip, Daytona pioneer Bill France, and women drivers like Janet Guthrie, Louise Smith, and Jennifer Jo Cobb. While the focus is on NASCAR, the book also examines other prominent stock car racing organizations to round out its comprehensive portrait.

As the world s greatest sporting event, the Olympic Games has always commanded intrigue, analysis and comment in equal measure. This book looks to celebrate the significance of the Olympics, their historical impact, controversies that presently surround them and their possible future direction. It begins with a detailed, if controversial, analysis of the scale of the modern Summer Olympics and considers whether in fact the Games have simply become too big? Thereafter considerable coverage is afforded the often contentious bidding process, required of successful host cities wishing to attract the Games, and asks why some cities are successful and others are not. This book also reflects on the growing security measures that surround the Olympics and considers their full impact on the civil liberties of those impacted by them. For scholars of the Olympic movement this book represents essential reading to understand further the Olympic Games, their significance and effect, as the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro draw ever closer.

This book was published as a special issue of Sport in Society."

This book utilizes a wealth of case studies to demonstrate the importance of using depth sport psychology to explore and understand athletes’ unconscious feelings and fears, and provides the knowledge needed to help athletes deal with pressures faced throughout their sporting career. Applying the theories of Sigmund Freud, Alfred Adler, Carl Jung, Margaret Mahler, Melanie Klein, Heinz Kohut, Donald Winnicott, and Christopher Bollas to explain the dynamics within the athlete’s mind, this useful resource will help develop a better understanding of athlete’s repressed feelings and psychological states. It looks past the cognitive behavioural techniques currently used to aid athletes, and instead focuses on the many ways the unconscious subtly influences athletes, offering an important a paradigm shift. Covering a range of different athletes within various sports, each chapter demonstrates how the psychoanalytic techniques of free association, the working alliance, analytic interpretations, confrontation, dream analysis, transference/counter transference and resistance analysis are used with athletes. Case studies cover such topics as the treatment of anxiety, yips, anger, guilt and perfectionism in the athlete, the influence of birth order, psychological defences used by athletes including gamesmanship, dissociation and humor, and the psychology of injury. Unpacking Depth Sport Psychology is the ideal resource for students, the educated athlete, parents, professors, sport psychologists, and coaches who hope to improve the athletes’ performance.

Contemporary sport is shaped by wider society. Today those managing sport must be aware of the broader social and cultural context within which it exists if their effectiveness is to be established and their careers defined. This book is the first of its kind to contextualise the wider social and cultural environment of sport management and explain the key issues and practical implications of this for those working, or intending to find employment, in the field. Written by a team of leading international experts on sport management, the book explores important topics such as corporate social responsibility in sport, race, gender and sexuality, sport and the media, globalisation, populations with individual needs, social class, social capital social exclusion. As part of a comprehensive coverage of these and many other social issues, the reader is reminded of the fundamental requirement to properly appreciate the cultural sensitivities of the managerial environment in which they intend to operate. Each issue is examined from the perspective of the manager or sport practitioner, and each chapter includes a range of useful features, such as case-studies and self-test questions, to encourage the reader to think critically about the role of sport in society and about their own professional practice. This is the first sports management textbook to be based on the thesis that a more socially aware manager is a more effective manager and thus should be regarded as essential reading for all sport management students.

This is the first book to address the link between culture and sport management. The aim is to demonstrate that culture profoundly affects how we research, teach and practice sport management. The book engages with the concept of culture both as an abstract analytical category and specific beliefs and practices. It recognizes that a single best way of managing does not exist; that the applicability of management theories may stop at national boundaries; and that fundamental cultural values act as a strong determinant to managerial ideology and practice. Culture makes the study of sport management interesting because it challenges many taken-for-granted assumptions about management, yet it reinforces our belief in the existence of common management problems.

The book offers a comprehensive review of the conceptualisations of culture and its relation with sport management by examining a range of issues: the emergence of multiculturalism as a policy issue; the impact of commonly shared cultural values within the fitness industry on managers and organisations behaviour; building cultural bridges in community sport organisations; cultural meanings attached to the consumption of Olympic merchandise, and culturally-informed interpretation through a reflective analysis of sport management texts.

This book was published as a special issue of European Sport Management Quarterly.

This book provides a comprehensive, up-to-date overview of the different environmental strategies adopted in the football world to foster sustainability. The authors lay out useful insights, both for scholars and practitioners, to improve good governance in football organisations by empowering environmental organisational and operational actions. As well as examining practical methods of implementing green initiatives, the book discusses their added value from different perspectives including football fans, football managers and policymakers. By identifying the most important green actions for the dissemination of environmentally friendly behaviours at both individual and organisational levels, the book demonstrates how football organisations can use operational and organisational methods to develop an environmental sustainability strategy. The book contributes to developing the role of the football world by covering different facets of sustainability such as the circular economy, climate change, green marketing, fans engagement and more. It will be a valuable resource for scholars and students of environmental management, sustainable business and corporate social responsibility, as well as professionals working in the football industry.